Another Canon Printhead Bites The Dust?

Having gently flushed the print head red channel many times, it has not improved the nozzle check printout.

I found the 5mm PVC tubing useful in 6 inch lengths to provide a column of cleaning solvent (windex or W5 + 1% ammonia) for a slow flush of each channel simultaneously. The 5mm size was a little too large to provide a good tight fit on the input filters, but rapping the end of the tube tightly with PVC adhesive tape, corrected this.

Making up a 20mL syringe with a length of flexible tubing to fit the input filter, proved to be the best way to visually see that the nozzles were unblocked. Clamping the print head upside down and applying gentle pressure to the syringe filled with W5 cleaning solvent, it was possible to see fluid rising from the relevant nozzles and then being drained back with a slight vacuum applied.

If the nozzle test is to be believed, the inference is that some of the red channel nozzle circuit elements have failed, without any physical evidence of a clog or other cause. The red channel is one of the least used and until recently functioned normally in nozzle tests. One wonders whether Canon print heads are as durable as they should be for such an expensive item.

The only consolation is that the printer can perform without the red channel working by avoiding paper settings of Paper Pro II and Paper Pro Platinum and even using these paper modes in most cases there is no visible loss.

Hi Ian,

It’s a real bummer when your print head fails for no fault of your own, when you get your patience back then try soaking it in 2 cm of Fairy liquid and warm water, you have nothing to lose so try it for 24 hours, it may well work but atleast you tried..

Fairy liquid is good stuff. I was even wondering about auto dishwasher detergent.

Seeing where you are, why not Leprechaun liquid?

To be honest, I am certain the ink is flowing through, the only question is the microscopic construction of the nozzles, is it possible that the heating element is masked by some residue, still allowing ink to flow? I think if it was, then the element itself would be likely to fail from overheating. May be that is what is going on? Perhaps we should give all print heads a regular dose of Epsom Salts!

It’s quite possible that some of the nozzles are burned out so soaking the print head in the washing up liquid will tell you one way or the other, at least then you’ll know, anyway that red ink is used so little you can go using the print head indefinitely.

I would never recommend using dishwasher detergent because it’s just too darn harsh, besides fairy is much kinder to your hands..

The problem with dishwasher detergents is that the alkalis used are solids that dissolve in water. If the dishwasher solution is not washed completely away the solid alkali that is conductive can cause leakage currents that burn out the print head and maybe the logic board as well. This has happened to me: http://www.printerknowledge.com/thr...ing-electronic-failure.8147/page-2#post-63204

Ammonia or more correct Ammonium Hydroxide solution is a much better alkali for print head cleaning solutions, as it decomposes into ammonia gas and water. After the water has evaporated there are no conductive residues.

Peter, I even tried Lidl W5 glass cleaner with 5% ammonia, instead of 1%, briefly on the red channel, made no detectable difference to the problem. (That was careless of me, I should have said 30% of 15%, that is roughly 5% ammonia, not 30%)

Be careful with with higher concentrations of ammonia than the 1% recommended by pharmacist. In higher concentrations and especially if heated ammonia becomes very aggressive, and can cause corrosion and even break down epoxy bonds in the print head.

Despite the fact that the printhead is producing acceptable prints, with the doubtful red, I decided to buy a replacement from @PeterBJ's advised source, CRC. In reserve for the future.

I will also follow @The Hat's advice and try a prolonged soak, when I can.

I wonder if we can persuade Lidl or Aldi to stock the Canon Pro100 for sale at $99 or £61 or 74€. I think they might sell quite a lot.

Emulator said:

I wonder if we can persuade Lidl or Aldi to stock the Canon Pro100 for sale at $99 or £61 or 74€. I think they might sell quite a lot.

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That would be great!

Tudor said:

That would be great!

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I wonder does Mr. Lidl or Mr, Aldi reads this forum, I wish they would..