Rejean Levesque: “Epson printers do quality work but effectively clog up. This can be avoided by not leaving the printer ‘on’ and the situation can be corrected by unclogging the heads with 70% alcohol. Note that Epson compatible cartridges are the cheapest and that is why I stay with Epson.”

Sean Smithers: Most people think their EPSON Inkjet printers have clogged printheads. From PAINFUL Personal Experience, NOT SO. What often happens is that the head charging system consisting of a peristaltic vacuum pump suffers a blockage in the outflow to the ink disposal chamber. This causes pressure to build up which eventually causes the tube on the bottom of the charging mechanism to work loose or blow off altogether. This is especially true if you are running the new Pigment type inks ie C82, etc.

While loose, this situation will cause skips as head discharge ports cease intermittently to charge. When the tube finally blows, you think the whole head is clogged. The C82 here did that. I opened it up and found the tube had come off. Put it back on only to have it pop off with major sprayage of black ink all over my arm. Upon opening the ink disposal chamber, I found that a toadstool of ink had grown where the tube dumps into the felt absorbant pad that is in there. I had to dig out the lump of dried ink and ream the discharge tube (approx 4 inches) out with a rubbing alcohol mix so it would stay attached.

I now follow standard procedure which is that every time I change an ink cartridge, I run an eyedropper full of rubbing alcohol through the charging mechanism to dissolve and wash out the charging pump and hopefully dissolve enough of the ink toadstool. So far it has worked pretty well. Other people recommend Windex instead of rubbing alcohol. If you do this, you can break the cycle of sending your printer back to Epson for the expensive cleaning. This is pretty much what they do anyway.

I would have disposed of the printer or left it sit on the shelf like a lot of people do except I also have a CX5400 sitting over here that had me pretty worried as it uses the same cartridges. I had a little more investment to lose here as the thing would have been reduced to being a mere overly large desktop scanner. It gets the alcohol on every cartridge change as well. This maintenance probably voids Epson warranty, but it guarantees that the darn thing works.

Charles Knox: Most clogged Epson heads can be cleared by application of a small amount of an ammonia-based window cleaner to the ink pads (the pads on which the print heads rest when parked), homing the heads and leaving it overnight. A really bad one might need several applications (only a drop or two on each pad - don’t flood it!), or possibly even a small amount put down the feeder tubes (these are the spikes that puncture the cartridge when installed — again not much, and don’t apply pressure, you can wreck the pump.) A good cleaner is Windex (the blue one with ammonia.)

I’ve owned just two Epson inkjets down the years — an original Epson Color (now some decade old) and a now 4YO 900, both are still in perfect working order, both have had head clogs when neglected, and the most I’ve ever had to do to the heads is the above treatment. I might add that I also refill my cartridges and am still refilling the original two sets I obtained with the Epson Color all those years ago (which won’t greatly endear me to Epson, I guess…)