Is This Clogged Ink? Or Damaged Print Head? Need Opinions?

[Mike36]

I have a Epson WF 3620. It sat idle for few months. Colors print fine, nothing came out of black though.

I flushed it with water in a syringe, it all came out underneath into paper towel. Put in new black cartridge, ran Print Head Cleaning 3 times. The Black DOES come out now, but it is printing messed up with straight cut offs of stuff. (See image attached)

-One person said I should flush the head with an actual cleaning solution.

-Another person said it looks like an alignment issue. But I can not utilize the alignment check because it prints wrong. So I can not see the corresponding numbers nor test bars, they are missing. (See the images below.)

-Another person said to just do 1 Print Head Cleaning function on the printer per day for a week, and that it just takes several days of running for it to work correctly again.

I don't know what to do! Suggestions?

 

[ruffin]

Be careful not to use too much pressure when flushing print head with syringe
Better to soak paper towel with cleaning fluid and place under print head overnight
Connect tubing to nozzle ->Fill with cleaning fluid -> set overnight (no syringe-gravity fed)
Try using warm water (uncomfortable to touch) or Windex glass cleaner to flush
You may have to repeat above several times -> keep at it -> You are making progress
Always use OEM Epson Brand Ink and Cartridges
Use 20 to 24 Lb paper
Exercise care using Epson Print head cleaning function (Wasted Ink Loss)

 

[Mike36]

Okay, so I did the whole "overnight windex paper towel underneath" and an 'overnight windex flush".


I put a windex soaked paper towel under the print head, sit for 6 hours so the ammonia vapors does its magic. Used a fresh towel to wipe the head, pulling back and forth.

I then put a tube over the nozzle, put windex into it. Let it sit for 6 hours, the windex level did not change in the tube.

6 hours later...sucked it outwards with syringe, it pulled out the windex and a lot of black ink, dumped that. Sucked outwards again, dumped it.
Then flushed fresh windex through (2ML). Very light pressure, no resistance.

I ran a Print Head Cleaning on the black only. Then did a nozzle check and few test prints. The text is no longer cut off (yay!), but still very faded and has lines. (I think the colors just need a print head cleaning, will do that later.)

What should I do next?

 

[ruffin]

Mike:
The ink level should go down in tubing. Let it sit with tubing & Windex for 24 hours.
You can also Try hot (uncomfortable to touch) distilled water instead of Windex
Color pattern also looks to have breaks in it as well.

Review these videos again:
https://www.printerforums.net/threads/clogged-print-heads.65647/#post-210172

Again, be very careful with syringe. Too much pressure with syringe can kill the print head.
If you remove any cartridges, you must wrap immediately with Saran Wrap to keep from drying out.
Im out of gas Mike. Just keep trying

 

[Mike36]

Okay, Ill try 24 hours this time. I could also microwave the windex, so it is hot.

 

[ruffin]

Do not recommend heating Windex. Probably contains alcohol and maybe other chemicals.

 

[Mike36]

Okay, bought distilled water. Heated it up, letting it sit for 24h. Will see.

(The bottom half of tubing is just a more narrow tube that fits over nozzle better, its hard to see in pic)

 

[ruffin]

Ok. See you are working with it. Great
If no luck with distilled water, go back to Windex in the Tubing and let it sit for 24 hrs.
If no luck, set the Windex outdoors for few hours to be warmed up a bit and then place in tubing.
Color ink is usually dye ink and easier to unclog.
Black ink is usually pigment ink and is very tough to unclog
Good luck with it. Wish I could help you more.
Let me know should you be successful.
Best Regards

 

[Mike36]

The Black Nozzle Check actually went blank. No Black came out at all. All the printing was blank pages.

So over the past few days I tried lots of things. Windex for 24 hours, hot distilled water. Multiple print head cleanings. Did a bunch of regular printing of full-black pages. Bought a brand new Epson cartridge, Nothing worked!

Someone suggested I download WIC Reset tool and use the programs "Printhead Function" on the "Strong" setting. I did a nozzle check afterwards, and the black was back! All my colors are perfect.

Black is still a bit broken as you can see, but huge progress.
Now I need to determine if I should run that same WIC program head cleaning program one more time on the black, or just do a regular print head cleaning function from the printer. (The WIC Reset uses 20% of the cartridge each time.)

 

[ruffin]

Huge progress indeed!!! Fantastic Mike. Try Epson print head cleaning first and if not totally successful,
you can fallback on the WIC program. I downloaded the Wic Pgm, just for the print head cleaning feature.
Im sure it will be useful to other forum members as well. Keep up the good work. You are almost there.
Regards

 

[Mike36]

Uh oh, I spoke too soon.

So I did a print head Cleaning to fix those last breaks, had 79% black left, now it's showing empty, "1%"?? That's not possible. This was a brand new Epson cartridge....

So something must be wrong permanently. Did a Nozzle check too, and still has some breaks

Oh well, tried everything!

 

[ruffin]

Yea, think I read that WIC program uses too much ink in cleaning process. Thought you were on to something
You indicated WIC pgm set on "Strong" cleaning. Perhaps it has lesser degrees of cleaning levels. Anyway
your previous looks to be vast improvement. Maybe one more ink cartridge will do the trick. Easy for me to say.
So sorry you have had such an ordeal with this one. If you do win the battle, let me know . My hats off to you.
Regards Mike

 

[Mike36]

I stubbornly persisted and bought one more cartridge. Flush hot distilled water+windex again. Ran multiple head cleanings...... Same result of broken black lines on nozzle check.

Never tried "Ink Charge" on WIC RESET as I read it can use an entire cartridge, didn't think I'd have ink left to do nozzle check after. Doubt it would make a difference. Threw the printer away already.

Anyhow, Thanks for the feedback throughout this, may have not saved the printer, but still learned a lot about the various methods and solutions.

Definitely buying a couple refillable cartridges in the future. Then I can fill them with Magic Bullet and run Head Cleanings versus blowing through ink.

 

[ruffin]

Mike. I am sorry we couldnt have been more help. I will say you stuck with it.
Please give us an up date with whatever direction you choose to venture into.
Maybe all of us can learn from your ventures. Wish you much success.
Best Regards