Cleaning Your Printhead | Printer Maintenance 101

When it comes to your printer, regular maintenance is crucial for maintaining the quality of your prints. Whether you use your printer daily or just a few times a month, your printhead and cartridges are at risk of clogging. Once this happens, your prints may end up looking banded, spotty or you will see no print at all. Luckily, there is a pretty simple remedy for these printing problems!

If the problem is with your cartridges:

There are a few different ways you can get rid of clogs within the cartridge itself. NOTE: It is important to avoid touching the electronic printhead and chip contacts with your fingertips and always unplug your printer prior to attempting to clean it.

• Wrap the cartridge in a paper towel and shake gently up and down (not sideways) 6 times.
• Stand the cartridge print head down on a damp paper towel for a few minutes. This helps pull the ink out and get them ready to start printing. Once those few minutes are up, use some rubbing alcohol to further clean the printhead. Reinstall the cartridge and print a couple of test pages to ensure your prints will be of the highest quality.
• Place the cartridge in 1/2 inch of warm water for a few minutes, or until you see ink start to leak out of the cartridge. Dry it with a soft cloth or a Q-tip.
• If you have already cleaned the cartridge and the prints still are not coming out as they should, try running the self-cleaning program on your printer. If you are still experiencing problems, try running the alignment test on your printer.
• An alternative to using water is to use compressed air in the ventilation hole, but be sure to do this in open air over a sink or trashcan, as leakage may happen as a result.

If your printhead is in the printer as opposed to in the cartridge, simply:

• Remove the cartridge from the printer.
• Use a soft, clean cloth with isopropyl alcohol and carefully wipe the electrical contacts on the inside of the printer carriage.
• Wipe the electrical circuit strip of the cartridge using the same cloth.
• Reinsert the cartridge and run the printhead cleaning program. For best results, the cleaning program may need to be ran more than once.

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