What if ink is dry in the printer?

Inkjet printers are widespread these days. Usually they are purchased for home use, which is why they sometimes stand idle for a long time. In this case, their cartridge dries up, and this leads to the inability of the printer to print any text. We will tell you what to do in this situation in our article.

If the printer stops printing at all or begins to strip, you can try to clean it with a specialized wash for cartridges. It can be crafted using one of the following recipes:

• for color cartridges, a mixture of 10 parts of vinegar, 10 parts of ethyl alcohol and 80 parts of distilled water is used;
• a universal mixture suitable for all types of cartridges will be a composition of 10% glycerin, 10% alcohol and 80% water;
• for Canon and Epson inkjet printers, a solution of 10 parts of ammonia, 10 parts of alcohol, 10 parts of glycerin and 70 parts of water is optimal.

Please note that only distilled or filtered water should be used to prepare the solution. The use of ordinary tap liquid causes the formation of scale in the nozzles - this leads to the final destruction of the cartridge.

A good result can be achieved by using the green "Mr. Muscle" instead of the flushing agent.designed for cleaning glass surfaces. It is diluted 1 to 1 with filtered water and used as a wash.

Let's consider a few more options for what to do if ink has dried in the printer.

Frankly speaking, experts do not recommend using steam cartridge recovery. Even if the processing ends successfully, there will be nothing good for your cartridge and its print head in the long run from such procedures. You will not be able to perform high-quality processing in a domestic environment. With a high degree of probability, you will not be able to warm up all structural elements evenly, and this will lead to the fact that the restored part is deformed, warped and loses the shape necessary for effective functioning.

You can resort to this method only when it is the last of the options you have left. In order to reanimate dried ink, you need to boil a kettle with water and wait for the moment when hot steam from the spout begins to emit intensively.

The print head of the device is placed at a distance of 5-7 cm from the steam jet and held for about 15 seconds, then the cartridge is blown directly with steam, allowed to cool, and all the manipulations are repeated at least 5 times.

As practice shows, this method can help even if the cartridge has been idle for more than a month. The work must be done very carefully, since through inexperience or carelessness, you can completely disable the device.

Soaking in water can correct the situation if the cartridge is not idle for long. The volume of the solution should be just enough so that some nozzles can be immersed in it; the entire box of the printing structure should not be placed in the prepared composition. Soaking time directly depends on how dry the paint is.Sometimes a couple of hours are enough, and if it is very dry, then soaking sometimes lasts about a day. While the nozzles are in the liquid, you need to monitor its level, do not allow it to dry out.

After all the manipulations, it is necessary to fill the nozzles to make sure that they will exit freely. - for this they can be blown out with a large syringe.

If this method does not help, then you can use the technique of "falling jet". For this, the print cartridge is placed in a bathtub under a high pressure of the hottest water possible. The jet must be strong and fall from a great height. After this treatment, the cartridge is removed and shaken, and then processed again, additionally blowing with a syringe, after which the remaining water and ink are wiped off.

Many users are interested in the question of whether there are printers with non-drying cartridges. The answer is unambiguous - ink dries in all inkjet printers, without exception. However, there are printers with a print head into which ink tanks are inserted. Other models contain cartridges with nozzles located directly in the cartridge itself.

If the structure of the printer with the print head and ink tanks dries up, it will be very difficult and sometimes even impossible to restore it. Such models require constant maintenance - they need to be switched on, checked and, if necessary, cleaned. Usually, all these actions are performed by special software that is included with the printer.

In the second option, when the nozzles are located in the cartridge, when dry, you can replace the cartridge itself, and the printer will remain fully functional. This option is more effective, but the cost of a set of cartridges, as a rule, is 2-2.5 thousand rubles, depending on the printer model. For comparison - the cost of a set of ink does not exceed 500-600 rubles. That is why ink tanks are more often chosen for household use, they just perform all the necessary service work on the printer from time to time.

See below for how to restore your printer.