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Reduce
your excessive ink consumption and buy those pricey ink cartridges less often! Harvey Head Cleaner …this
inexpensive utility helps you avoid clogged printers and ink-wasting print head
cleanings while you extend the life of those costly ink cartridges! by
So there I was, sitting at my computer lost in deep
thought when – BEEP! – my smaller printer jumps into action and prints out a
simple test pattern, exercising the print head to assure that I get a good print
the next time I use it. Sure, I
could have printed the test pattern myself. It’s easy enough to do. I just
never remember to do it. Or, worse, I’m too involved in something else or
I’m feeling too lazy to drill down through the printer driver software to run
it. Sure that’s my fault entirely.
Still, I never get around to it and wind up wasting lots of ink and paper
trying to clean and unclog my print head the next time I need to output a print
for sale or competition. Not any more, though!
I just found Harvey Head Cleaner.
Used by professionals who depend on inkjet printers -- photographers,
printing/sign companies and other people who rely on dependable printing -- Harvey
Head Cleaner is an inexpensive utility that exercises your printer often
enough to help you avoid clogged print heads and the excessive ink wasted in
trying to clean out the clog. It comes in three versions for Epson inkjets, each
designed for a different Epson printer series. A fourth Harvey
Head Cleaner Desktop Edition is designed for all
other brands of small four-ink and six-ink sheet-fed printers. (See chart
below.) I have two software versions, one for my small printer and one for my
big one which is sitting quietly. Harvey
Head Cleaner knows that it was used earlier and doesn’t need exercising.
(I chose that option in the software’s easy advanced
settings.) Before you anticipate a miracle, let’s make clear
that Harvey Head Cleaner isn’t
going to help if your printer is already clogged so badly that normal cleaning
procedures can’t clean it out. The idea is to prevent your printer from
clogging in the first place and Harvey Head Cleaner does that well, earning it BIG points with me. Chart
1: choosing the right Harvey Head Cleaner version
for your desktop printer
How Harvey
Head Cleaner works The
"nozzles" in your inkjet’s print head are tiny tubes about the size
of a human hair. Each holds ink until given the command to eject it.
HP and most other inkjets have a tiny heater for each tube and, when the heat is
turned on, ink is “spit out.” Epson printers use "piezo" which is
a sort of heatless pump to “spit” the ink. (Inkjet printers are giclee
printers; giclee essentially means “spit ink.”) According
to the folks behind Harvey Head Cleaner, to be ready to print, ink has to be in the
nozzles. If it isn't used, it will dry up in time, forming one or more
clogs. How fast the ink will dry up depends on several things:
environmental conditions like temperature and humidity, the size of the
print head’s ink tube, or the type of ink being used. Some printer
manufacturers advise running ink through the nozzles every day, a bit
extreme for enthusiast/amateur environments, but critical for many commercial
operators. Running this small amount of ink through the nozzles on a
regular basis keeps ink from drying and prevents or reduces clogging of
heads. Harvey Head
Cleaner is a software utility that monitors
jobs sent to the printer. If the printer hasn't been used in 24 or 48 hours
(your choice), it sends a command to print a pattern similar to the printer’s
nozzle check. You can schedule Harvey Head Cleaner to run at a set time once a week, a selection of
a few different days, or daily. The
pattern printed for Epsons uses only a minimal amount of ink, but moves ink
through every nozzle. This “exercising” should prevent head clogs that
require truly ink-wasting head cleanings. (Regularly printing a pattern
like a nozzle check should keep your print heads clog-free. For
Harvey Head
Cleaner to work properly,
your printer and computer
must be on at the time you schedule for cleanings (your monitor can be off) and
there should be some sheets of inexpensive, plain paper left in the printer. Your
printer cannot work
without paper, so it stands to reason that Harvey
Head Cleaner couldn’t either. Once your set up, though, go take that long
overdue summer vacation week you’d promised yourself without
worrying about wasting half your ink tanks or cartridges on multiple cleaning
cycles when you return. Simple
to install, run, try and buy This software utility needs to be
installed while you are logged on as the computer’s administrator. After
that, Harvey Head Cleaner starts up
automatically every time the computer is turned on, regardless of who logs in. If you're
installing Harvey Head Cleaner on a computer that is also connected to a
network, we recommend that you temporarily disconnect from that network.
You can do this in any number of ways, from disabling your network adapter to
simply unplugging the cable. Being connected to a local network can cause a
conflict in the permissions necessary to install the Harvey Head Cleaner
service. After installation is complete, reconnect your network and
operate normally. To try Harvey
Head Cleaner before you buy, you can download a free evaluation copy that
will expire seven days after installation unless a license key is purchased.
Currently
only Windows-based, A Mac version as well as four-
and six-ink editions for large format
printers are in development. Eight-, ten-,
and twelve-ink non-Epson printers may require separate versions for each model.
If you have a large format printer and would be willing to field test, contact
the company with your specific printer model(s). System
requirements ·
Microsoft Windows XP, Windows
Installer .NET
Framework 2.0+ If you do not have these two
prerequisites, ·
30 MB Hard Drive Space A
final note for that “far-gone” printer someone is sure to have Harvey
(Orange Marley) offers a few head cleaning tips on their website. Take
note, though, that some of these are “last ditch” efforts because cleaning
inkjets yourself can result in irreparable damage to the printer, the
cartridges, and the media on which you are printing. But,
if
your printer is already non-functional, their tips --- gathered from the
Internet and provided for only informational purposes – you may have nothing
to lose and these may be worth a shot. You assume ALL risk. Orange Marley,
Inc. (and me, for that matter) cannot be responsible for any damage done using
these methods. Remember, you
should always perform normal head cleaning actions first. http://www.harveyheadcleaner.com/main/page_head_cleaning_tips.html. |
