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Cleaning and commissioning an old Brother printer - a working printer from the rubbish for free?

p.kaczmarek2 3612 27
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  • DIY cleaning kit for inkjet printer. .
    Today we're tackling another piece of equipment from the electro junk. This time it's going to be a Brother printer, which strangely enough seems to be showing fairly full inks. In its current state it doesn't even take paper, but maybe there's something to fight for? Let's find out! I can announce straight away that there will be more than one problem here.

    Let's start with the lack of paper downloading. The printer indicates a jam, but after following the recommended steps nothing changes, and I don't see any leftover paper inside. It also alternately shows it missing:
    Brother printer display showing No paper message. .
    This problem may simply mean that the interior needs to be cleaned:
    Inside view of Brother printer showing roller and paper guide mechanism. Interior of a Brother printer showing the paper feed mechanism and roller. .
    After a brief cleaning, it was possible to partially retrieve the paper:
    Front of Brother printer with paper tray open and a sheet of paper visible. .
    Cleaning continues:
    Open Brother printer with visible internal mechanism, a cotton swab and a lint-free cloth lying nearby. .
    Pictured are a cotton bud and a dust-free wipe.
    As I wrote, the inks are almost full:
    View of ink levels on a Brother printer display. .
    Finally managed to run a test print, but can't see anything printing:
    Ink traces on paper from a Brother printer. .
    Well, apart from barely any marks.... ie there's another problem. Heads.
    You could let go of cleaning the heads, but that didn't do anything.
    You have to clean the manual heads. There are kits available for this on the web:
    Printer head cleaning kit with a bottle of fluid and a syringe. .
    I, however, did not have this kit, although I recommend using this type of proven solution as much as possible. I prepared the mixture myself by hand and a syringe with a matching tube. I adjusted the tube to the required size with a dremel....
    On the table is a makeshift printer head cleaning kit composed of a green syringe, a tube, and a multi-tool. .
    This tube, by the way, is from my 3D printer, Ender 3 Pro, a filament guide.
    Set up like this allows me to pump a bit of cleaning fluid into the ink tube, and you can also draw in a bit of ink - just to clear the passage.
    Before the operation you release the head and leave it in the middle, once it's released you put a towel underneath it so you don't flood the printer with ink as a result of pushing through.
    Syringe connected to the internal mechanism of a Brother printer using a tube. .
    You have to be careful not to pump air in there! You have to keep an eye on the state of the syringe at all times; if the fluid runs out, you stop.
    Any excess fluid is removed so as not to cause a flood.
    Then you can still switch on the cleaning option from the printer itself from the menu, then this will help.
    After single and double cleaning:
    Print quality test page with colored blocks made of dotted lines. .
    After playing around for a while, the results are almost perfect:
    Test page with colorful blocks to check print quality. .
    I let the cleaning run a few more times and since then the printer has been printing correctly. I find it useful for soldering, e.g. I printed myself the WB2S pinout so I don't have to keep it open on the computer all the time.

    Summary .
    I managed to get the printer up and running at zero cost. It's a shame that someone threw it away. It seems that users are often quite unaware of how to use the equipment. The printer was completely dusty, wouldn't even take paper, and the heads were clogged too. I did the cleaning with my own DIY kit, which nevertheless worked well, although probably one from a shop would have been better.
    Nevertheless, the operation was successful, so I can only have a question for you - have you also ever performed similar maintenance? Something I don't think many typical users know about, since such equipment is thrown away....

    Cool? Ranking DIY
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    About Author
    p.kaczmarek2
    Moderator Smart Home  
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    p.kaczmarek2 wrote 11884 posts with rating 9961, helped 569 times. Been with us since 2014 year.
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  • #2 21146666
    E8600
    Level 41  
    p.kaczmarek2 wrote:
    Something few typical users probably know about it, since such equipment is thrown away...

