Cyan not printing properly

[asaifa]

Hi,
I have a fairly new IP8750 (IP8720 in the US), which was going well, untill the cyan ran dry. I was a bit late noticing, by which time the cyan in the sky came out striped.
I have since done many nozzle-cleans, both superficial and 'deep cleaning' and I have soaked the printhead in water overnight twice.
When i print out the 'nozzle check pattern' it is the lightest cyan that shows the stripes. The darker cyan bars look pretty good, although I can't be sure that they have no stripes at all. But the light cyan does not show a solid colour but has some thin white stripes.
Any suggestions will be welcome.
Thanks,
Anton

 

[Łukasz]

Hi,

only one question - whether the Cyan ink cartridge that runs out during printing, was the original (OEM), never refilled?

Ł.

 

[asaifa]

It was not the original. It was bought from Inkexpress in the UK, a well-regarded company, from what I have gathered in the different forums.

 

[The Hat]

If you have run out of ink while doing a print then that’s usually not to disastrous but if you have cleaned the print head and didn’t thoroughly dry it before re-installing that can have other issues.

Post the nozzle check you got after installing the replacement cartridge and then the nozzle check after you did the external cleaning.

I don’t know where you got the advice or assurance from that Inkexpress sold good quality inks, because you were misinformed, it’s just coloured universal water at best, sorry..

 

[asaifa]

Hi, I've got a picture of the nozzle check. There is no difference between the check before and after the cleaning. It is subtle but on the photographs it looks like every other line is missing.

You can see in the first image that there are very slight lines in the dark cyan but many more in the light cyan. In the photograph (on the right) the sky has this stripe pattern, horizontally printed.
Thanks for helping me figure out what is going on ....

 

[The Hat]

What you need to do is to remove the print head and soak in warm water and washing liquid (Fairy) or similar to a depth of 5 cm for a couple of days.

Then remove it and rinse it with water and leave to thoroughly dry in a warm place for several hours, only then put it back into your printer.

Before you install the cartridges put a couple of drops of Windex (Window cleaner, W5 from Lidl ) then put in the cartridges and run one deep clean followed by a nozzle check.

If the nozzle check is still poor leave the printer to stand for an hour or so then try a normal head clean and another nozzle check, never be tempted to run any test prints till you get a good nozzle..

 

[asaifa]

Thanks, The Hat!
I will do exactly as you say.
Concerning Inkexpress, they do have many satisfied customers here in the UK. So is there something I am missing? If the cause of the problem is the ink, I will want to change supplier....

 

[The Hat]

The causes of your problems may be many, like your maintenance routine for instance or your ink even the cartridges but I can’t blame either one of them because I don’t really know, but just stop and think for a moment.

If you can get a complete set of 6 cartridges for £25 with free delivery then ask yourself what exactly I am buying, the same set of OEM’s will cost at least £70 + P&P.

On the other hand if you were to purchase good quality inks and refillable cartridges that would set you back twice as much as you paid for your current setup, can you see the difference !