How to Clean the Printhead of Epson L1800 with Dampers and Cleaner

Question:

I have an Epson L1800 and was thinking of a different way to unclog the printhead. I figured I would fill the dampers with printhead cleaner and run them during a cleaning cycle. Will this be a powerful way to unblock the printhead?

Answer:

Yes, the solution you suggested is effective, and it can be a quick way to get rid of printhead blockage. Tips: Remember the original solution in BCH DTF cleaner is transported in a state of high concentration. That is why you can never mix it directly into your fresh ink because it will cause coagulation of the ink or have some other undesirable effects. For example, you can use the cleaner but do a drop test after to avoid transitioning back to printing. Before putting ink through the system, a drop test ensures that residual cleaner remains and must not be in the dampers.

Using Dampers with Print Head Cleaner: Step-by-Step

Fill the Dampers: Soak the dampers in a print head cleaning solution, such as BCH DTF cleaner. Make sure they are properly primed and free of air bubbles.

Replace the Dampers: Put in the dampers you got filled with the cleaning solution in place of your old ink-full dampers.

Do a Print Head Cleaning Cycle: Run a cleaning cycle on your printer's maintenance menu. This will enable the cleaning solution to flow through the printhead, which may help dissolve obstructions.

Leave the Printer to Sit: After a few cleaning passes, let the cleaner sit in the printhead for a few minutes, hours, or overnight. This may make it more effective at dissolving stubborn clogs.

Flush and Test: Soak, rinse, flush, and repeat before adding new ink. Before installing ink-filled ones, perform a drop test to confirm that no cleaner is left behind in the dampers.

Perform a Nozzle Check: After reinstalling your ink dampers, check the nozzle to ensure the printhead is completely recovered.

Additional Tips:

Caution on Cleaning Cycle: Too many cleaning cycles in a short period can cause the pump tire to tire out and waste ink.

Injecting: For More Stubborn Clogs: If your printhead is still clogged for some reason, you can use a syringe and inject cleaner through the ink inlet ports with light pressure.

Use an Ultrasonic Cleaner (if necessary): In case of stubborn clogs, an ultrasonic cleaner can remove hard-ink form from the printhead surface.

Printing problems can be a complicated affair and it is due to those practical kinds of problems. This means that we are unable to offer remote troubleshooting, advise on repairs, or assist with printer fixes. This will be checked and repaired at our local diagnostic facility (https://bchtechnologies.com/printer-repair-service) — and due to a lot of interest to these services will be operated on the first-come first-served basis, which means it may take a couple of weeks before dropping your printer to us can happen. Our services are designed to repair a complete printer or some components of it with step by step guidance. What we do acknowledge is that our rates are not the cheapest! So, we suggest very strongly that you take to self-help through Googling for answers. You may explore the YouTube in general or visit our YouTube channel homepage (https://youtube.com/@bchtechnologies) where you can use the search icon next to “About” on the right side of the menu bar to find specific videos. Querying us about videos about specific topics comes as a right and it comes dozens of times a day. After making videos for nine years now, it can be hard to remember every single one. So it would be most efficient to use YouTube’s search function. Also, YouTube may recommend relevant videos from other channels that can help you.

Thank you again for getting in contact! We greatly appreciate your understanding, and we trust that this will assist you with your printhead question. Also, if you need more assistance, please check out our tutorials on YouTube (https://youtube.com/@bchtechnologies ) to see additional troubleshooting steps. Good luck with the Epson L1800 you have!