Printhead cleaner for Brother printers 5oz

UPDATE As noted below, this product worked well for us. However, it can't make an old printer young. Besides clogged heads, there are several parts on an older printer that can go bad, or get fouled, or otherwise go wrong. I think we ran into that fact, soon after writing that earlier review. So, it was great at first, but we probably only got a few weeks of normal printing before it started going bad again. At that point, cleaning with this product did not help anymore. Clearly the printer needed more fixing or maintenance than we could do, and given its age, there was no point even dreaming about repair. At present it is relegated to scanning only and we had to buy a new (laser) printer. I'd still recommend this cleaning kit, though, because it does work. And your printer may not have the other issues we ran into, especially if it is younger. Just keep expectations in perspective. ----- ORIGINAL REVIEW This kit worked well on a Brother MFC J-6920DW. Recently, in the middle of a project it suddenly stopped printing any color. Several cycles of head cleaning and test prints emptied the ink but did not help. Replacing all four cartridges did not help. Internet searches came up with various solutions, one with canned air. That did nothing for us but make a huge mess. I do not recommend it! Eventually I found this kit and others like it. The reviews, and the vendor’s helpful hints and video (and guarantee) made us choose this. Here are the tips that helped make it work for us, on this model printer. 1) Use the long tube not the short one. Besides needing it for the cleaning, you will also need this tube to load the syringe with cleaning fluid, since the syringe won’t fit in the bottle. The tube is a tight fit onto the syringe, which is a good thing. Be patient. 2) Warm up the whole bottle of fluid, not just the syringe. That way you can leave the tube on the syringe and skip using the cap; plus, if you need to reload, the fluid is already warm. 3) On this printer the clearance is tight, and it will be hard to mount the cleaning tube onto the printer ink fittings using your fingers. Use long-nose pliers or similar tool to hold the end of the flexible tube and push it well onto each of the printer’s ink intake fittings. It will be a tight fit – which is good, it will prevent leaks. Again, be patient. 4) The kit included “blotter paper” but no instructions for it. We just used paper towel, two layers folded, under the printer head. This made a tight fit when sliding the print head over it, but soaked up all the ink and fluid. It might be better to use one layer folded, to give the head more clearance even if it might leave a little cleanup afterward. You want to avoid damaging the head and nozzles! 5) I moved the head a couple of inches a little after cleaning each color, over a clean section of paper. Besides keeping one spot on the towel from over-saturating, this also made it easier to see when each color ink was being successfully flushed out. 6) I removed all four cartridges before starting, but did not bother cleaning the black ink tube since it had been working okay. This was a gamble, but turned out to be correct in our situation. 7) I cleaned out the entire cartridge area, especially drying any remaining ink or fluid, before reinserting the cartridges. 8) Right after reinstalling the ink, I did a test print, and saw color again. After that, I ran three regular cleaning cycles and test prints. The coverage actually decreased at first, which I think was fluid or air being purged from the lines, but then improved again and by the third round the test print was normal. 9) Checking it a day later, I think I notice a couple of recurring blank squares in the test prints – out of the many hundreds in the pattern. It does not affect the quality of actual prints somehow, which is why I don’t care. And compared to having no color at all, this is fantastic. If I were to do this again I might change out the paper after one pass, and do each tube again. But this is probably unnecessary if you have a newer machine than ours. Overall, I found this process straightforward and very successful. There were no huge surprises and – so far – the result has been as good as I’d hoped. Users who are not accustomed to tinkering or fixing things might not find it as “easy” as I did, but if they trust the instructions and take their time, they should be okay. We are very satisfied and relieved. We recommended this kit if you have similar symptoms on a similar printer.

