Epson Artisan 837 and 3rd party inks

[PeterAit]

I have been using this printer for a couple of years for general office use and snapshot printing, it's performed very well until recently. I have been using 3rd party inks for over a year without issue, but now two channels - cyan and yellow - have serious blockages that cannot be fixed by head cleaning or installing new cartridges. Other than getting some genuine Epson cartridges I cannot think of anything else to try. Ideas?

[Paul Roark]

One trick that has worked for a number of people over the years is to put Windex (the type with ammonia in it) on the parking pad and let the head sit in that for several hours.  On most desktop units, getting to the parking pad is most easily done by hitting the ink change button and pulling the plug to cut power to the printer when the head assembly moves aside.  Flood the parking pad with Windex.  Then manually move the head back to the parked position.  Don't plug in the machine for several hours.  Windex can hurt the interior seals of a head, but people have allowed heads to sit in this Windex overnight without problems.

A Windex soaked cloth strip like a bias tape pulled back and forth under the head can also dislodge stuff stuck to the bottom of the head.

All that said, if two channels have trouble at the same time, it could be that the pump has failed.  Once that happens, cleaning is ineffective and nothing but a new pump will cure the problem.

Good luck.

Paul
www.PaulRoark.com

[Peter McLennan]

Have the two channels failed completely?  If so, it's unlikely the problem is related to your third party ink. More likely is an ink lines problem. Air bubbles or a damper issue.

Do the failure patterns revealed by nozzle checks change after nozzle cleanings?  If the patterns change but don't get resolved, it's possible that you have dried ink on the head.  Paul's Windex-soaked paper towel procedure may help this.