Canon Pro pigment printers nearly clog proof ? I begin to differ.

[Artur5]

Last two days I’ve been dealing with an stubborn clog in the magenta channel of my Pro10s.
The printer had been idle for only three days. I printed something on Monday and everything was fine. Yesterday, before a small print job I decided to do a nozzle check, just in case.. and damn it, the lower part of the magenta stripe showed a massive clog A regular cleaning didn’t help a bit, nor a deep cleaning. No improvement at all.
So I decided to clean the printhead outside the printer. Something that I don’t like at all. Classical procedure: printhead in a bowl with cleaning fluid; paper towels below the nozzles and more paper towels soaked in cleaning liquid covering the inlet ports.
After three-four hours I reinstalled the printhead and a nozzle test revealed a very small improvement. This encouraged me to repeat it but, this time, leaving it overnight. This morning I checked again and improvement was clear. Maybe 60% of the missing nozzles were back. See the pictures below: the one at left after unsuccessful in-printer cleanings. Centre picture after overnight soaking.

Last resource to use was a magenta cartridge filled with cleaning solution and that did the trick. Just installing it the printer did an autopurge, and then I printed several nozzle tests. In the first one the magenta stripe was very faint and in the others totally blank as expected. Finally, after leaving it resting a couple of hours, I've replaced the cleaning cart with a normal one and this time all the nozzles were back in town. See picture at right.
Naturally, after cleanings, deep cleanings and removing/reinstalling the printhead two times, a lot of ink went down the waste pads. Looking at the levels now, possibly 30 or 40 ml. Even for third party ink, the cost wasn’t negligible.

I have two explain that last weekend and up to Tuesday we had very dry weather. It happens here when the Northwest wind blows hard. Outdoors, humidity went from 45% to barely 20% in a few hours. It didn’t last long and inside the house, it wasn’t so dry but I suppose that this played a role in the clog story. Nevertheless, with my Pro9000 I never had a clog after only 3 days of leaving it idle, no matter the humidity. If you ask me why the magenta clogged while the other colors didn’t, who knows ?

This Pro10s was purchased at Amazon four months ago. If needed, I expect that they would have honored the warranty, but it’s a real PITA to ship this massive beast and that would mean to be without a printer for weeks maybe. I couldn’t call them to say that the printer was fine and I just needed a replacement printhead..

To end this tale, rest assured that from now on I’m running a nozzle test every other day, if not daily.

 

[stratman]

Congratulations on resolving the issue.

Classical procedure: ... more paper towels soaked in cleaning liquid covering the inlet ports.

Covering the print head's ink inlet ports with paper towels has not been the classical procedure as far as I know. Where did you get this method? Did you not fill the container with your chosen soaking solution enough to cover the ink inlet ports? What solution did you use?

 

[The Hat]

Congratulation on getting the print head up and running properly again, it’s good you caught it in time and it didn’t cause any lasting damage, but as to why you had the problem in only one nozzle channel is not very clear.

So, I reckon your weather theory is not very plausible, otherwise many of the other channels would have also clogged, whatever cause this problem is still there and may strike again so please be vigilant and keep a good watch on it.

When you turn on your printer from its next leave of absence regardless of the duration, try ruining the Ink Quality Maintenance on start-up first before you print a nozzle check, you needn’t worry because it doesn’t waste or use any ink.

A word of caution, filling your cartridge with cleaning fluid is a dangerous practice, because the nozzles need more than just water to stay cool and you may have gotten away with it this time but next time it could be fatal, it’s alright to do that on an Epson but a Canon.

Maybe now might be a good time to think about getting a spare print head, because what happened once can happen again, plus its good to keep a spare for that very rare occasion, and the head and cartridges are not affected by humidity because both remain sealed when parked...

I’m running a nozzle test every other day, if not daily.

Running a nozzle check daily will keep the head clog free, but will use quite a lot of ink too...

 

[Artur5]

Congratulations on resolving the issue.

