Canon i9900 - Printhead dead or bad ink?

[muzicman82]

So after my previous posts regarding my i9900 being dead, I ended up frankensteining a few together from eBay to a whole working i9900. I dropped in a brand new print head and loaded up some new blank carts from MIS Associates. I also use MIS inks.

After printing about 250 pages, my photo cyan and cyan are not printing with all of the nozzles. I have gone through tons of cleaning procedures involving pushing air through with a syringe, soaking in Windex, etc. I finally got more of the nozzles back but here's the thing: If I print a service mode test print where you see a grid pattern, there are random lines missing on the cyan and photo cyan. If I do another print immediately after without cleaning or anything in between, there are different lines missing. So, is that still a symptom of a clogged printhead, or has my ink gone bad? The MIS ink isn't new, but the expiration on the bottles say 2010.

When I used to order ink from WeInk.com (who used Image Specialists inks), they used to tell me that photo cyan and cyan would develop algae formation in the ink after as little as 6 months. Is this true? Or were they trying to get me to replace the ink so I'd buy more?

I guess my questions are:
1. When is a printhead really dead?
2. What signs should I look for that my ink is bad?

 

[mikling]

I am left wondering if the ink-sponge interface is the root of your problem as your symptoms appears to be similar to cartridges not feeding properly.
From my experience the i9900 requires cartridges in good working condition to perform consistently well. Furthermore, if cartridge ink feed systems are not performing to within specs, you are likely to slowly degrade your head to a permanent state of damage.

In my opinion, and many others on this board, the best blanks to use are Canon blanks.... a blank is not a blank is not a blank especially on the i9900.

I would immediately cease using the current blanks, thoroughly clean your printhead including a soak of the nozzles, acquire either a set of real Canon carts new and then see if your print quality is restored. After that I would then search for used real Canon BCI-6 blanks for further refilling.

Also pay attention to the aspect that flushing is more critical when you use the printer with heavy workloads where multiple pages are printed in a batch. This requires a higher ink feed rate than light loads of occasional spot color. In the latter situations you could possibly go years without flushing but in the former situation, flushing may be necessary much sooner. There are many factors involved but printer workload characteristics is a key factor.

 

[muzicman82]

Thanks for the input. I've pretty much only used the empty blanks that MIS Associates sells since I got this printer originally when it was released and have had no problems. To troubleshoot this problem with photo cyan, I just filled up a brand new blank. The other 6 colors work perfectly fine with them. I also had an older printhead laying around, so I cleaned that out and tried, and I get the same results.

Perhaps it's time for a fresh bottle of ink? I could run it through a coffee filter and see if I find any oddities.

 

[tyamada]

I've had algae form in not only the photo cartridges, but also in my cyan cartridge. I went for a long period between using my printer and had the algae grew in my head. The head was a total loss.
I now put some alcohol in my ink, it keeps the algae from growing.
I'm not sure if algae is your problem or you have some other contamination in your ink.
As suggested the problem might be the cartridges you are using. I've never had any problems with OEM or 3rd party cartridges feeding ink.

 

[muzicman82]

The only problem I have with blank cartridges is that after a good amount of printing and only refilling them when the printer reports that ink has run out is that the sponge seems to either dry up or loose capacity. I just try to watch the meters and fill it as soon as it reports low. I liked WeInk because they had 6 month warranty on blanks.

 

[mikling]

My suspicion is that you've permanently cooked your head.

I am going to guess that photo cyan was likely the color that was used at the fastest rate or used the most. It's usually photocyan or photomagenta.

Your indication " that the only problem I have with blank cartridges is that after a good amount of printing and only refilling them when the printer reports that ink has run out is that the sponge seems to either dry up or loose capacity" is a strong sign of sponge surface degradation. This slow degradation has likely caused very slight ink feed problems that were not detected. This will cause a slow and permanent damage to the heaters within the printhead nozzle and subsequent head failure.

I would not be surprised that you print a large amount of pictures continuously at one go and let the printer chug them out.

My guess again is that the character of the sponge within the blank is not ideal or it had required flushing and you did not perform that. If I were a betting man a new head would resolve your problem. But pay attention to the flushing requirements especially on the i9900 whose large wide head with long pathways seem to be less tolerant of poor performing or out of spec ink feed parameters in the cartridges used.

If you print in a style as I had guessed I would suggest you consider an Epson R1400 as your next purchase rather than the Canon line. It's more suited to steadily chugging large print loads out and you don't have to worry about burning heads out because of ink feed etc. The i9900 will give better color and output but it's a sportscar not an endurance machine. Each one has its pros and cons.

 

[muzicman82]

Well, considering I've had this model printer for 3 years, and an S900 for 3 years prior to that, I'll probably keep the printer for the time being. I've been using Image Specialists ink for both with little problem. I think that I might just need to be more conscious of how much ink is in the blanks from now on. I did just realize that MIS has different refill procedures than WeInk did, where MIS has you fill up the sponge with ink before the reservoir.

I've ordered new ink and blanks, and will be getting a new printhead.