Digital BW, The Print

I'm using the C84 and EZ inks and foolishly didn't print anything for
4 or 5 months.  I then got serious banding and ran a ton of cleaning
cycles and ate up a tone of ink.  

I seemed to solve the problem, but then a week or so later, the
banding was back. This time, after eating up some ink cartidges with
cleaning cycles, I couldn't get rid of the banding.  So I purchased a
2nd C86 to try again, but I've been reluctant to set it up without
asking here on the group how I might fix or avoid this problem in the
future.

Are there any decent cleaning kits that might restore the C84, or
should I just throw it away?  I was thinking of using the C84 for
color if I could get her going again. 

Also, might a clean kit be a viable alternative to eating up whole ink
cartridges with cleaning cycles?  Any prefered kit if so?

I'm pretty new to inket printing, so I wonder if banding/clogs like
this are commonplace.  Does more frequent printing eliminate these
problems?

Thanks!