Covering the print head's ink inlet ports with paper towels has not been the classical procedure as far as I know. Where did you get this method? Did you not fill the container with your chosen soaking solution enough to cover the ink inlet ports? What solution did you use?

I put a long band of paper towels soaked in cleaning fluid covering the ten intake filters on top of the printhead, adding every now and then some cleaning liquid to keep the papers moistened. I didn''t invent this at all. I've read often people doing so.
The liquid in the container covers aprox. the ceramic plate of the printhead, up to 4 mm. maybe. I use a self made cleaning solution made of 20% window cleaner with ammonia; 50% distilled water and 30% of a cleaning fluid sold by the company where I used to buy ink for my Ip4000. ( I suspect it's mainly isoprop. alcohol ). I add some drops of Agepon humectant (still remaining from my old days of "wet" darkroom ).
Neither the proportions nor the components are the most adequate possibly. It's just that time ago I made 1 liter of this concoction, I still have some and seems to work fine.

 

[stratman]

Neither the proportions nor the components are the most adequate possibly.

Well, your clog resolved whatever the proportions and components.

The following questions are not critiques. You method worked. I am trying to understand your thought processes.

Why not have the level of solution in the container above the ink inlets of the print head? What do you think the soaked paper towel above the ink inlets provides better?

What does the Agepon humectant do in your specific situation of a clog in the print head?

 

[Artur5]

Congratulation on getting the print head up and running properly again, it’s good you caught it in time and it didn’t cause any lasting damage, but as to why you had the problem in only one nozzle channel is not very clear.
So, I reckon your weather theory is not very plausible, otherwise many of the other channels would have also clogged, whatever cause this problem is still there and may strike again so please be vigilant and keep a good watch on it.
When you turn on your printer from its next leave of absence regardless of the duration, try ruining the Ink Quality Maintenance on start-up first before you print a nozzle check, you needn’t worry because it doesn’t waste or use any ink.
A word of caution, filling your cartridge with cleaning fluid is a dangerous practice, because the nozzles need more than just water to stay cool and you may have gotten away with it this time but next time it could be fatal, it’s alright to do that on an Epson but a Canon.
Maybe now might be a good time to think about getting a spare print head, because what happened once can happen again, plus its good to keep a spare for that very rare occasion, and the head and cartridges are not affected by humidity because both remain sealed when parked...
Running a nozzle check daily will keep the head clog free, but will use quite a lot of ink too...

A nozzle test wastes very little ink but, of course, they trigger an automated cleaning every 60 hours, Anyway, this is far less ink than when you have to run deep cleanings or remove/reinstall the printhead, which triggers a massive purge on all colors.
I agree that a spare printhead wouldn't hurt but those for the Pro10s aren't precisely cheap at 200 Euros = $230. How many Pro100s can buy people in the USA with this amount ?.
Not quite agreeing when you say that the nozzles remain sealed when parked. Do they really ?. They sit on the wet pads yes, but the ink in those pads may become sticky and cause a nozzle clog if the printer is left for long in a very dry environment. I'm quite sure that people living in Arizona suffers much more from clogs than those living in South East Asia.

 

[The Hat]

You completely missed my point about turning on your printer just to do nozzle checks, yes they do use little or no ink, but that action of turning on the printer will cause it to run a cleaning cycle anyway.

Switching the printer on/off daily, will cause cleaning cycle to occur, not the actual nozzle check, because the printer doesn’t know what you want to print when first turned on and can only anticipate that you wish to print something, so it ready’s itself for that action.

The Pro 10 print head (QY6-0085-000) currently is retailing @ £112.80, so its either buy it now or wait till you need the printer and then the head fails just as you want to print something very important, or they sell out.

The Canon Pro printer range that uses these sealed cartridges are truly remarkable for their ability not to clog, and I’ve had mine for ten years almost trouble free, so any advice I give is from experience and I don’t believe in this mythical 60-hour cleaning cycle, it’s a Feckin joke..

