Once again, I'm unclogging my Epson
R200. Don't get me wrong. It's a great
great printer. However, it's also an old
printer --- over 7 years old.
I use refillable ink cartridges and these
do tend to clog. I suspect it is because
of the age of the ink. Some of my refillable
ink bottles are years old.
The black ink is especially old. If I recall
right, it is at least 5 years old. I'm noticing
that it is starting to stick to the sides of the
bottle rather than appear to be fully liquid.
As odd as it sounds, I suspect that some of the
clumping is due to water evaporation. Even though
the bottles appears to be fully sealed, the water
must be escaping the black ink refill bottle one
molecule at a time.
So, now, once again, I'm experimenting with adding
distilled water to my ink. My ink cartridges take
about 10-12 milliliters of ink. I just added 3
milliliters of distilled water to the cartridge.
Therefore, the cartridge is now at least 25 percent
added distilled water.
That might sound like an alarming addition of water.
However, inkjet ink is mostly water anyway. So adding
enough water to the ink to make the ink 25 percent
added distilled water may not be as outrageous as it
sounds.
I have no idea whether or not this is going to work.
One reason I do not know is that the symptoms are a
little bit different this time. This time, the black
test pattern prints just fine except that it is a little
skewed
It is a little skewed in such a way as to make some of
the stair steps extra long. As many as 3 stair steps
on the test pattern are together as one level stair step.
Clearly this is not right.
Is this because the black ink is clumping together? I'm
not sure. It may take a while to find out. If the ink
is gumming up the works, it may take a while to fully clear
the problem.
In the meantime, my printed documents look okay. The problem
shows up as a certain amount of subtle banding in the type face.
It's perfectly readable but not perfect. I'm going to observe
the type face in the coming month to see if this problem clears
up.
I've extended the life of my Epson R200 printer far beyond the
point where most people would have given up. Can I extend its
life a bit further?
Update: September 23, 2013
Adding 3 milliliters of ink to my ink cartridge has worked
better than I dared hope. I no longer see banding when I
print documents. Before, the banding was quite noticeable.
Furthermore, the test pattern that I produce when I hold
down the formfeed on my R200 and hit the power bottom to
power up seems to be almost, but not quite, perfect. When
I first glanced at it I thought it was perfect.
Later I notice a slight skew in lines 2 and 3 (line 1 being
at the bottom of the pattern). The stair steps are almost
perfect, but not quite.
Since the printer is printing more or less perfectly now, I
could probably afford to add a milliliter of water, or so,
each time I refill the ink cartridge. I can also add a milliliter
of distilled water to the remaining open ink bottles.
In this way, I might be able to solve the problem at its source
which is old ink that does not seem to be fully hydrated. That's
the theory.
In actual practice, I don't care. Since my R200 is 8 years
old, it seems to me it is at the end of its useful life. Therefore,
destroying the printer in the hopes of fixing it is a reasonable
option.
I'm certainly not recommending anyone else add distilled water to
their ink cartridges. I'm just saying that, so far, it appears to
have worked for me and I appear to be getting away with it.
Update: March 14, 2014
A miracle occurred this morning! For the very first time, a
perfect black ink pattern printed when I powered on my printer
while holding down the form feed button at the same time. All
the little black stair steps are perfect!
As I reported above on September 23, 2013, they were almost
perfect on that day, but not quite. Now, careful and judicious
adding of distilled water to my black ink cartridge has restored
black ink printing completely!
I had not dared hope that it would turn out this way. But it
did. So, now I'm ready to make some assumptions.
I assume, based on my experience, that ink dries out over time.
That is to say, microscopic amounts of water evaporate from the
bottles as the bottles cannot truly be considered vacuum sealed.
After all, they are cheap plastic bottles. How could they possibly
form a perfect seal that stops all water evaporation, one molecule
at a time?
I further assume that inkjet ink can be re-hydrated. It has taken
me over a year to re-hydrate my black ink. Perhaps this is because
I was doing it experimentally and incrementally so as to not overdo
it.
For me, this is very empowering information. No longer do I have
to throw out ink or an entire inkjet printer because the ink won't
flow. Water is the universal solvent. It appears to me that it is
definitely the universal solvent for inkjet ink.
Please be aware that you can almost certainly ruin your printer
by adding too much water to the ink cartridges. The natural
tendency of water is to flow out of ink cartridges because ink
cartridges have a hole in the bottom.
Inkjet ink is viscous for a reason, I'm guessing. It's viscous to
keep the ink from leaking out of the bottom. For this reason, I was
very careful to add only little tiny bits of distilled water at a
time.
Just because I added distilled water to my inkjet cartridges does
not mean you have to do it too. As they say on TV, Don't
try this at home!.
I was willing to sacrifice my whole printer on my distilled water
experiment. The reason I was willing to do this is because my
printer was not working and I was going to have to throw it out
anyway. You may feel very differently about your printer,
especially if it is working.
Also be aware the leaking water can cause electrical shorts
that could lead to electrocution and possible death. Again,
no one is recommending that you add water to your inkjet cartridges.
Call your printer manufacturer's 800 number for better advice than
I could possibly give. They know what they are talking about.
I don't. I'm merely experimenting.
If in doubt, don't do it. Don't add distilled water to your
inkjet cartridges. That's my best advice.
Update: April 16, 2014
I've been working on a formula for re-hydrating ink. The
formula is this: Add 1 milliliter of distilled water
for every 1/2 fluid ounce of ink.
This seems like a fairly conservative formula. Since my ink
cartridges are about 12 milliliters, 1 milliliter is less than
10 percent of the total. I've added at least 1 milliliter of
distilled water to my ink cartridges many times. In fact, I've
added up to 3 milliliters of ink to an ink cartridge in order
to get the ink flowing again.
1/2 fluid ounce is almost, but not quite, 15 milliliters. So,
adding 1 milliliter per 1/2 fluid ounce is well under 10 percent
dilution of the ink.
I have 3 black ink bottles, all of them with old ink. One of
them is 2 fluid ounces, the next one is 4 fluid ounces and the
third one is 16 fluid ounces (1 pint).
The following table can be used to hydrate these 3 ink bottles
using the above formula:
|
Bottle Size
|
Add This Amount
of Distilled Water
|
|
2 fluid ounces
|
4 milliliters
|
|
4 fluid ounces
|
8 milliliters
|
|
1 pint or 16 fluid ounces
|
32 milliliters
|
Recently, I more or less did exactly
what the above table would suggest
to my 3 bottles of black ink. Except
that I made a mistake.
I miscalculated and added twice as much
distilled water to my 2 fluid ounce bottle
and my 4 fluid ounce bottle as I should have.
However, I doubt my printer will suffer because
of my mistake.
Doubling up on the amount of distilled water will
probably not hurt the printer as the above table
is, by design, a fairly conservative one.
Ed Abbott
