6D. Poor Print Quality – Cleaning the Print Head

It may be necessary to clean the Print Head nozzles if you notice reduced print quality, or if you suspect a cartridge nozzle has become slightly dried out or clogged. If the print head has been left out of the printer more than 30 minutes or the printer has been unused for several weeks, the ink in the print head nozzles may have dried. If you are having print quality problems, follow the steps below:

Important Notes:

• You may open and close the lid up to 8x times before the print head will lose its prime and need to be replaced. Each time you open the lid, air is introduced into the system and transferred inside the printhead . The print head has 17 ml of space and initially carries 3ml of air. You may open the lid 8 times before there is not enough space for ink and the print head loses its prime.
• To keep the printhead ready for printing, do not remove it from the printer and keep the printer powered on. The LX3000e will occasionally clean the nozzles but only if it remains powered on. This will minimize the need for the manual cleaning described below.
• Watch this video to view an alternate cleaning method.

1. First Try cleaning the cartridge using the clean function in PrintHub.


72 DPI Image printed with the LX910e

2. Determine if printing is now acceptable by printing your image. If the sample has missing colors or voids within a color strip, remove the cartridge from the printer and proceed to step 4.
3. Prepare items needed for procedure.

Two Paper Towels folded four times each



A Glass of Water


4. Soak the paper towels in water for 5 seconds.


5. Place one paper towel on cartridge nozzles. Gently press the paper towel with your finger. Leave the paper towel on the nozzles for 30-40 seconds.


1 Cartridge Nozzles

2 Place one paper towel on nozzles

3 Gently press paper towel with finger

4 Leave paper towel on nozzles for 30-40 seconds

6. Wipe nozzles.


A Place second paper towel on flat/hard surface.

B Press the nozzles into the paper towel.

C Firmly tap the top of the cartridge three times to force the ink out.



D Wipe/Drag the cartridge in the direction indicated.

E Repeat until all colors are seen on the paper towel.



After wiping the nozzles, the paper towel should show all three colors.




If all three colors are present, proceed to step 8.




If the paper towel doesn’t show all three colors, then repeat step 7.




If paper towel still doesn't show all three colors repeating step 7, then replace the cartridge.

7. Dry cartridge.


!Dry excess water from cartridge. Ensure cartridge contacts are completely dry. Printer damage may result if cartridge contacts are not completely dry.

8. Verify cartridge is now functioning properly by printing your label.