Help with Canon Pro9000 II - Clogged head or ink starvation issue?

[FussyBob]

I just can't imagine all the problems people have here refilling OEM CLI-8 carts. In the last two years I have refilled 2 sets of carts, 25-30 times each with ease.

1. I flush out the OEM carts with water, I blow out as much water as possible by mouth over the fill hole, I then purge the remaining water using the paper towel method. I then dry the carts on my oil furance for over a week, the sponges are very dry.

2. I top fill, remove the plastic ball, ream the hole to 5/32" to accept the fill hole silicone plugs.

3. Reset the chip and put on the orange output port clip.

4. Fill the ink chamber to the top, watch the ink level drop as the sponge absorbs the ink completely to the top of the sponge.

5. Seal the vent with Scotch tape, this will stop the sponges from absorbing any more ink at this time.

6. Top off the ink chamber to full.

7. Plug the fill hole.

8. Remove the orange clip, place the output port over the ink bottle, squeeze the cartridge sides at the sponge to get 3-4 drops of ink out at the output port, this prevents overfilling the cartridge (very important).

9. Put orange clip back on done!


Never had any problems at all, no ink leaking, air problems, clogs, etc. with my PRO9000 MK II, I do use OCP ink.

I don't even think about refilling issues anymore, takes me about 15 minutes to refill the 8 cartridges.


Also just a comment here, the sponges are acutally a two level sponge system, the top and bottom sponges have different densities, all my cartridges sponges are completely saturated I hardly ever see any white, if any.



Bob P.

 

[jondave]

I then dry the carts on my oil furance for over a week, the sponges are very dry.

You're lucky then. Making the sponges too dry (I only dried my in a fan-forced oven for 2 hours) was what caused my problem.

I'm completely skipping this step from now on. The paper towel is already enough to dry the sponge. The remaining moisture makes the sponge more absorbent than a 100% dry sponge, and dilution is completely negligible. Seeing the bottom-half sponge flooded with ink is the only guarantee that the cart won't starve the head.

 

[Emulator]

I use the same procedures as FussyBob. But now don't bother to dry the carts beyond the paper towel wicking stage. Do you purge the carts regularly, or only once when changing from OEM ink?

 

[FussyBob]

I then dry the carts on my oil furance for over a week, the sponges are very dry.

You're lucky then. Making the sponges too dry (I only dried my in a fan-forced oven for 2 hours) was what caused my problem.

I'm completely skipping this step from now on. The paper towel is already enough to dry the sponge. The remaining moisture makes the sponge more absorbent than a 100% dry sponge, and dilution is completely negligible. Seeing the bottom-half sponge flooded with ink is the only guarantee that the cart won't starve the head.

It could be your water quality affecting what the sponge can do after drying. I have flushed carts sitting with dry sponges for 2 years and they will take 13-15 mL when filled for the first time. My water is natually soft. Id store them in a sealed zip-loc bag so if
the sponges were slightly wet they stated that way.

I don't understand your comment on only the bottom sponge flooded with ink is the only guarantee the cart won't starve the head. I have never seen ink starvation again I completely fill the spong (top and bottom), and the squeezing of the 3-4 drops out makes sure that the cart isn't overfilled. I print wedding proofs with the Canon PRO9000 and I'm super fussy about print quality, if there were any carts ink flow issues I sure would have noticed.

I'm saying that my procedure and results are so super easy, just like breathing air, I don't know why a lot of refillers have any issues at all.

Everyone has their favorite refill procedure and I'm sure the one that works for them is definitely the one to use. I know refillers that are scared to flush a cart with water, they fill the cart with 3rd party ink and do the paper towel purge about 3 times and are happy doing it that way. Messy, but it works.


Bob P.

 

[FussyBob]

I use the same procedures as FussyBob. But now don't bother to dry the carts beyond the paper towel wicking stage. Do you purge the carts regularly, or only once when changing from OEM ink?

I have flushed only once and many of my carts have over 25 refills. I do use OCP ink so other ink set chemistries may require different cart flushing reqirments after the initial flush.



Bob P.

 

[jondave]

After 3 full color A4 prints my PC channel started banding again while in the middle of a full color A3 print job. Performed several cleaning cycles and still can't clear it, though the banding pattern is different everytime I print a nozzle check after every clean. What could possibly be wrong with the print head that it would clog again so soon?

 

[stratman]

Were you using new OEM Canon cartridges when this problem reappeared?

 

[jondave]

Were you using new OEM Canon cartridges when this problem reappeared?

No, IS-refilled OEM carts which I re-purged and treated with pharmacist's solution. Sponge saturation looked very good (much better than before I re-purged them). The head's currently soaking in Windex and I can see that fluid doesn't easily pass through the PC channel compared to the others.

My theory is that there's particulate matter inside the print head that I dislodged (but couldn't dissolve) in my previous soak that now has settled down again and is clogging the nozzles. If this is true, is there a stronger solvent than Windex that I can use to dissolve the clog?

 

[stratman]

There remains the question of whether it is the cartridge or the print head IMO. The best way to rule out a cartridge issue is to try a new OEM Canon cartridge.

How to unclog a print head and what to use are as numerous as there are people. Everyone has their opinion on what works best. The biggest deterrent to success is impatience. Sometimes you may need to soak the print head for several days interspersed with nozzle checks and occasional cleanings in between the soakings/flushings. Do NOT use heat to blow dry the print head. Compressed air to remove all water from the contacts and circuit board plus gentle paper toweling is all you need.

The latest and greatest fluid for unclogging print heads is LA's Totally Awesome All Purpose Cleaner . It can be found at Dollar Stores and Walmart supposedly. It is also on Amazon. You can also locate a store from their web page.

If you're pinched for money, someone on the forum had success using moonshine! Make sure to invite The Hat over if you use this. He knows how to handle the good stuff.

 

[Emulator]

Hi jondave

May I suggest you take a look at "Canon Pro9000 ll colour shift noticeable in greys", the last few posts and particularly the last one. PCyan turned out to be a very similar problem in my case.

In an earlier post #85, I described cleaning the top of the LtCyan ceramic inlet filter on the print head with a cotton bud soaked in Windex equivalent. This cleared the problem briefly, but it returned. In post #93, tests with an OEM Photo Cyan cartridge and then a new squeezy bottle of Lt Cyan with a different batch number seems to have cleared the problem, time will tell, but it is still performing well in my case.

Regards Ian