Your printer will run a cleaning cycle anytime it reckons it needs to keep it in perfect working order, and far from wasting ink, its saving you ink by not failing or damaging you print head..

Quiz: - How muck ink will a printer use for cleaning in 2 ½ days when used daily..

Answer: - probably the same amount as when turned on after been unused for 7 days..
P.S. The 60-hour thing is like saying putting cheese in a trap will catch a mouse...

 

[Artur5]

Well, your clog resolved whatever the proportions and components.
The following questions are not critiques. You method worked. I am trying to understand your thought processes.
Why not have the level of solution in the container above the ink inlets of the print head? What do you think the soaked paper towel above the ink inlets provides better?

What does the Agepon humectant do in your specific situation of a clog in the print head?

Don’t ask me... I’m only following advices from other people more knowledgeable. Maybe it helps to circulate the cleaning fluid by capillarity down the internals of the printhead ?. On the other part I don’t think it's very safe to cover the printhead in liquid up to the intake filters for a long period of time. It might damage the electrical contacts or infiltrate beneath the flexible cabling that goes between the contacts and the ceramic plate. Only guessing. If you say that I’m totally wrong, I’ll believe it.
As for the use of the humectant fluid, probably it does very little because, in all likelihood, the window cleaner with ammonia has already tensio-actives. if I had to make more cleaning liquid I wouldn’t use Agepon anymore.

 

[Artur5]

You completely missed my point about turning on your printer just to do nozzle checks, yes they do use little or no ink, but that action of turning on the printer will cause it to run a cleaning cycle anyway.
Switching the printer on/off daily, will cause cleaning cycle to occur, not the actual nozzle check, because the printer doesn’t know what you want to print when first turned on and can only anticipate that you wish to print something, so it ready’s itself for that action.
The Pro 10 print head (QY6-0085-000) currently is retailing @ £112.80, so its either buy it now or wait till you need the printer and then the head fails just as you want to print something very important, or they sell out.
The Canon Pro printer range that uses these sealed cartridges are truly remarkable for their ability not to clog, and I’ve had mine for ten years almost trouble free, so any advice I give is from experience and I don’t believe in this mythical 60-hour cleaning cycle, it’s a Feckin joke..
Your printer will run a cleaning cycle anytime it reckons it needs to keep it in perfect working order, and far from wasting ink, its saving you ink by not failing or damaging you print head..
Quiz: - How muck ink will a printer use for cleaning in 2 ½ days when used daily..
Answer: - probably the same amount as when turned on after been unused for 7 days..
P.S. The 60-hour thing is like saying putting cheese in a trap will catch a mouse...

It’s only natural that if you haven’t had issues ( “almost” you wrote.. ) for ten years with your
‘printing policy’ you may regard me as a paranoiac. Maybe I’m a bit right now, after the clog episode.
I do believe in the fecking 60 hours joke .. but let’s leave this question alone and agree on our disagreement in this matter.

Buying a spare printhead is on my agenda but right now the printer is only 4 months old and covered by the warranty. If the worse happened, I expect (and hope) that Amazon would fix the problem at zero cost. Anyway, if Canon replaced the Pro10s with another model I’d fetch a QY6-0085 at once, before they discontinued it too.

BTW where do you find a QY6-0085 for 112,8pounds ( VAT included ? )
At the French site Eparts.fr they cost now 162.7 Euro + Vat = 195.24 Euro (+ shipping)
Maybe they’ve gone over the top lately with their pricing.

 

[The Hat]

I find your post above very humorous, because I can see you like to agree to disagree and then agree, I being one of the main advises here would always recommend long term soaking of the head right up to the ink inlets in a soapy solution but never in ammonia.

Don’t bank on your warrantee been solid gold, because print head related problems can and will trip the unwary up when it comes to a claim, if Canon get your printer back they’ll know exactly what you have been doing and may not honour your claim...

Try Tasktron Ltd. in the UK for a new print head..
P.S. I do not recognise any of your cleaning methods and could never endorse them, it’s the main reason why I suggested getting a spare head..