Digital BW, The Print

Arthur and all, 
I held off writing this until I could test my printer to see that the correction is still working - and I'm happy to say it is!  Apologies - this is a bit long, but hopefully it will help you!
First - I have beta tested a couple Epson printers in the past (not in the 4000 series), and when they occasionally clogged, I'd put a strip of paper towel on the track
and  parking pad impregnated with some Windex, and was able to remove any crusted ink from under the heads. Recently, I read somewhere that Simple Green would work better, and it does.


I have an Epson 4880, and have been plagued with what I thought were clogged heads for close to 3 years.  Magenta and often Cyan were the worst problem. Once near the start, a 
local technician came in (I'm in NYC) and showed me how to do the power cleanings, and it did work for a while, but  I don't print every day, and often more a month goes by with no 
printing. The printer is left on, covered with a plastic sheet/ with water and sponges in a photo tray on top of the front paper feed. This has provided a certain amount of humidity 
control, but still the printer was jamming up.  

However, after going thru all those power cleanings, and huge amounts of ink, and making some decent prints, it sits for a few weeks and the first nozzle check alway comes out perfect. 
The second one shows some breaks in the lines, and then some - almost always the Magenta doesn't read at all. I made an entirely Magenta/Cyan file, to print only those colors, 
rather that waste so much ink with power cleaning.  Making a print with that file, showed that zero magenta was coming through the head. Next I took a used magenta cartridge
which I'm very glad I saved (perhaps there was 1/8 of the ink left in it. In the fitting where the ink exits the cartridge, one can gently push (with a straightened paperclip), what appears to be a 
spring-loaded seal. With that seal pushed in a little bit, and using a syringe with small rubber hose attached, I injected 3 or 4 cc's of the Simple Green into the magenta cartridge, and then attempted to clean the corresponding (male) piece in the cartridge compartment - with a little bit of the cleaning solution on paper towel.

   Next I inserted the old magenta cartridge back into the printer, and made a print from the magenta/cyan test file. First try, it worked 
perfectly, although the color was diluted slightly from the cleaning fluid mixed in with the ink. Next, I re-inserted the newer Magenta Cart, and did a nozzle test - 3 times. All were
perfect. Next a 17 X 22 inch color print on Canson Rag Photographique, and it's one of the best prints I've ever been able to make from any printer.  That was close to
3 weeks ago and the printer hasn't been used since that time.  Today I ran a couple nozzle checks, which were perfect, and then printed my test file which also printed perfectly.

My not too scientific analysis of this now stands that it was never a clog of the heads, as Epson (in some phone calls for help), the local tech guy, and my own efforts had assumed.
Rather, the inks were clogging or at least drying somewhat where the cartridges meet the printer ink intakes. If the ink can not run thru from the cartridge, even if the lines beyond are
filled with ink, I don't believe it will flow into the heads, because there's a vacuum being formed which prevents the ink from moving forward. Perhaps the clog was due to not using                                 the printer very often, or maybe a flaw in the printer design -  hard to know exactly the cause, but today, I'm celebrating that I will not have to get rid of the printer and look for another, 
because this method is apparently correcting the problem.

To be clear with everyone:  I am not a licensed repair person, can not take any responsibility for anything that might go wrong with your printer using this technique, nor am I 
suggesting that your printer will work if you repeat exactly what I did to mine. I also mention that it's  possible to break certain pieces if you are not very careful when working 
with them. If you are not mechanically inclined, you may want to ask a printer technician to do this for you.  If you do work on it yourself, you might want to wear rubber gloves,
as this entire process was a little bit sloppy. I managed to get magenta ink on my fingers & hands while doing this work:-)))

Clay Price