Canon MG5320 I fear I may have fubared my printhead

Printer Canon MG5320, just over 3 years old, do a lot of printing on regular paper, pics once in a while.
Currently using CISS from inkproducts.com (purchased Jan. this year) before that was using refillable from same place since purchase of printer, well after the canon ink ran out...
Yesterday the Magenta stopped printing, so I did a regular clean, no love, so I did a couple deep cleans Magenta flowed for a few then stopped again.
I am using a CISS from inksupply.com, interestingly enough it isnt listed on there site anymore, gonna call them tomorrow,
Anywho, I pulled the head, flushed it with hot water, rinsed it with distilled, and dried it, which from I been reading it a bad move, who knew right??? heh

So installed it again, same thing, did a couple deep cleanings again, DOH!! and it worked for a few seconds and quit again, so, like a moron I printed a 4x7 or just magenta, about half way threw it stopped again, printed a nozzle check and got this http://i.imgur.com/8YglaLV.jpg (pgbk dont look so good)

Currently soaking the head in a 8:1 vinegar mix, sitting on my coffee maker that keeps the water hot so it will keep the water warm the head is in.

If this doesnt work, would you recommend a new head, and treat it with love a respect, unlike the current one....

Hi @Slagathor, I was in complete sympathy with you problem till I got to where you said these fatal words “CISS” InkProducts sure do make it look real easy don’t they.

It’s a little bit ironic that your magenta stopped working first but yet it’s the two blacks along with the cyan nozzles that now have the suspected fatal problem.

I would suggest you carry on soaking the print head but in the mean time, source a new head because it looks very dough full that this head is ever going to work properly again for you.

Buying and using the compatible cartridges worked well for you for years, but did you never consider refilling your OEM cartridges as a better and cheaper alternative to purchasing that dreadful CISS.

If you decide to consider refilling then there are lots of posts here detailing the best practices on how to do it properly, you could also get yourself a set of the 220/221 carts that will make refilling so much easier, try here for supplies:- http://www.precisioncolors.com/c5cbref.html

I have a set of OEM's that I was refilling before I got the CISS, also the set of refillables, the OEM chips I had on there decided to stop being recognized and nothing I did would help. I got lazy and didnt want to pull the carts for refilling, hence the CISS. I should have left well enough alone I guess.
I will order the head from fleabay, theres tons on there.
Live and learn.

Put the head back in, did the nozzle check, still looks like crap but all the ink is flowing and text looks fairly good.
Printed some solid colors, looks good for the shape it's in. It'll hold out till the new printhead comes in....

Also cleaned the wipers off, they were so caked with crud it was amazing, I wonder if I had kept an eye on that if this would have even happened....

@Slagathor, I am sorry that the head went west on you so soon, but periodic maintenance does make a big difference as to how long a printer will last.

Because you’re now more aware of the printers needs you tend to keep a watchful eye out for any anomalies that may happen and then take the necessary steps to put these little things right quickly.

You can for instance, preform a nozzle check weekly or even before you start a print run, which will reassure you that your print head is in peek condition, so if your printouts start to look a bit odd later, just stop and correct the issue.

99% of all ink problems start in a refilled cartridge when it fails to deliver sufficient enough ink to the print head and this shows up as poor printouts, you then need to stop printing right away, don’t wait to finish out the page.

The Canon print head relies heavily on ink throughput to keep it from overheating and continuing to print while this is happening will inevitability cause some of the nozzles to fail permentely, nozzles checks are expectable because they use so little ink and are not harmful..

One more thing, I read somewhere I should keep the print quality set to high on everything to help with print head longevity.
Is this a good idea or might have this helped the failure also??

That’s another falsehood, because you can choose your printout quality yourself at anytime, its up to you as to how good your printouts need to be, after all you don’t need high quality for your daily day to day throw away stuff or proofs, it also saves on ink.

There are two ways to extend the life of your print head, one is to extend the drying time of each print and the other is to use Quiet Mode, that has the effect of slowing down the travel rate of the heads during printing, I do in fact use it on all my printers, a great tip given by one of our regular contributors @turbguy..

Thanks for the info

Great information !

Thanks for sharing the Quiet mode and dry time settings.

I learned something new and was able to use the information immediately.

I always find something that will help me improve my printing here

Bill

zing said:

Great information !
Thanks for sharing the Quiet mode and dry time settings.
I learned something new and was able to use the information immediately.
I always find something that will help me improve my printing here
Bill

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Stay tuned in Bill, the entertainment changes here all the time..