WE will begin with the simple easiest methods and then get into some of the ways the professional printer tech gets them unclogged.

Dealing with a clogged print head can be frustrating but this is no time to get into a hurry. Cleaning solvents can take many hours to do the job. And remember your trying to save the life of a printer. If all fails you printer may be ready for the printer graveyard. I'm talking about printers with the built in print heads here. It 's probably best to explain the different types of printers now.

There are two rough categories of printers one with the print head built into the printer. For example Epson some Xerox and Canon .The other are Hp and Lexmark, which have the print heat built into the cartridge.

On most of the printers with built in print heads it is a major job to remove the print heads so all of our cleaning methods are with them left in the printer.

Most of the clogs that occur while you are printing aren't severe. The ones that are in many cases tough are when the printer has been sitting for a long time without being used. In this case the ink can dry as hard as a rock.

The first thing to do is to run the print head cleaning cycle 3 to 5 times. If you don't know how to do this check your manual or check online for a manual if you don't have one. After running the cleaning cycles, check the print out for the slightest change for the better. If it 's getting better let it cool for a few minutes and continue. If it stays the same or gets worse move on to the next method.

Epson recommends running the cleaning cycle several times then printing a test page. Don't print a test page after each cleaning cycle on a tough clog. It does waste more ink this way but is necessary when you have one that is badly clogged.