# Printer in a cold room and flushing printhead



## ozstockman (Dec 23, 2010)

Hi guys,

After trying to solve the problem with some ink lines being bad on my 4880c based flatbed printer I have come to the idea that the problem is not with ink lines but with the temperature I have in the room where it is installed. I have a workshop in my garage and that's where my printer is installed. It's winter in Australia now and it can be 10-12 degrees C in my garage in the morning and it does not go higher than 18 degrees during the day. It did not come to my mind before but such a low temperature should affect the ink viscosity where I was trying to understand why some lines(K, M and Y) are not producing a nice nozzle check. 
In fact sometimes it seems there is almost no ink at all in these three lines or their dampers as very little number of nozzles in three colours are working. They look like they are very badly clogged. They start working though after a lot of cleaning or purging inks through the lines using a waste ink mechanism. That is wasting a lot of ink and nobody wants to do it that way. Now with a bit of reading and experimenting with heating the garage before printing it all looks like that I have a problem with the printer installed in a way too cold environment at least for this time of the year.

Since heating the garage during he night will consume a lot of electricity I need to find another way to get a room temperature higher. I know it may sound crazy but what do you think about an idea to cover the printer with an electric blanket set on a low-medium setting during the night? Can it get me into some kind of other troubles like heat from the blanket affecting plastic parts of the printer?

Unfortunately I cannot move the printer to warmer room and I need to find a way to keep it in working order in my garage.

And the other question, what kind of liquid I need to use to flush all ink lines to remove old inks from everywhere including all tubing, dampers and the print head? I want to try new inks which are two times cheaper than the ones I buy from a printer MFG now. I believe the new inks are the same and made on the same factory in China as my current ones but I do not want to start using new inks with old inks inside just based on my believe they are identical. 
The inks I am using are UV inks and Windex works good for cleaning a capping station or whatever I need to clean from my current inks. But it seems kind of risky to flush the print head with Windex. Even though I tried it with my 1290 printer and it did not do any harm to its print head. Alcohol has worked too for my 1290 print head but it does not clean as good as windex.


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## BQChris (Aug 16, 2012)

Maybe consider using a method to warm up the cartridges. Wrap something around the cartridges that heat them up as you are only worried about keeping the ink warm. Be careful though, too hot and you begin to cure the ink. 

To flush the system, use a 50/50 distilled water and ammonia solution. Works best if you warm the water to about 150 degrees fahrenheit.


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## ozstockman (Dec 23, 2010)

BQChris said:


> Maybe consider using a method to warm up the cartridges. Wrap something around the cartridges that heat them up as you are only worried about keeping the ink warm. Be careful though, too hot and you begin to cure the ink.
> 
> To flush the system, use a 50/50 distilled water and ammonia solution. Works best if you warm the water to about 150 degrees fahrenheit.


Thank you Chris, I was thinking about heating just cartridges but what about the ink in lines, dampers and the print head itself. They should be still cold if only ink at the end of lines are heated. I guess heat will transfer through ink but how long is it going to take. 

At this point I have tried only to set up a heater next to the printer to heat it all up but it takes at least 1 hour to get it back to normal. I was thinking about some permanent solution so it will keep warm environment around the printer all night so it is ready for printing anytime in the morning. 

re flushing, do you mean mixing 50% Windex with 50% distilled water or 50% cloudy ammonia with 50% distilled water? Won't be ammonia too strong even mixed with water?


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## BQChris (Aug 16, 2012)

The dampers and print head, I wouldn't worry too much about, as they deplete rather quickly. As for the lines on a 4880, that can be tough. They are long. For all the advantages of the 48xx's print quality, keeping the ink moving is hard.

I would just try to warm the ink in the cartridge while I was printing and see where this gets you. If the issue keeps occurring, than we can troubleshoot the lines.


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## BQChris (Aug 16, 2012)

Just use a 50/50 solution. Ammonia will delaminate the head if left exposed for a prolonged amount of time but if used wisely, I have been able to break up the worst clogs with it.


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## pierke (Mar 14, 2009)

Hello Ozstockman & Chris,

maybe you can use a flat heater (?) that is using under a waterbed and put it under your printer. The temperature is regulated with a knob, and the power consumption is verry low. I have one here, maybe i can send you if you diden't find a solution.
Clogged lines: is it possible that the reflecting UV-light is lightning your intubes....once the lines are flashing with UV-light than the procces of harding the ink is started.

Pierke

P.s. i can mail you a picture of the heating mat.


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## DTGPRINTERPARTS (Jul 13, 2012)

I had a customer in this situation, we made a really cheap wooden box to surround the printer then a really cheap heater to stay at a decent temperature. We tested it to make sure that it didn't get too hot and worked good. You will need to put a top on the box too but not make it too small and maybe put some breather holes. This worked good for us but eventually electricity bill was almost too expensive.

We re-made this box recently and put insulation on all side, including the cover (top).

No electricity was needed and everything worked good. You should be fine.


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## ozstockman (Dec 23, 2010)

Thank you guys. I am afraid putting it in a wooden box is not an option because it is quite big(140x120x90cm at least)

I will try heating just cartridges and let warmer inks sit for a while to distribute heat. I guess it may work and seems much easier and faster than trying to heat all space around the printer.


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## pierke (Mar 14, 2009)

I'll hope that its works, succes.
Keep in touch.

Pierke


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