Thank you for being a valued part of the CNET community. As of December 1, 2020, the forums are in read-only format. In early 2021, CNET Forums will no longer be available. We are grateful for the participation and advice you have provided to one another over the years.

Thanks,

CNET Support

General discussion

FYI: Epson printer head cleaning

Mar 1, 2005 4:03AM PST

I use my Epson Stylus PHOTO 785EPX printer a lot and it seems that I have to do the Head Cleaning routine every two or three days, usually the black ink check pattern has gaps.

Ayway, I found the following site that has a lot of information about Epson head cleaning and a link to download a program, SSC Service Utility, that allows cleaning selected print heads instead of all of them:

http://www.maxpatchink.com/epson-tips.shtml

I haven't tried the single head cleaning yet but the SSC Service Utility looks interesting and does all kinds of stuff with the printer.

By the way, I refill my cartridges and have excellent results although I am sure refilling isn't for everyone...and don't tell me the refill ink clogs the heads. I don't clean the heads any more than I had to with new Epson ink cartridges.

Discussion is locked

- Collapse -
Refills...
Mar 1, 2005 4:16AM PST

Interesting post, Fitz,

As a printer engineer (mostly...) my company insists that if the user is using refills/3rd party consumables we should walk away!

I had HP refills a few years ago for my deskjet 690c and they were terrible - ink bled, smudged, took a long time to dry, etc.

Recently I needed to print some stuff but was skint, so I went to a local Cartridge World-type place. The result really impressed me, and I would recommend the shop.

However, where Laser Toner Cartridges are concerned, the story is not so good. I have seen leaks of toner, poor quality due to the drum having marks on it, or repeated lines caused by problems within the cartridges. They don't seem to last very long, either, so maybe Toners are in a different league from ink cartridgesHappy

- Collapse -
Whoops!
Mar 2, 2005 11:46PM PST

One of the things the SSC Service Utility does is make my printer produce a horrible grinding noise when I used the utility to "Move head to exchange position".

So pass on this utility.