Like most new tasks, there is a learning curve here. After a couple of false starts, and making some messes, the product worked great. My printer is working 100% now, so it was well worth it. Some comments/suggestions: - The instructions could be clearer, and more detailed. Example: I found that I needed to hold the hose to the ink receptacle. On some ink wells, the hose would pop off, and the cleaning fluid would spray the inside of the printer. I also learned to SLOWLY press the syringe. - An old towel or paper towel should be placed UNDER the printer, to catch any of these spills. - More blotter paper is needed. It works better than paper towel, but there are only 2 small sheets. Blue shop paper towels work better than kitchen paper towels, too. - Remove all paper from the MFC-495. The cleaning fluid and ink spilled into the paper tray, and soaked through all sheets. Paper towel in the trays would be a good idea. - I had replaced all the ink cartridges before I started. By the end of the process, 2 of the cartridges were empty This is from using the built in cleaning cycles. Be aware of this. There was also an issue with me, not following the instructions. I only let the cleaning fluid soak for a few minutes the first 2 attempts. The 3rd time I let soak for several hours, after re-reading the instructions. I could see a great improvement after the longer soak. A couple of cleaning cycles (using the built in print head cleaning, via the control panel), and it was back to printing perfect test sheets. The printer I was working on, is probably an extreme case. The previous tenants let all the colors go empty, and the machine was left sitting, unused, for at least several months. Based on other evidence in the house (AC filters, fridge filters), the colors could have been dry for as long as 4 years. The path was messy, but the result was better than I expected. Good product, good price.

I had a really bad printer head clog that couldn't be fixed with the head-cleaning routine on the printer. I bought the Printer Hospital Kit for this Brother Printer but was sent the kit for an Epson, which is missing the larger tube required. I called the customer service number and the very helpful owner of the company answered and suggested I get the Brother adapter kit, which costs about $5, and offered to reimburse me. However, I had some plastic tubing (from a hardware store) that fit the ink inlet tube and another piece that fit the 10-mL syringe. I added some SuperGlue to the outside of the smaller piece and inserted it into the larger piece to provide a leakproof junction. (I did the same with the plastic tubing in the adapter kit when it came.) I cut the joined piece to size, making sure that the larger segment was long enough (about 1") to fit completely on the ink inlet tube of the printer and the smaller end of my homemade tube just poked out of the ink compartment. (The inlet tubes on the printer are visible when you pull out the ink cartridges.) Following the directions in the Printer Hospital kit, I used a 1 1/2"-wide double thickness of a paper towel and inserted it under the print head. (I fashioned a little push rod from a piece of coat-hanger wire to force the paper towel under the head.) I then attached my makeshift delivery tube to the first of the ink inlet tubes on my printer, making sure that my delivery tube was all the way onto the inlet tube. While preparing the printer, I filled the 10-mL syringe provided in the kit with cleaning solution and put it into a cup of water that had been heated to boiling in a microwave. I then attached the loaded syringe fully to the smaller tube and SLOWLY pushed about 2 mL of the hot cleaning solution into the ink inlet tube. I repeated this with the other colors. I then removed the paper towel used for blotting and could see that all of the colors had bled onto the towel. I replaced the ink cartridges, turned on the printer, and ran the head-cleaning routine (under "Tools" on the Printer Menu). This revealed that the head cleaning worked. I then hooked up the printer to my computer and printed a file that I created with Adobe Illustrator with 1" squares of magenta, cyan, and yellow outlined in black. These printed with no white lines. NOTE: I read on the internet that one could use Windex as a cleaning solution. After running the above procedure with the Printer Hospital solution, I used an ammonia-free glass cleaner (Meyer's Clean Day Glass Cleaner) in the same procedure, and it worked beautifully. This is a great way to rejuvenate the clogged print head on your Brother MFC-J995DW Printer.

looks like a great product but will not work on Brother MFC-J1205w. there isn't a way to get to the print head without complete disassembly of the printer and secondly the ink ports wouldn't take any fluid to allow a flush even with no access to the print head. Just sharing so others dont waste their money.

