Every printer owner will know the situation. You have just installed a new printer cartridge and have only been away for a while and the printer no longer prints correctly and you only get an unsatisfactory result. Is the printer damaged? In most cases, the printer itself is perfectly fine, but the ink cartridges have dried up.
Laser printer owners have no problem with this, but inkjet printers are affected more often. However, there are a few tips on how to repair the dried-up cartridge without having to spend a lot of money unnecessarily.
Perform automatic cleaning
Before using a new cartridge, you should first run the device’s cleaning program. A printer should always be equipped with the necessary software, which then also has a corresponding cleaning program.
You can also search for terms such as print head cleaning or cleaning in general in the instructions for use. There is nothing wrong with running the cleaning program several times in succession until the print result looks as desired again.
If cleaning is unsuccessful, the cartridges can also be cleaned manually.
Clean cartridges by hand
You can get special cleaning kits in every specialist warehouse in case the printer cartridge has dried up again. However, you have to be careful because these are not suitable for all printers, even if the seller, for example, would like to tell you otherwise.
The manufacturers of the printers generate their profit primarily with the cartridges. So it’s only logical that they want to sell as many cartridges as possible.
So you cannot expect to find a cleaning set from the same manufacturer in stores. Rather, you have to rely on the experience of the seller.
Cleaning with a cloth
If you want to try cleaning it yourself, you should first dab the nozzles very carefully with a damp cloth. It is important that you only dab and do not wipe. Otherwise, you could soil and clog the nozzle even more. The nozzle can be found under the respective cartridges at the point where the paint exits.
The water used for cleaning should always be lukewarm and contain no other cleaning agents. If you want and need to go one step further, you can try rubbing alcohol after the water. This can be purchased in any pharmacy. You can work on the nozzles again with a cloth, but you should ideally leave the alcohol to take effect overnight.
To do this, you can place the damp cloth with the alcohol on a plate and then place the cartridge on it overnight. However, you should make sure that the nozzle does not come into direct contact with the alcohol. If the mixture has been allowed to soak overnight, you can reinstall the cartridge and, to be on the safe side, run a cleaning program again.
With any cleaning, it is extremely important not to damage other components of the printer. The inside of the device can be very sensitive. If you damage the printer itself, a new cartridge would have been the cheaper alternative.
