Giving up on a dead printer? Try my way to unclog inkjet printer port 

Worked great! Simple. I also added another step. I blew into the tube to loosen clog.

Robb-thank you so much!! Between this video and your homemade inkjet cleaner, you saved me about 250$ I am very grateful. Your tip on running cycles until the picture was clear helped as well. I was patient and kept running the clean cycle once the clog was broken apart and my printer is as good as new. I also now have cleaner ready to go. Thanks again!!

Thank you for the added info, I will check on that. Have a great evening.

Thanks for the tip Robb. Found your video helpful.

Great demo - you say exactly what needs to be said!

Thanks Robb. I have an Epson StylusPhoto R200.I loved it and have been unable to replace it, so I'm going to try your recipe and technique. Thanks a bunch. Hugh

Thank you Robb! A couple of weeks ago, my 2-year old Epson WF-2540 went on the “fritz” -- all the colors except black would print. I looked at the only option of replacing the printer with a new one until I stumbled on your videos. Although a little apprehensive, I decided to go for it. I had all the ingredients for a head cleaner kit except the tubing. As I was pouring the Windex into my little mixer bottle, I realized that the stem in the Windex bottle might work. So I cut it out into four equal lengths and they fit very snugly. After about 48 hours of soaking and a little clean-up, I reinstalled the cartridges and turned the printer back on. Tried to print -- but nothing! Grrrrr. Then I remembered that you said that it might take longer for the printer to start printing again. So I tried a couple of nozzle cleaniings and voila’ -- I have my printer back like new. Thank you again. You saved me from having to buy a new printer. Sorry Epson . . . .

Thanks for posting!

BRILLIANT, THANK YOU

I tried your method and unclogged an old Epson R280. Took quite a bit of catherizing it (I let it sit and then extracted all the old ink with a syringe, then flushed each nozzle). I am so thankful to you Robb. I wish I had the Brother MFC printers I threw out to try this on.

Great video Robb. Clearly explained and straight to the point.

It worked! You saved me a bunch of money and I'm so grateful! My Epson Workforce 325 self-cleaning function had gotten all my colors back to working after 4 years sitting idle but it couldn't get the black unclogged. I let the homemade solution sit 24 hrs and pulled up a lot of black fluid with my syringe before taking off the tube. My hopes were up. I did one more cleaning cycle and now I can print black!!! Thank you so much.

Worked like a charm. I used your homemade ink cleaner too. Was fantastic. I was expecting to have to leave it overnight, but all it took was a couple hours and it printed like new. Thank you!

I used your idea. I had trouble using small tubing because it tended to capillary, and the cleaner did not flow to the printer carriage cartridge port. I went to Ace Hardware, but any hardware can supply, and got small tubing that fit the port pipe, and more tubing that would fit the outside of the smaller tubing, ending the capillary action because the larger tube can easily accept the fluid as a reservoir, having gravity to help. The smaller tubing was cut to the height of the port, then pushed into the larger tubing. I then made six for all the ports on a Epsom R200 printer. Then using a hypo-injector used to give medicine to dog, and used the home made fluid and filled the tubes. I bought the printer at a estate sale, and it had not been used for a long time. After letting the solution set in the plastic tubing for about two weeks, it finally came out, flushing the print head and the paper towel under the print carriage, is all different colors now. On eBay, you can buy the Epson refillable cartridges that can be filled using bulk ink, and that is next, now that the print heads are cleaned. I do like using bulk ink, versus buying pre-filled cartridges with ink. Kids use my printer and abuse my budget in the process. I now have a printer that can do the bulk ink routine. And kids can use it as much as they want, and not have a washed out printing result. It is surprising all that you can find on the internet, because other people have had same costs, and want to share how to get around them, economically. And the glaring costs that they save, they say to themselves, I'm going to share this, to help others. Thank you for your sharing.

after 6 months of trying all kinds of things ,i was going to get a new printer, tried this and .... IT WORKED Fantastic Many Thanks

Thanks for the info on DIY'r cleaning solution recipe , and the tubing tip . Gonna try this . 👍 .

I am going to try this on my Epson Artisan 837 and hope it works. Thank you for the info about the airline tubing for aquariums. My local PETCO store has the 3/16” tubing. The 25 foot (762 meter) length costs around $5.99. Thank you, also, for the “recipe” for the printer head cleaning solution. The price they charge for printer head cleaning kits online is a real rip-off!

