Epson Workforce Head Flushing

[GoonerGary]

Hi,

I'm trying to rescue an Epson Workforce 4015DN which suffered from a problem with the cyan. Since I had already tried the head soaking and cleaning cart methods using IPA and Glycol, I tried the direct print head flush method. These Workforces aren't exactly maintenance friendly.

When I injected some fluid through the nozzle where it meets the ink cartridge on the left hand side of the printer, the fluid didn't pass through the long ink lines but flooded out the back. Tried the same with the magenta just out of curiosity and it also flooded out the back. I had already written off this printer after the cyan leak!

Do you know why this happens? Is not possible to flush the lines on these printers? I've attached a picture.

Thanks,

Gary

[Greybeard]

Hi Gary,
Not an answer yet, but I'm in a parallel situation, and have just posted a new thread rather than clutter up yours.
I note your use of both IPA and glygol. Is this because they are specific to the two types of ink, or that they aren't likely to dissolve the printer ?
Is white spirit ever used as a cleaning solvent ?
John

[GoonerGary]

I'm fairly sure that white spirit melts plastic, so that would be unsuitable. I had done some research into print head cleaners and found out the active ingredients. In fact I found one of our dye sub suppliers selling their own head cleaning carts. When I read the ingredients it was obvious we had found the same web page, so he bottled a household cleaner and resold it. Those formulas work ok with standard dye ink, but not our pigment type sub ink. In my tests a few of these chemicals only work well at dissolving wet ink, rather than dry sublimation ink which is almost impossible to dissolve...some colours dissolve better than others.

[Greybeard]

In my experience, I've found that ws only seems to attack adhesives, and doesn't have any effect on ABS which I assume is the most common engineering plastic for these machines.
I'll do a quick test on my own, and let you know.
(I started my working life in the research labs at ICI plastics, but that was a lifetime ago !)
Regards
John

[Greybeard]

Just done a couple of tests.
White spirit doesn't affect the body on my 4015, but just to be on the safe side, I also checked the effect of Surgical Spirit from that wellknown High Street chemist.
Not only does it not affect the plastic, but I used a cotton bud with it to wipe over the pressure plates where the carts push onto the inlet probes (?) to the ink feed pipes. There was some residue on each of them which looked quite dry.
After less than a minute, the ink wiped of cleanly with a second bud, so I think it would be a good addition to the cleaning kit.
John

[GoonerGary]

Perhaps IPA would be better than surgical spirit which maybe contains additives to stop people drinking it.

You will enjoy this:

http://www.sat.dundee.ac.uk/~arb/epson.html

[Greybeard]

Thanks a bunch, Gary !
You've just kept me another hour from my bed reading that link
All good stuff, but I'll have to print it off tomorrow so that I can let it sink in.
Did you notice his comments about not pushing any fluid into the pipe lines ?
Regards, and see you tomorrow.
John

[GoonerGary]

Flushing it through the heads is never good! In my case above, I reckon the heads were sealed until the printing operation starts and then they open up. I couldn't understand why nothing was coming through, then I noticed that the ink lines had swollen and were about to explode with cleaning fluid. Sometimes it makes economic sense to buy a new printer just to start earning again asap.