Solved: How to Clean and Unclog a HP PhotoSmart Printhead

In this blog, we will share the experience of cleaning a PhotoSmart printhead with you. The printer is an HP PhotoSmart Premium C309g, uses 564 XL cartridges. All other colors were printing fine except the photo black, which prints stripes.

First, we tried to make a cleaning cartridge. We filled a blank cartridge with cleaning solutions then use a syringe to push the cleaning solution down to the printhead. The printhead is still heavily clogged, but you can see a slight progress.

Second Method. We take the printhead out. You can see the dry ink on the photo black nozzles. We soaked the printhead in the cleaning solution. Then, we wrapped around the printhead with a wet paper towel. We used a house vacuum to suck from the bottom. Some clogs were softened by the cleaning solution and sucked out by the house vacuum. We could repeat this procedure, giving more time for the cleaning solution to penetrate the clog. Because of timing constraint, we moved on to the next method.

Thrid Method. We used a high-pressure steamer. You can find them on Amazon for under $30. It is incredibly effective against stubborn cloggings. You can use it for other chores too. Make sure the electronic ribbon is dried completely. The printer prints a blank page. That's okay because the steamer puts a lot of water into the printhead. We used the printer's cleaning cartridge function to let the ink flow into the printhead. Finally, the clog is removed.