    People buy inkjet printers because they are cheap, unfortunately such a printer has to print something at least once a month, because the head dries up, and no one remembers about it, so these are the effects.
    I wonder how many pages this printer has already printed? It is worth printing out a report and checking. I brought an HP with an automatic document feeder for scanning in very good condition and it printed over 15,000 pages. Brother people buy to print a lot because the inks are cheap so it's possible that the problems with the paper download will return.
  • #3 21146994
    speedy9
    Helpful for users  
    E8600 wrote:
    this printer has to print something at least once a month because the head will dry up
    .
    Not if it is permanently connected to the power supply. It takes care of itself to ensure that the head does not dry out.
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  • #4 21147377
    bobojad
    Level 14  
    Can I have the recipe for the cleaning mixture that is added to the syringe? I also have a similar brother that prints blue and I think it would be worth trying to save it. Thank you for your help.
  • #5 21147722
    pawlo444444
    Level 9  
    I once tried to resurrect a Brother DCP-385C. The printer had been with us, not to lie, for at least 12 years. However, due to the fact that it had not been used for some time and had been unplugged from the mains (because it liked to clean itself at 3 o'clock at night), it stopped printing properly after a while.

    I bought this head cleaning kit and at first it actually worked. I didn't manage to clean all the nozzles, but it started printing normally, apart from the fact that it had to work on the most accurate settings because it couldn't print quickly (it smudged the printouts).

    After a couple of months I found that it stopped printing again, so I decided to clean the head again. It took much less time, and by the third time I could not get it to work properly. So recently I bought a cheaper Epson Eco tank L3250 and overall I'm happy, because basically I can do what I did in that one + wi-fi option, and to be honest after all this time I spent about 800zl on a new printer.

    Sometimes it would seem logical to try and resurrect such a printer, before throwing it away, but often people don't have the knowledge or inclination to play such games. In particular, as a society, we have become accustomed to buying new equipment when something breaks down.

    In my case, the exchange of the device had only advantages, because not only did I get similar parameters of a printer and scanner, but I also have a wi-fi option, which I missed in the previous printer, as well as the issue of inks, where here you do not have to play with original cartridges, where in the previous one there were quite cheap replacements, but here even the original ones not only last much longer, but are definitely cheaper than the previous generation.
  • #6 21147758
    keseszel
    Level 26  
    I cleaned a Canon out of the trash like this. It was reasonably successful, but still went for demolition. Now I see that fewer and fewer such devices are being thrown away.
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  • #7 21148289
    andrzejlisek
    Level 31  
    I have a Brother MFC-J430W printer, which I use as just a scanner, as it has big problems with printing. For printing I have an HP LaserJet 1022, I hardly ever need colour printing, I use a photocopying service if I need to, and that's once every few years anyway, this fact speaks for itself.

    Initially, I decided to use the Brother MFC-J430W as a colour printer when needed and also to remember to do some small print using all colours once a week.

    Even the test page generates the same as the OP's, except that these grids are hole-punched. I once bought on All... a similar cleaning kit with a syringe. I ran the cleaning function on my printer a few times, which didn't help much, and after using the concoction it was supposedly better, the black was reasonably good (there were maybe one or two holes on the test page with the grille), and the colours were so-so, there were more holes. I used a total of two sets of ink cartridges just for repeated cleaning and testing, and still the end result was not satisfactory. Colour printing came out ragged, only black came out okay, but for black printing, I have an HP LaserJet 1022, which works fine, I replace the toner once every few years, and this printer, unlike inkjets, doesn't require regular use to keep it in good working order.

    Does my Brother MFC-J430W printer still have a chance of coming back to life? Maybe all I need to do is buy another cleaning kit? Which one? What to look at?

    I attach the original and printed image. I printed at 150dpi and scanned at 300dpi. It is rather difficult to accept the print quality obtained and this was just after cleaning, better prints could not be obtained.