Super solution! This worked perfectly for me. Thanks!

Thank you so much

I learnt a lot today! Thanks Robb's Homemade Life!!

Worked like a charm!! Thank you ♥️

Thank you for the excellent video Robb! God bless

Going to try this Bob Thanks for sharing the Video, will be back to let you know how i get on trying it.

Awesome man. Thank you so much. 8:2 ratio winded to rubbing alcohol. Genius! Thanks again

Good tips my man. I am heading over to your homemade recipe now. thanks!

Thank you very much!! My Epson Artisan 837 is now working again. I left the solution filled tubing on the ports for about 44 hours. Afterward, it took 4 head cleaning cycles before I could get a proper nozzle check print and now it is perfect. I used no name Windex-like glass cleaner and 99% isopropyl alcohol at a 4:1 mix. Thanks again!!

thanks for this video , I thought I would never have black ink again but with this the colors are so much better and the black ink too. Your DIY cleaner is awesome too :)

Great video tip. Trying it now. Seems like the solution in the tube may may gone down a little since yesterday. Should all the liquid flow through the tube to indicate when the head is cleaned?

Mr. Robb Thank you so much! Regards from Chilean Patagonia

I was ready to follow your method but decided to go over every single step HP has in their instructions. I inspected the new black refill and notice the sticker was covering the little hole on front/top. I got some tweezers and really made a clean hole and sure enough, I put it back in and it worked. I NEVER have issues solved like that. That's why I decided to share. After hundreds, maybe thousands of printer refills, I have never had that issue. So I got in the habit of trying the hardest thing first.. After an hour with the software and using half of the new ink cleaning the stupid thing(I didn't say stupid then, but I can't write what I did say). well, I guess it's a case of RTFM

Thank you for making this video available. As a designer/artist who has had some journeys in life (resulting in placing graphics equipment in storage) because of the death of a husband and then 8 years of caregiving to another relative, the Epson Stylus color 3000 has come out of storage with the blessing of a new marriage/husband. Am helping out a local business with package design and just yesterday they told me the quantity they need after the presentation of a prototype that they like. So, because I don't want to send this order overseas to get done (1. too small a quantity 2.Want to keep work in the U.S.) I am going to screenprint this work myself. The Epson is needed for making the film color separations and the print heads ... and probably hoses...are dried up because of being in storage. The Epson Stylus Color 3000 has always worked fine. Just have to get it unclogged. Thank you.

hydrogen peroxide or regular isopropyl alcohol and qtips: - take qtips and dip them in the above solution you chose - use about 6 qtips per ink head and swipe around and ontop of it for cleaning - used this method when my printer printed everything BUT black and it worked. Hope this helps any of you :)

Thank You for sharing!!!

Great idea. I have an old printer that won't print sometimes because it keeps telling me it needs cleaning. I clean it all the time and have to buy cartridges all the time because when you clean it dumps so much of the ink. Have to give this a try. Could save a lot of money. Thank you! Have a wonderful day.

Instead of messing about with tubes and syringes, you could use your old ink containers to feed the cleaner fluid through the printer. eg fill those old containers this special fluid and then use them just like ink containers.

Ingenious bypass ink tube!

This worked for me! I left it overnight and the next day the blockage was cleared. Thanks

Thank you!

A million views! Congratulations!

Thank you for your help, it worked.

Hey you.......thank you ! Saved myself some serious $$$👍

Thank you. This unclogged my Epson printer.

Thank you! I will try this on my WF 7110

this is nice video.I like this video.

Didn't have any tubing so I just put a drop of your solution on the blocked nozzle for an hour or do. My blocked magenta is up and running! I think I might love you!

Hey! I was looking for how to clean your printhead videos and this came up :-)

Bless you , Bro. -Indegenius

My printer is Epson XP-300 if you're having trouble finding a tube to fit over the heads try using the tube from the spray of a windex bottle. It fit perfectly. Just cut the size you want and it should work like a charm.

I think this is the best demonstration I've found.

thanks

My printer set-up seems quite different. (Epson WorkForce Pro 4630) Am I being dim? Should this work in a similar fashion?

Beautiful video! Very helpful and informative =)

Have you considered after cleaning using refill ink to flush cleaner if it gets muddy prints afterwards.

