Printhead Cleaning from the Printer Display Screen

TABLE OF CONTENTS

• EPSON - Ways to Clean the Printhead

• HP - Ways to Clean the Printhead

• CANON - Ways to Clean the Printhead

EPSON - Ways to Clean the Printhead

Check your nozzles and run cleaning cycles using the menu on your printer before you open up your unit and clean it manually.

Epson printer models feature a pretty efficient cleaning cycle that will usually clear out the nozzles in one or two cycles. Keep in mind, however, that the newer models have longer cleaning cycles that unfortunately use more ink every time. Here’s how to get started:

• Before you do anything else, make sure the printer isn’t showing any errors on the LCD screen.
• Press the Home button and select “Setup” then select “Maintenance.”
• Select “Printhead Nozzle Check“
• Your printer will produce a page with four colored grids designed to illustrate which nozzles are blocked (and which are not).
• If no gaps are present, select done.
• If there are gaps or some lines are faint, select “Clean the printhead” and continue.

Caution: Never turn off your printer during a cleaning cycle. Doing so can cause permanent damage to the unit!

PLEASE NOTE: This process is specific to select Epson Workforce, Artisan, and SureColor model printers, but can be broadly applied across several different models, including most Expression models. Please consult with your printer manual if you have any questions about your particular printer.

HP - Ways to Clean the Printhead

The easiest way to resolve your print quality issue is by running a cleaning on your printer.  The cleaning function is included in the software of every HP printer model and is usually found under the “printer maintenance” section of your printer’s display menu.  Consult your printer manual for specific instructions for you machine.

Printhead cleanings can take about 1 or 2 minutes and they do use some ink to run through the cleaning process. Once complete, print out a test page to compare print quality.  If the print results look good, you can continue printing.  If the colors are not up to par, you may have to run the printhead cleaning function 2-4 more times before print quality is reestablished.  If you still aren’t getting quality prints after a few cleanings, move on to our manual cleaning instructions.  You don’t want to run the cleaning function too often because it will deplete the ink in your cartridges.

CANON - Ways to Clean the Printhead

The simplest way to clean a printhead is with Canon’s built-in cleaning function.  Both printers that use integrated ink cartridges and printers with individual ink cartridges include this function on their printer display screen. This is your first line of defense when you encounter streaky prints and it usually clears up the print quality problem right away. Check your printer user guide for the proper instructions for your machine.

We break down the instructions for the Canon PIXMA TS5020 printer below…

1.  Make sure the printer is on and then touch the setup (gear icon) on the printer display home screen
2. Then select the maintenance (tools) icon
3. Select “Cleaning” and then select “Yes”
4. The printer will go through the cleaning process for about a minute.  After it is done you can print a nozzle check test page to see if the cleaning improved the print quality

To print a nozzle check page, touch the setup gear again and “maintenance” again. Then select “print nozzle check pattern” and touch “Yes”.  This will print the nozzle check page.  If the colors look complete, the printhead is thoroughly cleaned and you can continue printing.  If there are missing lines are streaks, you may want to run a second cleaning or run a deep cleaning on the printer.

To run the deep cleaning, follow the exact same steps as the regular cleaning above, except instead of selecting “Cleaning”, select “Deep Cleaning”.  This process consumes more ink so you don’t want to run this function too frequently.  If your cartridges still aren’t printing properly after running a cleaning, you can try replacing the cartridges to see if that clears up your print quality issue