Canon Pixma Pro 1 Ink and refill options.

[Beefcake]

Sadly it's going to have to be a phone photo, but it's clear enough to understand what I mean. I noticed it after a print I did that looked like it had banding in the sky. Did the checks, this came up. Cleaning hasn't done anything either, which I doubt it would, as interweb research points this to be an electrical fault.

 

[The Hat]

@Beefcake, I wouldn’t write the head off just yet, leave it to sit overnight and try another head clean on block two in the morning and see what the next nozzle check looks like..

 

[Beefcake]

@The Hat , I'm unable to perform a clean. I have 4 ink tanks that are low, and as soon as I instigate a clean it pops up with the msg that 2 of the tanks needs to be replaced. I hold down the Resume button, but all that does is make the msg go away, it doesn't actually perform a clean thereafter. Then, after it goes away, the option to perform a nozzle check appears to test how the clean went (which, obviously didn't happen). So it seems I might have to buy inks to perform a clean?

 

[stratman]

So it seems I might have to buy inks to perform a clean?

Yes, but, think of it this way... if you are going to buy another print head then you will still need the new cartridges. While you may dump some ink chasing a rainbow, you might be fortunate to find the pot 'o' gold at the other end and not have to buy a new print head.

 

[The Hat]

I'm unable to perform a clean.

@Beefcake, you are getting off on the wrong foot here as to what represents a cleaning cycle, this is what’s I meant by using a standard cleaning cycle and you can preform them without wasting a lot of ink.

There are three types of cleaning cycles on your Pro 1 printer, the first is the standard cleaning cycle (As Explained) and the second is a Deep cleaning cycle and the third is a system clean.

You should only preform the Deep cleaning cycle ONCE when all else fails, and a system clean is not a cleaning cycle at all, it’s used as a last resort to flush out all the internal inks from your system and should be avoided at all costs.

You can still preform a standard cleaning cycle on your printer with the level of ink you have in the low ink tanks, and then run a nozzle check and then compare it and the previous one to see if there is any improvement, your luck you didn’t run the system clean because it wastes 35% of all your ink..

 

[Beefcake]

@Beefcake, you are getting off on the wrong foot here as to what represents a cleaning cycle, this is what’s I meant by using a standard cleaning cycle and you can preform them without wasting a lot of ink.
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There are three types of cleaning cycles on your Pro 1 printer, the first is the standard cleaning cycle (As Explained) and the second is a Deep cleaning cycle and the third is a system clean.

You should only preform the Deep cleaning cycle ONCE when all else fails, and a system clean is not a cleaning cycle at all, it’s used as a last resort to flush out all the internal inks from your system and should be avoided at all costs.

You can still preform a standard cleaning cycle on your printer with the level of ink you have in the low ink tanks, and then run a nozzle check and then compare it and the previous one to see if there is any improvement, your luck you didn’t run the system clean because it wastes 35% of all your ink..

So I've finally come back to this after buying some ink, then finding out that another ink required replacement when I've gone to install it, then buying that ink, then finding another ink requires replacement... 4 separate purchases of ink later, I finally have all ink installed. I did the standard clean as you said, nothing changed. Then performed the Deep clean once, as advised, but nothing has changed still. So it seems like £85 of ink later, my print head is buggered. Any last suggestions before I turn this into a B&W only printer?

I have thought about replacing the ink head totally, and then using only 3rd party ink from thereon. I heard somewhere that it takes months for the ink to pass through, because it mixes around with the current ink in the tubes. Is this true? Or should I really cut my loses and put this down to a print replacement, taking into account the cost of a print head and a whole set of new ink?