My Canon MP470 printer stopped working so I had to get another one. Would not even start up. It would turn on, do a couple of tests then shut down. I took it apart and found a medical type pump inside that's driven by the platen and the tubes were all clogged with dried ink. Printers these days need way too much maintenance, like you need to print something every now and then.

There are a few of things I want to add. 1) Sometimes it is those single white cartridges or the pipes that are clogged..so remove the pipe attached to the cartridge and push air with a syringe in and out to unclog it. 2) Use a sharp syringe needle to inject isopropyl aclohol directly into the printer head holes . If you use a torch you can see those fine holes. 3)and finally I got success by putting a straw over the nozzle and just blowing air with my mouth ..that seemed to clean it and open it. so just remember it's not always the head that may be clogged..it could be the pipes or the cartridge too.

I have an old Stylus 1400 that hasn't been used in probably 2 years. Needless to say some of the print heads are severely clogged. 😅 I bought some solution with a syringe kit and have been trying to flush it out based on YT vids I've seen. Even though this video is older, yours is the first one I've seen that recommends leaving the tubing sit with solution in it. Brilliant. Off to try that for that nasty, super clog. Thanks for posting your method for this. :)

Brilliant! But true on how hit or miss this procedure is. Sometimes these printheads just die even though I've unclogged them. They are after all electrical

Actually I tried that several years ago, before I even read RU-vid! Worked well, but I had forgotten I used it! Time to use it again, another clog. I'd always heard not to remove carts and let them put aside while I was cleaning other parts of the printer as well. The ideas was not to leave carts exposed too long because the cartridge "spikes" would dry up. But nobody hear seems to run into that problem. Whatever, I'm going to take those chances. I agree that it is an elegant solution! Paul

WOW... works like a magic... ;)

This still works. For ammonia I used the no-name Compliments Glass Cleaner from Sobey's (here in Canada) which says "contains ammonia" right on the front label. It was a few years old, so I don't know if they have changed their formula or not. Some rubbing alcohol from the drug store and "PRESTO", ink heads ran clean after letting it soak for about 10 minutes. I have an Epson Work Force 3620. I used some hose I found in my shed, didn't fit very snug over the nozzle and leaked a bit, but it worked nonetheless. Don't forget the paper towel underneath, it makes quite a mess, even though I only used around 5cc of the 8:2 concoction. Thanks, Robb!!! 5 stars!!

I cut up a straw, stuffed​ it with cotton, and soaked the cotton in Windex and alcohol. stuck the straws on the little print head ports and left it for a couple of days. work with what ya got, lol.

Thank you for this! I was about to purchase a new printer, but it's working after only a quick soak.

I have an epson artisan 725 that has just stopped printing black. Black printing is streaky but all other colors just fine. Test pattern indicates some black segments missing. Tried cleaning several times but no help. When cleaning, used over half the ink in my color cartridges but none in my black cartridge. Will this cleaning fluid go into my black ink port if the printer is in the normal parked position?

Thank you so much!

ty

Is that where the ink catridges go that your cleaning or is that in the print head?

Rob how can I remove Ink from a new cartridge and insert it onto a used cartridge, I have a Canon TS705 printer, the new Cyan cartridge is not recognized when I insert the old cartridge back in its recognized any way I can take ink from a new cartridge and put it into a used cartridge etc.

how could anyone not give a thumbs up? /well illustrated, smartly explained. Xlnt

Brilliant idea.

Hi Rob... thanks for your video... we dont have Windex in South Africa... so I used regular plain window cleaner here called Windolene.... together with alcohol.... the only thing I did differently .... was that I injected the solution and then sucked some back as well.... as the solution was not going down... did this twice and I think that unblocked the nozzle..as alot of color was sucked back....it was printing streaky... so with the help of Stan Ingram's comment about doing a clean after the solution... it worked!!! thank you so much.... I had literally tried everything.... I was on the verge of buying a new printer... but just didnt have the finances to buy one right now.... your video was great.. thanks so much.... warmest regards Shamela

Will this work on an HP Photosmart D7460 with ink system failure?

