I weighed the cost of purchasing 2 new printheads versus purchasing a new printer. It was cheaper to purchase a new printer. With that information I figured I would give this printhead cleaning method a try. The worst that could happen is that it wouldn't work for me and I would have to purchase a new printer. Well, it worked! I am back in business with my money still in my pocket. Thanks for sharing this information.

I tried the HP Utilities print head clean twice to no avail then tried soaking the cartridge in water for 5 minutes. I didn't use anything other than water and that worked like a charm. Thank you!

Thank you. So many videos on youtube that just waste time and dont offer any solutions. Thank you for making a video that actually delivers on what it promises.

Thank you! I was going nuts for hours trying to figure out why it wasn't printing & nearly ordered new print cartridges. Less than 5 minutes, you had me up and running again! You are an absolute star!

Great results! Being able to clean it and get it printing correctly again for the first time in a long time is wonderful! People may complain about the alcohol solution, but the other option was replacing the printer, so I wasn't out anything except the time it took to clean. Replaced with fresh solution 3 times there was such a heavy ink, sludge buildup. Thanks!

Absolutely brilliant! After spending hours on downloads and forums plus resetting my printer I came across this video and worked a treat, even using vodka/water instead of iso. Thank You.

You just saved my printers life ! Thanks for the info, I cleaned it manually and now it's working just like it was new! 😃

THANK YOU SO MUCH!!!! I'm now able to print properly after following the advice in this video. Like having a brand new printer again. 😃 EDIT: instead of wasting ink and paper using the printer's cleaning cycles (which often don't fix the problem completely), follow this video and you'll get perfect results.

Excellent! After trying to clean with the printer's software 3 times there were no considerable results, I tried this and it's printing like new again!

It may be helpful to let people know about using distilled water when mixing with rubbing alcohol. You don't want to use tap or mineralized drinking water, as those minerals and tap particles may have a negative effect on the heads after a few clean ups. It's always good to use distilled water, which you should be easily able to find in any grocery store.

I'm impressed! I was ready to send it out for repairs. I have a Hp8500a. I am so happy that I looked here first. Unbelievable! Love new technology. Thank you for taking the time to post this very helpful video.

Holy smokes dude, I'm so glad that I found your video!! I searched for "how to clean a printhead for dummies" and came up with your video. I was pulling my hair out, metaphorically speaking, trying to figure this out. Btw, I'm 64 years old and have proven that you can teach an old kitty new tricks.

I've been trying to get my printer to print B&W for weeks. Replaced the cartridges, tried to find a repair shop that would do it, ran about a million self-cleaning cycles. Finally took it apart and soaked the nozzle in about 20% isopropyl inspired by this video. Now it prints B&W! Thanks.

"if it didn't fix it in 2 minutes, try all night" XD

for anyone else in a rush, I used this method with just tap water and it worked a treat.. probably not as good as distilled water and alcohol but hey I got the document I needed printed. cheers

If you're in the UK isopropyl alcohol is surgical spirits, and the water? That comes out of the tap!! Cheers for the vid guys. A+.

OOOOOOOOOHHH MY GOD. THANKS ALOT IT WORKED. it was 2am and I need it in early morning. I used hand sanitizer. 😆🤣 and warm water. I thought my black ink would work but my dead color one worked. Thanks again. Also if both don't work just remove the black and see if the color works. If color doesn't work remove it and just use black. Sometimes if both ink inside they won't work.

THANK YOU!!! I had tried everything possible. I just tried the alcohol and water soaking and like magic, it was printing again. You're awesome.

Thank you!!!! I tried reset and clean cartridges feature and soaking them in water and alcohol finally worked! You rock!!

first time i find a video thats both clear and also short, just changed cartridges and also cleaned the printhead on my HP c309 and all worked perfectly. in regards to comments below please use the inside of your head and dont soak toomuch or use toomuch alcohol. thank you

I can't believe this really worked! I haven't had black ink in about or month or so. Thank you!

That worked and didn't destroy my print head unlike some of the more rigorous methods here on youtube i didnt trust. Thanks for this!

We haven't used our printer in a really long time and this worked!

Thank you. This unclogged my printer heads and saved me so much $$$. THANK YOU!!!

