How to Clean Print Heads and Fix Banding in Printer Output

We've all been there. You haven't used the printer in a couple of weeks, you need it for something important, and out comes a page that looks like it's been printed through a venetian blind. Streaks, gaps, faded patches — classic blocked print head stuff.

Here's the thing though: nine times out of ten you don't need a new printer, and you don't even need a new cartridge. You just need to know what you're doing. So let's get into it.

If you're also getting weird colour shifts alongside the streaking, have a read of our printer colour management guide once you've sorted the head — sometimes it's two separate issues happening at once.

Why Does This Happen?

Inkjet nozzles are tiny. We're talking microscopic holes. When a printer sits unused for a week or two, the ink near those nozzles dries out and blocks them up. The result? Ink can't get through properly, so you get gaps and streaks on the page.

Pigment-based inks — the kind used in most document printers — are worse for this than dye-based inks because the solid particles in them settle and harden faster. Doesn't mean dye-based is immune though. Leave any inkjet sitting long enough and you'll have a problem.

There's also another culprit that gets mistaken for a blocked head: misalignment. If the bands on your page appear at very regular intervals and are consistent across the whole page, that's more likely an alignment issue than a blockage. We've got a separate guide on fixing print head alignment if that sounds more like your problem.

Step 1 — Print a Nozzle Check First

Don't start cleaning anything yet. First, print a nozzle check pattern — this is a diagnostic page that fires every nozzle in order so you can see exactly what's blocked and what isn't.

How to get to it:

• Epson: Maintenance > Nozzle Check (driver panel or LCD)
• Canon: Driver Maintenance tab > Print Head Nozzle Check Pattern
• HP: Printer Software > Printer Maintenance > Print Quality Diagnostic
• Brother: Machine menu > Ink > Test Print > Print Quality

Look at the result. Gaps in a colour row? Partial blockage. A whole colour missing entirely? More serious blockage, but still fixable. Take a photo of it — you'll want to compare after cleaning.

Step 2 — Use the Built-In Cleaning Cycle

This is always the first thing to try. Every inkjet printer has a maintenance cleaning function built in. It pushes ink through the nozzles under pressure to shift whatever's blocking them. Takes about 3–5 minutes.

Run one cycle, then print another nozzle check. Most of the time a light blockage clears on the first or second pass.

One thing — don't just keep hammering the cleaning cycle over and over. Every pass uses ink and adds wear to the pump. If two or three cycles haven't made a difference, the automated approach isn't going to crack it. That's when you go manual.

Pairing occasional cleaning cycles with a regular maintenance routine is the best way to stop blockages developing in the first place — our monthly printer maintenance checklist takes about 15 minutes and covers everything you need.

Step 3 — Manual Print Head Cleaning

Right, so the automated cleaning hasn't shifted it. Don't panic — this is very common with pigment inks or printers that have been sitting for a while. Manual cleaning means getting the head out (on printers where that's possible) and soaking or flushing the nozzle plate directly.

What You'll Need

• Lint-free cloths or coffee filters (not kitchen roll — it leaves fibres)
• Distilled water or a proper print head cleaning solution
• A shallow dish or saucer
• Nitrile gloves (ink stains, trust us)

Don't use tap water. The minerals in it make things worse, not better.

The Soak Method

This is for printers with removable heads — many Epson and Canon models have these.

1. Pour a small amount of cleaning solution into a shallow dish — just enough to cover the nozzle plate by a couple of millimetres
2. Sit the print head nozzle-side down in the solution
3. Leave it. 30 minutes for a moderate blockage, up to 8–12 hours for something that's really dried out
4. After soaking, blot the nozzle plate gently against a clean lint-free cloth — straight down, don't wipe
5. Reinstall and run one automated cleaning cycle to flush any remaining residue

The Flush Method

For printers where the head is built into the cartridge — most HP models work this way.

1. Dampen a lint-free cloth with cleaning solution
2. Press the cartridge nozzle-side down onto the cloth with gentle pressure for about 30 seconds
3. You should see ink bleeding into the cloth — that's the solution moving through the channels, which is what you want
4. Move to a fresh section of cloth and repeat until the residue coming through looks clean
5. Let it air dry for 10 minutes before reinstalling

For more on smearing, feathering, and other output problems that can appear alongside a blockage, have a look at our guide to common inkjet print quality problems.

Step 4 — What If It's Definitely Banding, Not a Blockage?

OK so you've run the nozzle check and it looks clean. The bands are still there. What now?

Check Your Alignment

Run the alignment utility. Bi-directional alignment drift — where the head fires on the return pass slightly out of time with the forward pass — causes a very specific banding effect. Text looks doubled or shadowed, fine lines look fuzzy. The fix is straightforward: run the alignment tool from your maintenance menu.

Try Uni-Directional Mode

Flick the driver to uni-directional mode as a test. This makes the head only fire on one pass direction instead of both, which immediately eliminates any bi-directional timing issue. If the banding disappears, that confirms alignment is the problem. It will slow your print speed down, but it tells you exactly what you're dealing with.

Check the Paper Feed Rollers

Banding that appears at a very regular fixed interval — say every 20–25mm — is often the paper feed rollers, not the head at all. Dirty or worn rollers let the paper slip slightly between each carriage pass, and that slip shows up as a consistent band. Run the roller cleaning function from the maintenance menu. Our printer troubleshooting hub goes into this in more detail.

Step 5 — Stopping It Happening Again

Bit of ongoing housekeeping goes a long way here.

Print at least once a week. Even just a full-colour test page keeps ink flowing and stops it drying in the nozzles. Easy.

Don't let cartridges run to empty. Below about 15%, you're pulling air through the nozzle feed — same symptoms as a blockage.

Keep the printer covered. A simple dust cover makes a real difference. Dust on the carriage and nozzle plate is a common but underrated cause of recurring blockages.

Store paper properly. Paper that's absorbed moisture warps slightly and feeds unevenly, which causes banding completely unrelated to the head. Keep opened reams sealed.

When to Call It

Some blockages don't respond to home cleaning — usually in larger format machines or very old printers where the head has genuinely dried solid. Signs it's time to look at repair or replacement:

• A complete colour channel still missing after multiple soaks and cleaning cycles
• The printer throwing a head error code rather than a print quality issue
• Visible physical damage to the nozzle plate

At that stage, keep running automated cleaning cycles isn't helping and is draining your waste ink pad toward the point where many Epson and Canon models throw a permanent service error. Our guide on whether to repair or replace your printer will help you work out whether it's worth fixing.

Quick Fault Finder

Work through it in order, and most problems sort themselves out without spending a penny on new hardware.