Canon i9900 Banding

[mikling]

Grandad35 now that means you printhead will destroyed by long soaking periods for weeks and possibly months? (Sarcastic question) Obviously water based moisture on the printhead is a non issue. What I have found though is that the screws that Canon uses for the printhead assembly is coated steel and it will rust.

I have also found that simple soaking through capillary action is not sufficient to remove some deposits. Even after 8 hours, I can sometimes find colors coming loose even when a soaking had been repeated. I depends on the severity of the clog/buildup.

The use of paper towels on the printhead nozzles should be done with caution. Mick Carlotta and other remanufacturers warn about finding nozzle clogged with tissue fiber as well as human skin cells from people touching the nozzle plates. Thus this would raise an issue about soaking upon a paper towel.

It appears that some may think that my soaking means total immersion of the printhead assembly. Well this is not what I meant. I meant immersion of the nozzle plate assembly only.

In fact, the method I use is the following. Using a small tray I put a couple of elastic bands down so that it supports the printhead assembly on either side. I then place the assembly with the nozzle plate facing down but SUSPENDED from the bottom of the tray. I then put water into the tray until it covers the nozzle plate. Only the nozzle plates are immersed and there is no risk of forcing tissue fibers into the nozzles. This is totally safe and the greater volume of the water as well as free movement of the diluted ink solution allows better clearing abilities. All the electronics are suspended above the water line.

I just couldn't imagine my use of soak to be taken as total immersion.

 

[ghwellsjr]

Thanks, guys for elaborating. Here's my bad experience that lead me to conclude that water could destroy the electronics. Back when I was a real novice, I had a print head that was clogged and I soaked it in a bunch of stuff including water, alcohol, ammonia, and vinegar, (not all together, of course) and nothing cleared it. After the last soaking with vinegar (for several days), I washed the entire print head with water and then blew it dry. When I put it in the printer, it would not recognize it, even after several days. I thought the water killed the electronics, but it probably was the vinegar.

Now, I find that Windex is good to use as well as the commercially available head cleaning solutions. I made some cleaning cartridges for this purpose. But I never let any liquid get on any part of the electronics.

My last clog was in a printer I bought on eBay (which stated it had a clogged head). I soaked the bottom of the print head in Windex but it didn't clear it. I left it soaking for several more days, until all the Windex had evaporated, and I haven't tried it again. Some day, when I get done with my income taxes and a lot of other things, I may give it another try. I'll report back.

 

[thunnus]

An update... I think that my printhead is toast. I tried a careful warm water flush of the printhead nozzle until no visible ink was left in either the nozzle end or the pick up discs. Dried it out, snapped it back in, ran a clean cycle, and using my OEM Canon carts, I got pretty much the exact same pattern on the nozzle check as posted previously. Banding in the black, cyan, magenta and yellow in the same locations. If there was ANY improvement in the nozzle check image after any of my cleaning attempts, I think I'd hold out hope and continue with the cleaning but it seems to me that some permanent damage has been done. I ordered a new printhead off of EBay. Hopefully the new head gets me up and running again.

I admit that I am an "ignorant" user. I did not carefully monitor my large print job as it was cranking out page after page. I was a bad boy and elected to watch UCLA/Florida game with friends. I was unaware that printing with a clog might permanently damage my printhead and by the time I noticed anything amiss, the damage was done. My mistake and some lessons learned.

Thanks again to all of you that replied. I appreciate all of the knowledge here.