Thank you for this simple fix. I thought I would have to get a new printer. This worked quickly and beautifully!

I tried it and it works saved me from buying a new ink cartridge :) thanks for the tip will do it again if it happened again and hope it will work again....

Thank you, my printhead was totally clogged with ink. This worked really well. I changed the water and alcohol solution about 3 times until the solution was mostly clean.

You saved my printer :D I used nail polish remover with acetone (last resort before I bought a new printer). One soaking for 30 minutes opened up all but one in my Canon printer, soaked that one again and now my printer works perfectly :)

Worked like a charm when the onboard cleaning utility provided less than stellar results. Thanks!

wow. just wow. both cartridges working again like new. amazing thank you!!!

Thank you thank you thank you!!!! It worked I just wiped them with alcohol pads and my hp Officejet pro 8500 asked me to do 3 separate print head cleanings. Last one I saw orange, printed reg. test and out came the yellow finally! Black fixed itself with first clean of alcohol

THANKS! Your clear instruction on how to clean the printheads on the Cannon series totally solved my printing issue (things were printing too light).

Awesome and Thank you!!!! I tried it, and it worked!!!! So easy and now I know how to do it. You saved me from having to buy a new printer! Yeah!

I was given a printer that wasn't printing right after new cartridges were installed. I removed the tape strips over the cartridge's vent holes - and now I have a nice printer!

Thank you. I just took the heads out mine, used a bit of warm water mixed with a bit of turps on a plate for 2 mins. Now printing perfect. One less thing to worry about :)

Very helpful. My black ink on my Lexmark 6300 was very streaky if it came out at all. So I did this tried this cleaning along with another vid that instructed to put cleaner in the well itself and it worked. Thank you.

Very good. I had problems with my HP Photosmart B109a-m. I could't get out cyan. With help of this video I put the print head in a solution as you explain, for 3 minutes and what a surprise I manage to recover cyan which before did not print at all. All colors are working fine now . Thank you.

Thanks so very much, this method worked on my Kodak Hero 3.1 - well except for the blue. I ended up soaking a couple of times but can't seem to get blue to print. Much better than having to buy a new printer and gives me time to buy a new print head. :D Happy Camper I am!

Great video! Thanks Never even knew my printer was self cleaning!!

Wow! It worked for me- received a defective black cartridge which messed up the head- took a couple of attempts but this seems to have done the trick! Thanks!

It fixed my coloured ink in 2 minutes and my black ink over night! I am surprised it actually worked, thank you! I have the printer HP Office Jet 5255.

Fantastic! Solved all my problems with blank pages. Thanks so much ...

Great tip - got my cyan printhead working like magic! Thanks!!!

thank you so much! what these two ingredients did for my ink printouts.

Thank you so much for this hack!!!!! It worked on my dry black HP cartridge, and I am so pleased!!!!👍👍👍👍👍👍

Thankyou. I used the soak overnight option on a Canon pro1 print head and it worked. Saved me $600 on reconditioned print head (or $1700 for a new printer)

Thanks. This video helped a lot, I also appreciate that its not a very long video!

Thank you so much! Got both my black and color ink cartridges back up working smooth.

worked a treat, i'm back in business!

THANK YOU SO MUCH!! Just tried this and it worked like a charm :D

Thank you! I know this video is nearly 8 years old but it was helped me out today!!

Thanks mate. This helped me a lot. I tried everything else several times but cleaning the printheads with water and IPA helped finally. Cheers for this.

Absolutely FIXED my issue. Much appreciated!!!!!!

Thanks for the info, I tried it and it worked. I was about to call Staples or Office Depot and get juiced.

Just when I was about to toss the cartridges, tired this and it worked great! Didn't even have to soak for 2 minutes .

oh my gosh this worked !!!!!! ( I will definitely suggest this to anyone my printer kept only printing the color magenta but after this video it worked so good yes i am 11 when i was with my dad he kept trying so hard to fix this printer(Lexmark) and he took hours to fix this so i decided to let him watch this video he tried out the alcohol and water thing( any type of alcohol works )and tap water works and then it printed good as new i would definitely suggest this to anyone if their print head does not work correctly or if any color is not working thanks ink technology)

Thanks. This worked perfectly. Just on time to print my tax returns. I thought I was going to have waste $25 on a print cartridge. Instead, I bought a $1 bottle of alcohol and didn't have to participate in the $20-$40 for three cents worth of ink scam.