    Six rectangles in primary colors: red, green, blue, cyan, magenta, and yellow. Test print from Brother MFC-J430W printer with uneven and broken colors. .
  • #8 21148443
    Stanley_P
    Level 28  
    I dealt with the subject of home printers a few years ago when I acquired a small black and white A4 laser printer. I came to the conclusion that at home, a b&w printout was 99.9% sufficient - sometimes a letter to the office, a document, e.g. a copy of the results to the doctor, etc. I then bought a toner for 2000 pages. I bought a toner set for 2,000 pages, the original 500-sheet "starter" is still there, unpacked. I paid around £500-600 for the whole set.
    I recently printed a few pages after a good few months of "downtime". Of course nothing dried up ;) I checked the state of the toner by the way - I have printed about 500 sheets so far. That is, about 100/year. At this rate, I think that sooner the plastics of this printer will crumble and fall apart than I use up toner ;)

    I still have a Canon "photo" combo, at one time 8-10 years ago not the worst class, with an inkjet printer. Like one of the previous posters I only use the scanner anymore. The inks have long since dried up, moreover the cost of the originals was horrendous. I didn't fight it, I bought the aforementioned laser printer.

    Added after 15 [minutes]: .

    keseszel wrote:
    I cleaned the Canon from the trash like this. It was reasonably successful, but still went for demolition. Now I see that fewer and fewer such devices are being thrown away.
    .
    Maybe people have switched to lasers? ;) But maybe more and more is being done electronically and the classic printout of at least letters, forms, applications etc. is no longer so necessary? I can tell for myself - e.g. with my current property manager I deal with everything "paperless", all letters, bills, charges etc. The same applies to agreements with utility providers, tax returns, etc. etc.
  • #9 21148511
    E8600
    Level 41  
    People were forced to buy more printers during the pandemic so they are still fairly fresh equipment.
  • #10 21148797
    Stanley_P
    Level 28  
    @E8600
    Possibly. I don't know the statistics. It seems to me that printers in the home are probably a bit passe these days, as are desktop computers. I'm of course leaving out situations where such equipment is essential, e.g. a powerful "tinkerer" for gaming or advanced processing of something.
  • #11 21149318
    fabians
    Level 14  
    >>21146666 .
    This is why I personally use laser printers. Once on olx I bought a used Ricoch from a company a good few years ago. A large printer but the space for it I have. Nothing better needed (it has a duplex ;) )for home printing e.g. some recipes etc. The cartridge is a capacity of 10,000 pages I think, so for 170PLN I have for many years, when I told the guy I was buying for home he made eyes. As for the lack of colours, if I ever want to print something, I'll go to a printing company with a pdf on a memory stick and they'll print it for me without a problem.
  • #12 21149932
    andrzejlisek
    Level 31  
    fabians wrote:
    The cartridge is a capacity of 10,000 pages I think, so for £170 I have for many years, when I told the guy I was buying for home he made eyes.


    Such a Ricoch or Kodak Minolta new costs as much as 10 ordinary printers with scanner. I used to wonder if, by spending 10 times as much money, you would get a device with at least 5 times the print and scan quality. It's a bit of a joke, but for a lot of money I would expect a certain quality, indeed better than from budget home devices. The fact that you can print on A3 paper, but who needs anything larger than A4, and how often? The ability to "load" several reams of paper at a time and a much larger ink tank is rather a gimmick, because in order to use one ream, i.e. 500 sheets of paper in, say, a month, you have to try really hard.

