clean the print head of mx860

[BostonFern]

The nozzle check of my MX860 shows a lot of broken grids for PGBK. I refilled the cartridge with dye black ink and it didn't improve much. So I soaked the print head in original windex for 24 hours, with additional water to replenish the evaporated solution. Now, what should I do? Should I let the print head air dry by waiting for a long time, or should I use some device to dry it? Is there any easy way I can ensure the nozzle are unclogged before I put the print head back to the printer?

 

[The Hat]

The best solution for drying the print head is just to leave it somewhere nice and warm overnight,
Then pop it back into your printer with the cartridges and run a normal head clean follow that with a nozzle check.

If it doesnt look great (Perfect) do another head clean but this time only on the black side and do another nozzle check
then compare them both together with the one from your previous print-out,
you should see a marked improvement.

So lets hope there is and your print head is back to printing normal again..

 

[BostonFern]

I had the print head sit for 12 hours. Put it back to printer and did a deep cleaning of PGBK by mistake, then a nozzle check. Then I did a regular cleaning of all colors and a nozzle check. This is what I observe.

1. Both nozzle checks show horizontal strips with magenta, while it was normal before head cleaning.

2. Both PGBK grids still have many bars missing, although they show definite improvement from before.

3. Both PGBK grids are not quite the same, ie, bars missing at different places. Before head cleaning, these PGBK grids were almost identical.

Can somebody explain these?

BTW, my cyan is completely empty. I don't really need it because I print black-and-white. But I do wonder whether it's a good idea to leave it empty.

 

[The Hat]

It seems you getting some improvement in you nozzle checks but if you could post the last two for us to study,
that way we can give you a better detailed answer.

It is not a good idea at all to be running your printer with no cyan ink in the cartridge,
that can lead to further complication in the print head,
besides whether youre printing in B&W or not the printer does use and need the cyan ink to print some B&W images,
or even if its only for daily maintenance it still needs it.

If you have been printing for some time without cyan ink installed then I am afraid
your print head is definitely fried and totally useless for any colour work..

 

[BostonFern]

Thanks for the warning. I currently have a lot of black ink and can refill a black cartridge and put it in the place for Cyan. I suppose this will prevent the print head from deteriorating, right? A more wild idea - What if I fill the cyan cartridge with water?

 

[PeterBJ]

If the black refill ink is dye black AKA photo black it will not damage the print head. But if your black refill ink is pigment black AKA text black it will clog the cyan nozzles in the print head.

Canon print heads are actually two print heads in one. One section uses dye inks for colors, the dye ink section has fine nozzles, that would be clogged by pigment particles. The other section uses pigment black for text printing. The nozzles for pigment black are much wider than the nozzles for dye inks, to avoid clogging.

Dye ink is much more than a dye dissolved in water. Additives are used to adjust properties like viscosity and surface tension etc., so water is not suitable as an ink substitute. But using water may be better than running the print head dry.

I would recommend refilling the cyan cartridge with a proper cyan refill ink.

 

[The Hat]

If the black refill ink is dye black AKA photo black it will not damage the print head.
But using water may be better than running the print head dry.

I would recommend refilling the cyan cartridge with a proper cyan refill ink.

No I reckon the photo black will do the job much better than water,
besides he has to use up all of the black ink somehow.

 

[BostonFern]

Right now I'm not using any pigmented ink. Even PGBK cartridge is filled with dye black ink. Sounds like I can go ahead and put a black dye ink cartridge in the place for cyan.

 

[PeterBJ]

The black dye ink will do no harm to your printhead. It is also OK to use dye ink instead of pigment ink, but pigment ink should not be used instead of dye ink. Should you decide to start using colors again, I think a few printhead cleanings from the maintenance tab will clear the printhead of black dye ink.

 

[The Hat]

There is just one thing that has been over looked here,
youll have to put the dye black ink into your cyan cartridge
or swap over the cyan chip to a spare dye black cartridge for this to work..