Thanks much for this. Soaking like you showed worked beautifully.

This worked perfectly, got my black cartridge working again!

Works Great. I just did it, ( followed your instructions ) and it Helped tremendously. Thanks.

Thank you for the explanation, I'll be trying it out now and later I might come back to let ppl know if it worked!

Just brilliant. It worked for my hp 901 black and color inks. Thanks for sharing.

omg what a life saver printer is working again !!!! thank you soooo much !!! i had an error code of B200 on the canon mx922

this worked for me also, set it for 5 mins and it worked well after

Thanks, soaked in alcohol for about 5 min and fixed this issue. HP 7858.

Thank you! The best video and solution ever!!

I just tried and it worked for me. Thank you sir

Thank you for the video sir, I had no idea this was even a thing!

Tank you so much, I thought the printhead was located on the cartridge, now I know for sure. I have been having problems with an HP LaserJet 3632.

Hola Fer muchas gracias por tu video. Que tipo de destornillador y medida debO usar para aflojar los tornillos de la HP 5525. Tengo destornillador común pero no sirve.

This worked for me though I didn't measure how much alcohol to water I used. Certainly unclogged a printhead and i was able to print many pages, thanks!

Thank you so much for this video, manually cleaning the printhead helped me out big time tonight but I have another problem. My black ink which did not work on my Kodak all in one printer is now working but the black ink is very very light. I took out the black ink, put a paper towel around it but that did not improve things. My ink level on black ink is about 75-80%.

You are a lifesaver. Thank you 👏🏾👏🏾

glad you were there .Kodak self help was not very good

I have learned something new from this video.

Great, thank you very much! Saved me time, a trip to Staples and $$$!

Omg it worked! friggin awesome sauce! Thanks!

Thank you for this! You saved my printer.

oh wow. im having a print head issue and found this video. amazing is you used an mx860. i have an mx870 and the process is identical. thanks!

Excellent instructions. Thank you

did as instructed and it worked! thanks guys!

Thank you guys! This video helped me a lot!

Hey great video! I tried to soak my print head overnight but the print quality is not improving. I compared the "Nozzle Check" pattern before and after and didn't see changes. Any further advices? Thanks ahead!

Hi there! This video is excellently done- thank you! Question: after returning the printhead to the printer, I received error code 0x9E, and now my printer is inaccessible. Do you know what this could be?

Is your method safe for pigment ink based printers? for example I've Kodak 5210 all in one.

Nice useful video.Love simplicity and straight forwardness. Is office jet pro 6830 a good printer apparently it has a few issues with it Printer head. What are your thoughts on this please, thanks.

Excellent! Well presented and succinct.

Thank you! I will try this tonight when I get home!!

Yay you helped me fix my printer thank you very much.

Thank you, that worked for me. Thought I needed a new printer.

My problem was solved, thank you so much sir!!!

Awesome advice, my printer is working good now.

bought new print head and new ink but my Kodak ESP Office 2170 still won't print black have tried calibration and cleaning have used 4 new cartridges and still won't print black? I have soaked new print head in hot water and alcohol and still no black printing color is perfect?

Good logic, will give it a try. Many thanks.

It worked. Thank you very muuuuch!

I have a 8610 I’ve never used that was nearly new when i got it. It obviously wasn’t good not cleaning it right away. What is your thought filling these refillable cartridges i bought with alcohol and running it like ink until its all clear for another method of cleaning the head unit? At this point i don’t see any disadvantage but I’m open to thoughts before i hive it a whirl.

Worked-thanks so much!

Worked perfectly. Thank you.

Hi and thank you for suggesting this. My HP won't print blue consistently regardless of which cartridge I use. The streaks are about 1/2 inch apart. If I could figure out how to clean whatever this is, I would clean it. I also note there is a lot of ink- all colors- in the internal part of the printer. Suspect this is normal for an old printer. Any thoughts?

Used only alcohol and worked. Thanks