I used a head cleaning kit from a company that have their own videos on You Tube and when I used the syringe to push the cleaning fluid through, it definately came through each of the four nozzles and left the paper I put underneath soaking wet with different colour inks. I even pulled up on the syringe a few times to draw the fluid back up and down again both ways. I then thought I'd leave it a week or more with the nozzles still wet with the fluid, just to help dissolve any other dried ink that might be there. After a week, I put the ink cartridges back and tried the printer again and still nothing. The print test was no better, maybe worse, but fluid came though each nozzle when I used the cleaning kit, so I thought it should work, but it didn't. Should I try cleaning it again or what. I even opened a new black ink cartridge and it didn't help. I've now been without the printer for 4 months and desperately need to print stuff off for my buisness.

what if the sucker tells you he is not connected - though it is. wireless - canon mx925 - any ideas robb? thanks

where i can get cleaner or same other things please and thanks to teach

Will this method work for Epson L220?

Nice tip Robb good video

Thanks for video

Mr. Moffett: Please identify the proper size tubing. Inside diameter and tubing composition. Manufacturer and Part number for Tubing. Thanks for your video

when i connect the syringe with cleaning fluid to one of the ink port, when I push doesn't go through. it create a pressure, I am afraid to apply more force. This Epson Artisan 835 is different than other. This one had the ink port connected to the printer head with a channels like house where all the ink circulate inside.

Thank you, Sir🏆

My printer sat a long time maybe ONE YEAR (model MFCJ470DW). My Brother printer has the ink tanks on FRONT not on top. So I stood my printer on it's rear, with the ink tanks facing UP. This caused a lot of ink to drain out of the tanks. (my refillable ink-tanks are CLEAR color, so I could see the levels). So, your method solved my problem. I did not have CLOGGED HEADS. I had no ink in the printer itself. Now i have all my colors back, but still some problems with black. Your video was very helpful. thank you

I Have Epson Stylus Photo PX 820 with clogged head, and your problem doesn,t work :( How can i dissasembly head out of PX 820 printer ?

Thanks Rob

I also got a scanner problem with my brother,mfc -j4620w model.checked everything from paper jam, but scanner is not letting me print or bay pass the screen.,please help if u can, thanks

hello; thank you for your video. Can show me how to disassembly Epson Artisan 700 to change my waste ink pad. Merci encore

I have a problem. My Epson surecolor sc-p600 print no Black. When I print Black text it will be blue/Grey. I have done a nozzle clean + print head clean. The cardridges are full. I used no profiles and software is up to date. I tested this also on my laptop with the same result. What can i do more?

I have the Epson WF-7010, pressurized the print head so clean all nozzles work, a very nice fan of the nozzles and still won't print!! Why?

Thanks!

I just flushed the ports with vinegar and a syringe. Once I instilled the vinegar I pulled back and got the clumps out. Did this a few times and it worked nicely.

thanx dude!

My Epson died yesterday after I did something like this. it's a WF-2540. I knew I should have taken a baseball bat to it. Won't buy another Epson. My sister has had an HP for several years. She is very happy with hers. I think one of my problems with the Epson is I didn't use it enough. I went through about a package of ink every year and didn't even make 125 copies a year. I mainly got it for printing my taxes. The Epson had decent scanning and printing. Although it was always a PITA after it sat for a few days.

I have a lot of bad printer memories....happily, we haven't had a printer in years

My printer has a blank blue screen ,HP4655. Print head is fine. Tried power cycle, still nothing. Have to unplug cord to shutdown.

Nothing like good old american ingenuity love this guy

Hi Robb, great Printer Vids! :) But how about doing one on, how to rigg up a CISS system, for a EPSON XP-610 Printer series? PLEASE! :)

Thank you so much for your very informative videos!! I have an Epson Workforce 1100 wide format inkjet printer. I went to a site that sells the nozzle cleaning kits commercially and the fine print said that cleaning system works for all Epson printheads EXCEPT wide format. Do you know why it would not work on my printer? Will your method and your homemade formula work in my printer?

If this doesn't work I'm going to try carb cleaner, brake cleaner, goo gone, wd40, and anything else I can think of. Thanks for the video.

SMART FELLA! THE "RECIPE" IN YOUR DESCRIPTION FOR CLEANER - IS THAT THE SAME CLEANER YOU USED THAT YOU WEREN'T HAPPY WITH? ANY NEW REVISIONS ON THAT SUBJECT?

Hi my wf 2661 is showing error 0x9a can u tell wat problem that is?

My printer is a brother printer. Mfc-j425w series. The nozzles? Are not upright like this printer. They are horizontal. I guess i just have to stand up my printer? This is really frustrating. Ive been trying to get the red color to work for over 2 weeks now. The guys at the ink refill store told me to buy a new printer but i refuse. I want to try to fix it first. I am going insane here....