Long Term Storage of Inkjet Printers

[Hermit]

Hi

I am going for a travel of three months. I have two Canon inkjet printers Canon Pixma IP4200 and IP1600
As I am not using the printer for such a long period what is the best way to prevent clogging of printhead?
Is there a method so that the ink does not dry ourt and clg the head?
Also How to store half finished catridges?
Last year I left my Canon S820 without much thinking for three months and after I came back I could not print black at all only color was possible.( I was using non standard ink in it although).
Both these printers I use original canon ink.
Any uggestions are welcome
Thanks

 

[Lilla]

A similar question was asked in the MIS forum here:
Long-term storage of a printer..., How to prepare a printer for storage. and is shown below...

QUESTION: I have an older epson (a Stylus Color 760, which prints pretty good B/W images), but need to put it into storage for at least one year. Can anyone recommend good procedures for "mothballing" this printer, to ensure that it has the best chance of printing again when I get back to use it? How to keep the ink from drying up in the printheads? Et cetera?
Thanks and best regards,
Dave Keasey

ANSWER from MIS Admin: Your best bet is to put a set of MIS Cleaning cartridges in the printer, run a couple of cleaning cycles, print our purge pattern until you don't see any ink on the paper, then unplug the printer and store it. The Cleaning Solution should prevent any dry ink from accumulating in the print head and keep everything nice and clean.

While the post above is about an Epson printer it sounds like it might also work for Canon printers. MIS sells Cleaning cartridges for Epson printers but not for Canon printers. Thus, you would need to make your own Cleaning Cartridges for your Canon printer.

MIS (inksupply.com) sells the "Cleaning Solution" used in their MIS Cleaning Cartridges and empties (if you need them) separately. You could post your question in their forum and see what they recommend for a Canon printer. If you do, please post back and let us know what they say.

CompuBiz (inkjetsaver.com) sells Cleaning Solvent and empties; they also sell Cleaning Kits that include everything needed.

I wonder if one could use Windex (original formula with Ammonia D) or a home made cleaning solution instead of MIS Cleaning Solution to do this procedure?

Just a thought,
Lilla

 

[Lilla]

I came across a similar question with two answers buried in another thread, and decided to add them to this thread...

QUESTION posted here as shown below...

At times the other pursuits of my life keeps me away from using my Canon Inkjet printers for a while. Print Head can be removed and the cartridges could be installed "outside of the printer" for storage in say a TupperWare container with wet paper towels to create a "Humidor" (like for Cigars) for our purposes. I am thinking about doing this because I am fighting a clogged head now with my i560 which has the same printhead as a IP3000. What do you think about a "Humidor"? Maybe someone already does this, I would not be surprised.
Last edited by modeler (06-15-2005 14:27:45)

ANSWER posted here as shown below...

Modeler, I've been doing this [storing cartridges in Tupperware container with moist paper towels] for several months. Others expressed concerns about mold/fungus/etc. growing in the moist atmosphere, so I started adding a little rubbing alcohol along with the water just in case.

What do you do about your print head while it is in storage? You almost guarantee a clog if it is stored full of ink. Both new and replacement heads are shipped in a sealed package with the ink channels/nozzles filled with a clear liquid to prevent them from drying out. I flush my spare head with water, then compressed air, and store it in a similar container with the head sitting on a folded paper towel soaked with print head cleaning solution.

ANSWER posted here as shown below...

Modeler, I filled empty cartridges with a 50/50 mix of windex and alcohol and a few drops of ink. I then run a few deep cleaning and leave them in until I need to reuse the printer. Since I do that, I have not experienced any clog. That may be just coincidence but it works for me.

 

[Nifty]

Adding this to the FAQ's! Great summary of information Lilla!!!

 

[retriedman]

Are you using windex with out ammonia in your solution mix/cartridge to clean your print heads? If you windex contains ammonia how's the plastic cartridge/internal parts holding up to the chemicals?

 

[Tin Ho]

ANSWER from MIS Admin: Your best bet is to put a set of MIS Cleaning cartridges in the printer, run a couple of cleaning cycles, print our purge pattern until you don't see any ink on the paper, then unplug the printer and store it. The Cleaning Solution should prevent any dry ink from accumulating in the print head and keep everything nice and clean.

A colleague brought to me an ip6000 after it was in storage for something like 6 months using MIS method with home made cleaning cartridges. The printer is pretty dead right now. MIS method does not protect the print head. The MIS method does not take into consideration that there is still lots of waste ink right beneath the print head where the print head resets on when the printer is shut down and put into storage. The cleaning cartridges protect the print head from drying out from the upper side. But waste ink will seep into the nozzles from the bottom still. 6 months later the waste ink is found in the cleaning cartridges. It has entered through the nozzles and traveled upward to the sponges of the cleaning cartridges. The print head is completely plugged up and I fail to clean it with all known cleaning methods and days and nights of soaking with no success.

 

[fotofreek]

If the windex without ammonia is the so-called dripless type i would guess that it has other ingredients that increase viscosity. The original windex with ammonia has just a trace of ammonia and doesn't seem to harm the printhead or other parts at all.

 

[embguy]

ANSWER from MIS Admin: Your best bet is to put a set of MIS Cleaning cartridges in the printer, run a couple of cleaning cycles, print our purge pattern until you don't see any ink on the paper, then unplug the printer and store it. The Cleaning Solution should prevent any dry ink from accumulating in the print head and keep everything nice and clean.

A colleague brought to me an ip6000 after it was in storage for something like 6 months using MIS method with home made cleaning cartridges. The printer is pretty dead right now. MIS method does not protect the print head. The MIS method does not take into consideration that there is still lots of waste ink right beneath the print head where the print head resets on when the printer is shut down and put into storage. The cleaning cartridges protect the print head from drying out from the upper side. But waste ink will seep into the nozzles from the bottom still. 6 months later the waste ink is found in the cleaning cartridges. It has entered through the nozzles and traveled upward to the sponges of the cleaning cartridges. The print head is completely plugged up and I fail to clean it with all known cleaning methods and days and nights of soaking with no success.

MIS method should work if the surge pads were cleaned with cleaning solution or Windex. Flood the purge pads with Windex before each cleaning cycle. By the time the nozzle test shows no traces of ink, the purge pads will be clean too. The pads will be white for Canon inkjet. This added procedure will also clean the purge system before storage. No ink left over to move up the nozzle. The purge outlet tube should be clean without ink left over to clog the tube. The purge system is the most important component to prime the printhead with ink when you decided to take your printer out of storage.

 

[mrelmo]

i assume that the purge pads are directly under the print head when parked 1 is rectangular and the other is square, how hard is it to replace the pads on a ip4200 with new pads (and how much do they cost) when a person returns to put the printer in service you could pull the new pads and always have a set of "out of service" pads

 

[embguy]

i assume that the purge pads are directly under the print head when parked 1 is rectangular and the other is square, how hard is it to replace the pads on a ip4200 with new pads (and how much do they cost) when a person returns to put the printer in service you could pull the new pads and always have a set of "out of service" pads

Yes, the purge pads are those under the print head. I removed these pads from i550 easily. My iP4500 has similar design. I took them out and cleaned them with water. No need to buy spare pads. I think cleaning the printhead is not enough if the purge system is clogged.