De-clogging an ink nozzle on a Epson Color Stylus 440

[NobodysSon]

Hello all,

I have an Epson Stylus Color 440 that sat in a cupboard for a long time and now won't print black ink despite brand new cartridges. I suspect that the nozzle is clogged from sitting so long without use. The built in cleaning cycle of the printer has made only the most minor of differences despite many run throughs. Is there a way to manually clean the nozzle?

Thanks in advance. :)

[mattchall]

Chances are pretty good that the head is shot due to dried ink in the nozzles. You can try removing the print head from the machine and soak it in Simple Green diluted with distilled water (1:4). Don't submerge the whole head, just about 1cm to get the nozzles. If you have a syringe and a rubber tube, gently flush the solution through the feed tube that the cartridge sits on.

[JamesM]

I actually purchased a cleaning solution that was purposley designed for the Dura-brite inks that Epson use in their cartridges. I was skepitcal at first but figured for 10 dollars it was worth trying on a 500.00 all in one my customer brought in. It came with a siringe and a bottle of the solution. I installed to the sponge in the sump and let it sit over the weekend. Came back on monday and ran the printhead cleaning process twice and it was as good as new. Let me know if you want to try this and I'll see where our inventory gal got it from.

James Moore
Jamesm@hrcc.com

[mattchall]

Hey James; I've heard of that solution, but have never used it. I took the Epson course a few years back when I worked for a dealer. The course instructor is the ont who recommended the Simple Green solution, so thats what I've always used as it works out to be very affordable. Chances are that you have to install original inks plus labour. Unfortunately, most people just buy a new printer nowadays.