Find Out How To Clean A Dirty Print Head

You will notice that as time goes on the quality of your presentations, documents and reports do not look as crisp because the printer ink cartridges are running out of ink. As time goes on, your printer's quality will decrease and trying to restore an old printer might not be enough. The best solution is to clean the printer head to get the best usage out of your printer. A clogged or dirty printer head will prevent printer ink from flowing from the ink cartridge to the paper. That's why a cleaning may be necessary to ensure your documents are printed at their best.

You have to start by getting familiar with your printer. The important thing is to locate the print head and understand what it does. Basically what happens is little droplets of ink leave pass through the nozzle of a printer ink cartridge and transfer to the print head, which in return transfers the printer ink onto the paper. What happens, is as the device prints, the small drops of ink get stuck by the opening of the print head. When the printer ink dries around the print head, it will leads to poor print quality.

If you find this to be the case with your printer, here is what you can do to clean it:

Clean the Print Head Yourself

You must start by removing the printer ink cartridge from your printer. Then, take a cotton swab that you've dabbed in hot water or isopropyl alcohol and rub it around the print head. This will help loosen the crusty layer. Some brands, such as Canon, make printers with a removable printer head, which makes it a whole lot easier to clean. If you do decide to use isopropyl alcohol, be very careful especially if your printer has rubber gaskets because it can be damaging. If you get alcohol on the gaskets, you will dry them out, leaving your printer inoperable.

For removable printer heads, you need to take the printer ink cartridge out and then remove the head. Fill a bowl with some alcohol or hot water and place the printer head into the bowl. Depending on the amount of crusted printer ink, you need to soak the printer heads anywhere from 1 hour to an entire day. Air dry the print head before reinstalling it into the printer and don't forget to run the cleaning function. That should remove any bits of dried ink that have loosened during the soak.

How to Clean using Software

Start by checking your printer's manual for how to clean a printer head. If you do not have the manual, just search online for your printer model's number on the manufacturer's site and download a copy.



Do not panic if you experience a clogged print head. Part of having a print, just like any other piece of electronics, there are going to be problems like paper jams or an empty printer ink cartridge. If you do notice that your printer is not printing as sharp, check to see if the printer head is dirty. So don't just pitch your printer when the documents start getting fuzzy. All it needs is a good cleaning and it will be back to printing quality documents.

About the Author

Xavier is a blogger on consumer products and home electronics. Most recently, he has been interested in printer's and printer ink cartridges. If you would like more great tips on printers and printer ink cartridges, check out some of his other articles.