is printhead refurbishment a real thing?

[Splattgraphics]

Is there any reality to outfits who reclaim printheads? I know there's a lot of vids about clearing clogs and troubleshooting, but I'm more inclined to just send all my saved but failed DX4 heads out at once just to have spares. ---IF there's some consensus about it,
if and who does it, and has a good reputation. Any good experiences out there?

 

[Solventinkjet]

You're probably going to get some conflicting answers. I've been in the printer parts business for almost 20 years now. My opinion is, the closest thing to a refurbed head you will get is a flushed one with a new manifold. It might last a little bit longer but not much. There's devices out there that use sonic cleaning tech and pumps that flush the head but, in my experience, never worked better than simply flushing it with a syringe. If the head is damaged in any way other than just being clogged, there's pretty much no way to recover it. I once saw a guy who said he could repair a delaminated head but I never saw if it worked or not.

Heads fail for many more reasons than clogs though. Deformed and eroded nozzles, jammed piezo crystals, electronic components failing etc. Many of the mechanisms are microscopic. The same tech used to make computer processors is used to make heads. No one without very specialized, expensive equipment would be able to fix a head for less than the cost of a new one.

 

[netsol]

i have a chinese knockoff of the printhead doctor
when asked i always say it is fine for routine maintenance
the problem is, to my thinking, you can't be bothered to take the head out and service it, BEFORE there are obvious problems
once you are CERTAIN there is a defect, it could well be too latel
also, as solvent inkjet has said, heads fail for lots of reasons
it'll be a cold day in hell when you can send your "failed" dx4's out and have functioning heads sent back

if you said your head gave an acceptable nozzle check, but had a tendency to clog, or starve for ink in the middle of a print, POSSIBLY

 

[cornholio]

When i install printers(Roland), i show the menu items. When we come to head wash, i tell them to just call me and be prepared for a big invoice.(Printhead replacement...)
As long as they have jobs waiting in the queue, i tell them they can try it, but it's mostly a waste of time. The same is true for prolonged head soaks. If the captops make a tight seal and the pump is working, there is no need for that. It's just prolonging the time (without making money) to replace a head...

 

[damonCA21]

Generally speaking for solvent heads then no. There are people who sell supposedly refurbished heads. They don't, they clean the outside and may give it a quick flush, but it won't work properly. There is nobody offering a service to guarantee working heads after you send them to them.
Most of the videos you see are from people trying to sell expensive printhead cleaning machines. Strangely none of these people offer a service to clean yours, or sell working refurbished heads, so that tells you how good the cleaners are.
As above you may rescue a head that is generally working IF it is taken off the machine and cleaned straight away, Sending a clogged head somewhere just gives it more times to clog and get worse as it exposed to air all that time and drying out more.

 

[DL Signs]

Band aides... not worth anything as a viable long term replacement, it's still used, has wear & tear, and not really worth much more than a quick temporary short term solution.