Mixed review. First, bottle leaked resulting in wet instruction sheet and blotter material. Not loose cap but either defective bottle or cap. As far as product performance I was very satisfied. One caveat. Instructions for moving printers from resting position does not work on MFC-J475DW. The only way I was able to release printhead was to start printing a test page and pull electrical plug to stop function. Open top of printer and printhead should have moved off resting position. Caution, remove sheet of paper from feed by opening rear paper feed and gently remove paper.

The product worked great. My only issue was that the tubing that came with it...........although it fit the ink tanks............the tubing was too soft.... So, I had to use needle nose pliers to place the tubing onto the tanks. Not a deal breaker, but you better have some way to get your big fingers into the tank area. For me, the pliers worked fine. For next time, i will get a stiffer hose so i will not need the pliers. Some issues......and hints......... Do wear the gloves, for you will get ink on your hands. I didn't think i needed gloves, and found out otherwise. Not a lot of ink....but my hands were not clean when done. Blotter paper was included with the package. Unfortunately, i did not see it until I was all done. For me, I used paper towels to absorb the ink. Also, I found that you do not need to shut off the machine while it prints in order to get the print head in the middle of the print bar. After you open the printer, use your right hand, and push your right index finger UNDER the place wher the print head is resting. If you use paper towels as I did, you will find that you can push the print head in only one direction to go over the towels. So, if you find it is getting caught.....you are moving the print head in the wrong direction. I think right to left is the way it works best. But, since I'm all done, I'm not totally sure.... I found that it worked well to put one piece of the paper towel under the print head..... more than one just did not work for me. Then, I placed a wad of towels on BOTH the left and right side of the print head. This way, the ink would be absorbed, and would wick up the extra towels. During the cleaning I removed the wads of inked up towels and replaced with clean ones. I also found that as you push the plunger in and out, you will begin to HEAR the ink come out of the print head ; sort of a gurgling sound. It took me 4 times of cleaning the printer via the cycle on the printer before my print was perfect.

Even though this was ultimately unable to resurrect my clogged print head, it's still a 5-star experience for one simple reason: customer service. First, the product itself: It arrived virtually instantly in a compact little envelope that easily fit in my mailbox. The instructions were clear, but there's also a video you can easily find online to help guide you along. It's a little bit of a production -- at least for me -- getting the plastic tubing onto the ink port, but that's most likely do a combination of poor lighting and the magenta port being inconveniently placed. Still, a stiffer piece of tubing would have made life marginally easier. In any event, there were no major problems injecting the fluid, but there was ultimately no joy after multiple applications (including an overnight one as recommended in the instructions). Still, for $20, it was worth the chance to try to avoid buying a new printer. For what it's worth, I don't think the failure is due to any deficiency with the kit; the print head was just too far gone. And now, the reason this is a 5-star review: After the purchase, the person behind the product took it upon himself to reach out with a follow-up email to see how I was getting along. When I mentioned that it hadn't worked, he went on to suggest some alternatives. Whenever I'd update him, I'd get an extremely fast and informative response. When it finally became clear that we were out of options, he then offered me a $15 refund on the $20 purchase, which took me by surprise. Again, at no point did I feel like the kit was faulty or not what I ordered. I know that it can work, since I applied it to my black ink line with some success. The black ink wasn't fully clogged, but has been uneven in its performance. After using the kit, there's been a definite improvement. It's just the magenta that refuses to come back. Do I wish my printer was back to 100%? Sure. But I couldn't have asked for a better experience with a vendor.

I decided to try this in order to clean the yellow print head on my Brother printer. The little hose fit ok after removing the ink cartridge. I was able to flush the solution through as instructed. I did the entire process twice and I was definitely getting yellow ink moving through the system and onto the strip of paper towel that was used per the instructions. However, once I was completed with the cleaning, not only was the yellow still not working but the magenta and cyan also started having issues. Both of those were totally fine prior to this procedure. I never hooked the hose to either of those other colors, only to the yellow. Not sure how, but after using this kit my printer actually got worse. I will say that I was quite surprised by this. After watching the process on YouTube, which I followed exactly, I really expected the printer to work great. The flush of the yellow ink SEEMED to flush perfectly. But again, it only made the printer worse. I finally gave up and just tossed the printer. I really wish it had worked as I wouldn’t have had to buy a new printer.