    I've seen scans from such "machines", but to the eye they didn't look much better than those from a high-end home scanner, and the prints were similar. In fact, it is often a colour printer that makes nice prints, but a colour laser "home" printer also prints slightly worse.
  • #13 21150436
    E8600
    Level 41  
    I once tried to soak a container of ink for a few days in a liquid dedicated to this purpose for printers and I do not recommend it, because they are so aggressive that the coating around the printing nozzles started to come off if you do not care about time, distilled water is safe.
  • #14 21150629
    MiroLord
    Level 26  
    I've had an Epson L486 privately at home for 6 years, Epson L4160 printers with duplex at work, my work one for photos and diplomas A3+ L1800, in the library the oldest one bought in 2015 L365 with fax and document feeder. All work flawlessly, nothing breaks.
  • #15 21152038
    dgolf
    Level 15  
    I've been struggling lately with the HP laser issue, where they've quietly introduced a block on the use of replacement toners after an update. The cost of originals outweighs the purchase of a new machine ;) For that Brother for me no 1 at the moment, especially the refillable ones from bottles. Epson also delivers. The devices have quietly replaced colour lasers in companies and produce so many copies that it is hard to believe. When the head eventually wears out, it is still more cost-effective to buy a new machine than to use a colour laser. Your case was a simple one, someone started to let the stripes go, so they threw it away. But it was so badly clogged that it went with a thinner. In my family, it was hardly used at all, it had stood for probably two years, and unfortunately no amount of thinner applied directly to the hoses could move it. It must be working.
  • #16 21152051
    speedy9
    Helpful for users  
    dgolf wrote:
    Recently I have been struggling with the HP laser issue where they have quietly introduced a block on the use of replacement toner cartridges after an update.
    .
    Have you managed to roll back the firmware version?
  • #17 21152150
    Stanley_P
    Level 28  
    dgolf wrote:
    It has been very little used in my family, it has stood for probably two years and unfortunately no de-icer administered directly into the hoses has moved it. It has to work.
    .
    So that's it, it all depends, as always, on the needs.
    Yesterday I was in one of the electromarkets, I looked at the printers out of curiosity. By the way I think there used to be a whole aisle, now there were barely two shelves. Standing there was a small HP A4 laser printer for 4 hundred, black and white. I don't know if it's the model that requires only original toners anymore. But if printouts are, as they are for me and I think for many users, occasional, about 100 sheets / year, and the starter toner is for 500, we have peace of mind for a few years. And 0 problems with drying up, cleaning, bleeding, etc. So much for the two colours you know - the question is how often more is needed in a domestic (and other) environment.
  • #18 21153330
    efi222
    Level 19  
    Brother inks can be said to be indestructible :D . A prerequisite for their lifespan is, as someone mentioned above, "not switching off" the printer from the power socket. There used to even be a note to that effect in the user manual.
  • #19 21155124
    speedy9
    Helpful for users  
    Stanley_P wrote:
    No and 0 problems with drying up, cleaning, stripping, etc. So much for the two colours you know - the question is how often more is needed in domestic (and other) conditions.
    .
    Case in point. For my parents, just the cheapest laser printer (in their case a Ricoh SP112) is sufficient. I bought it in 2015 (new!) for 145zł. Replacement toner for 1200 pages costs 30-40PLN. However, at home I often print in colour (4 children at school), and it happens to print also on photo paper. On the other hand, when my Brother DCP-395 ran out, I bought an inkjet mainly because of lack of space. A colour laser takes up a lot more of it. I bought an Epson XP-5100 and I have to admit that if it wasn't for the "everlasting" ink cartridges I bought for it and the ink in bottles, financially it looks weak ;) For trivia I'll say that a set of original Epson Ecotank inks in 2021 cost 60zl and now ~150. Recently that's why I bought Activejet ink bottles (45zl/complete).
  • #20 21172644
    keseszel
    Level 26  
    Note that very often old printers do not want to work with the new system. You have to do a lot of fiddling and there are often such half-measures.... One that comes to mind quickly is a Samsung scanner laser I brought from the dumpster. I managed to get printing working, but there was a problem with scanning.
    Native applications didn't work on the new system. This is also a limitation for users

    I currently have some sort of laser on the shelf, I asked for help getting it up and running. I was a bit motivated by this topic to get it off the shelf, as my colour laser weighs about 20kg....
  • #21 21202468
    cdtdsilva
    Level 10  
    >>21146065

    I also did something similar with these old printers. Some have non electronic cartridges which one can top up at home and well, they seem to live forever!

