My printer doesn’t get used a lot. Generally I only print stuff that I need to sit down, read and annotate ~ which at the moment means academic papers. Problem is that without fairly heavy use (daily or better) the print heads get clogged with dried ink and a nice printer stops being nice.

Cleaning the heads with the Epson software wastes ink big time. Solution is to use a solution. A few drops of isopropyl alcohol, ordered through the local chemist, did the trick. Pipette some onto the pad where the print head comes to rest meant that the heads rested on the foam pad and unclogged nicely.

The pads are the black 1cm square things with a silver cross wire on them that are under the print heads normal rest position. Unlatch the carriage return lock (a white tab just behind the bar the head moves along), move the head across and you’ll see the pads.

Of course as to the longer term effects I can’t yet vouch…but its a lot better than wasting ink or worse buying a new printer.