Funcionar funciona, aunque utilizas la décima parte de bote, por lo tanto es carísimo, casi tanto como la sangre de unicornio. Al precio que van las impresoras de inyección merecerá la pena el gasto dependiendo del cariño que tengas a tu impresora. Creo que las instrucciones son complicadas para lo que es el proceso en si.

To help others, this review includes specific information as to how the product solved a problem with my printer: The printer in question is the Brother MFC-J5330DW which is approximately 6 months old and has been used daily, primarily for office type work. After-market (extra large capacity) print cartridges have been used for all 4 colours. In recent weeks the black print nozzles have been blocking, leading to missing lines and feint print etc. The other colours have been fine. The on board software cleaning method worked fine in so far as it soon restored perfect printing. However, the Big issue was that within literally 2 to 3 pages of work, the nozzles were blocking up again, so something was definitely not okay, and it started to get very irritating having to constantly go through the self clean cycles etc, only for the problem to recur so quickly. Before taking this printer to the local recycling centre, I purchased this print head cleaning kit. I followed the instructions included and the on line video tutorials to the letter and in summary, this printer is now working back to 100% reliability, which is such a relief. For those wanting to know a little more about my experience using this kit, I would add the following: I used my own kitchen paper wrapped in several folds to catch the cleaning solution/ink residue etc. When I manually moved the print head over the fresh paper, even before using the cleaning solution, I was amazed at how much black “graphite” looking residue deposited itself onto the paper. This I strongly suspect, was the cause of the problems. Surprisingly, but thankfully, the injection of the cleaning fluid required hardly any pressure through the syringe. I injected the solution very slowly as it quickly soaks the kitchen paper towel below the head. After injecting a bit of the solution, I kept manually moving the print head gently back and forth, moving it to a clean bit of paper towel as necessary, and repeating. I then left the solution in for about 90 minutes, before completing the process. After reinserting a new Black cartridge, the test print initially showed some missing black lines, which was disheartening. However, the instructions did say that it may require up to 4 of the printer’s own cleaning cycle to complete the process. Thankfully after 3 self cleans, the test print was free of missing lines. Importantly, this printer has since done lots of printing with zero issues, all working fine. In conclusion, I have to say that this excellent product, combined with great customer instructions/support, delivered exactly what it promised, and I have retained the remaining solution for when the process needs repeating at sometime in future. For me this kit scores 10 out of 10.

Kit reçu au complet, conforme à la description. Après utilisation de celui-ci j'ai pu réutiliser mon imprimante. Produit recommandé

Great service and product

Had this inkjet for a long time. Wanted to upgrade to a laser printer, but would be stepping down to black and white for my budget level. With COVID this year, schools have gone more electronic, so really haven't had to print out anything for the kids yet. Black on my old printer started to fade to the point of being unusable. Decided to give this a shot. Ease of use? Pretty easy! Depending on your printer model, I found using a pair of needle nose pliers to get the tube onto the nipple really worked wonders. I have read about negative reviews and my experience does make me sympathize with them. Performed the clean on the black, and as per the instructions, I decided to leave the cleaning solution in overnight. Following this, I could not get black to print. Cleaned the heads multiple times, etc. Nothing. Decided to do it again but this time start to go through the cleaning/test print process almost right away (so there was solution/pressure in the lines). Again, very little printing going on, but I kept at it, doing two to three cleaning cycles and then a test print. Overall, I had to work for about 30-45min of cleaning/test prints. Fresh ink finally started to flow and I have full print capability back. In the end, it took a little more effort than I thought, but I am happy with the outcome; and in the end that's what is important. I doubt that this will work miracles, but for simple head cleaning, this kit has all your need to perform the task.