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I saw this on the web quite a while ago and I've found it works very well!

When you have clogged nozzles and do a head cleaning your printer pumps ink through all the nozzles, using all colors and wasting ink for the nozzles that aren't clogged.

Instead, print a nozzle check. If you have just one color or even a few clogged try this:
Find a document of text only for a full page, highlight the text in whatever program use desire and change the text to the color of the clogged nozzle. Print the page at the very highest quality that you can.
Do the same for any other colors that are clogged.

This forces the printer to repeatedly push colors through the nozzles (same as using the printers utility) but with out wasting other colors or filling up your Maintenance Tank, and it uses considerably less ink of the color needing cleaning.

Great idea,

Thanks

Bob

Additionally, many printers will not even do a nozzle clean if any of the carts are at around 5% or less, you have to change out the cart. Further wasting ink.

Great suggestion Randy - Thanks!!

Brilliant!!
So often I have had to swap out "empty" cartridges just to do a nozzle clean when I know very well I could get a number of prints out of the remaining ink.

Roberta Olenick
www.neverspook.com

Randy,

Good idea, I'll have to give it a try. Thanks.

Have Fun,
Jeff

Just an additional note, if your nozzles are severely clogged this method may not work. I think it may help to loosen/soften the dry ink up so a head cleaning will work with just one round though.

I have an Epson R2400 that I hadn't used in years and I wanted to use it the other day. The heads were clogged on 2 inks and the menu unclogging methods didn't work. I googled around and several places recommended putting windex in the little foam squares where the head rests. It took about 48 hours before they unclogged but it did work.

I wish I had read this post before I did all of the nozzle checks.

I have always created a square document in ps and filled it with paint bucket using the appropriate color and printed. Same thing as Randy's suggestion, but a lot more of a workout on the clogged nozzle. Also there are much better and appropriate solvents to dissolve aqueous pigment inks that are clogged than Windex. A Google search will bring them up.
This is what I use:

http://www.americaninkjetsystems.com/sy ... fluid.html

Paul

Actually I find distilled water is very effective in dissolving dried ink. Distilled water will never cause a problem as some chemicals can.
Also it is very cheap.