    One little trick with these brothers - One of my printers didn't print correctly. I have found that printing in high quality mode resolves all the issues. I suspect the original inks were thinner and hence better able to flow. The high quality mode is slower, so allows everything to print nicely. So do try this before dooming it, if cleaning didn't work for you.
  • #22 21234848
    dgolf
    Level 15  
    >>21152051 No, managed to reposition chips from other toners for now. It screams to be replaced but prints.

    However, I do not recommend EPSON ECOTANK printers. Less than a year old, printer non-stop on. It prints a lot, mainly in black. And a few days ago, when printing in colour, the print head dried up. What a massacre. On top of that, the rollers are already squeaking. But it's not enough for the printer to be switched on, something needs to be reprinted from time to time. I now add a little cleaning fluid to each colour.

    At home I have an HP Photosmart 5515 - it was bought as a second-hand printer and still prints like new. Sometimes it sits unused for a week and nothing. Cartridges for a few zlotys each on alledrogo, if one doesn't work, you can also reposition the chips. Next to it is a LaserJet 1102W with mega-low-cost toner cartridges.

    To sum up my experience - for the time being only Brother - no customers yet. I recently cleaned a DCP-395CN for the nice ladies from the nursery + replacing the pampers. The machine has been printing and is still running. I recommend this brand.
  • #23 21236130
    speedy9
    Helpful for users  
    dgolf wrote:
    DCP-395CN
    .
    I actually kind of regret getting rid of this one by replacing it with an EPSON XP-5100 (with "perpetual" inks from majfriends). Unfortunately, it had some problem with black printouts. before each printout you had to turn on the head cleaning, and still the quality of the printouts was so-so. But it survived with me for a very long time. It was a really good piece of equipment.
    With EPSON it is fun every now and then because there is a problem with printing any of the colours for example and you have to clean it. I've had it for the third year and the print head has already been cleaned twice.
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  • #24 21237211
    MiroLord
    Level 26  
    And I have an Epson L486 at home, an L1800 at work, 2 L4160s and the longest serving L365 (bought in 2015). They all print flawlessly. I have also recommended Epson to friends and they are very happy.
  • #25 21247666
    kris1966
    Level 18  
    >>21146994 My DCPJ 315W was not cleaning itself. Even though I remembered the prints it started to lose squares slowly and could not be saved. I think it was just slowly dying.
  • #26 21247816
    cdtdsilva
    Level 10  
    >>21237211
    I've always had problems with Epsons print heads eventually clogging and drying and heard the same about canon. Not so much with Brother. They seem to last forever. They can dry if the cartridge gets empty and air gets into the system, but not under regular use.
    HP used to have print heads on the cartridges, so that never happened. But I'm have no idea if that's still the case. We had one at work that failed with some error about the print head, but did last a good 6 years and was printing fine before. Possibly a ribbon cable failure?
  • #27 21248571
    MiroLord
    Level 26  
    Epsons are not suitable for occasional printing due to the head design. It's worth ploughing through some A4 photos once a week, although on my L1800 the head didn't dry up after a 3-week outage while I was on holiday.
  • #28 21406914
    keseszel
    Level 26  
    I will add my "five cents" about printers. In Brother printers, the head fails quite often if they are disconnected from the mains and do not clean themselves. This is a subject I have also dealt with myself. I had a Brother.
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Topic summary

The discussion revolves around troubleshooting and restoring an old Brother printer, which is experiencing issues with paper feeding and potential ink head clogs. Users share their experiences with similar Brother models, emphasizing the importance of regular use to prevent ink drying and clogging. Cleaning techniques, including the use of cleaning kits and homemade solutions, are discussed, with mixed results reported. Some users recommend using high-quality print settings to improve output. Comparisons are made with other brands like HP, Epson, and Canon, highlighting the reliability of Brother printers when maintained properly. The conversation also touches on the shift towards laser printers for home use due to their lower maintenance needs and cost-effectiveness.
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