How to remove PRO-1 printhead ?

[The Hat]

If the repair is successful and I think it's very likely I will write a detailed instruction with photos explaining the procedure which is fairly simple.

Hi @TomaszSkop and welcome, that said now for the bad news..

You can’t change out one print head or part of, on the Pro 1 printer without encountering huge difficulty’s, this is not your average Canon printer and it will give an error very quickly if you do something incorrectly, which will then require a trip to a service centre.

The best and cheapest option is to install a new print head, because what you waste in ink usually costs more than the print head itself, each time you power on after you’ve serviced the head the printer will run a system clean, which is unavoidable..

Between purchasing new inks and a new print head it might be better to look into getting a Pro 10 for not much more instead..

 

[TomaszSkop]

Hi @The Hat . Just to confirm I performed the repair and it was successful. The only problem was that I didn't have the part I was after as nobody got back to me so I "repaired" the original faulty part with a superglue instead.
Printer worked absolutely fine, test print was perfect and my wife printed about 50 A3 sized photographs and the results were as good as always with our Pro1.
The only trouble was that the membrane eventually split again resulting in a new leak.
I am now certain I can reapir the printer permanently with the spare part I'm after.
We have since ordered Pro10 but still hoping to keep this one as a spare if I can get hold of a faulty print head.
It's not the easiest repair and not for a beginner but with some patience it can be done (I am an electronic engineer and used to taking "things" apart).

 

[palombian]

Good you found a PRO-10.
You will be able to use all your inks.
This printer could live long since the PRO-300 (probably) shares the same printhead and you will be able to reset the waste ink counter (to be double checked ).

 

[The Hat]

Just to confirm I performed the repair and it was successful.

@TomaszSkop, that was great news while it lasted, but your problem is still finding a damaged head from somewhere, there are not many printer owners who would have replaced the head on their Pro 1, most either dump the printer or send it to Canon Service to do the job. (Very costly)

In all the years I’ve had my Pro 1 I’ve never had to change the head in my machine, and if I had I would have gladly send it to you, and I reckon when you get your new Pro 10 you’ll be more than happy with the quality output, and you’ll some tire of the Pro 1.
Thanks for the feedback…

 

[Anthonycano_2013]

Hello,
I am new here, I would love to get some advise from you @The Hat.
Thank you for helping us all.
I bought a second hand (pro 1) a few weeks ago, I did a nozzle test the very next day and everything was just perfect to my eyes, one week later I got this lines on my DGY, MBK, C, and CO.

What do you think is the right thing to do here? Should I keep printing test to move some ink through the nozzles?

Maybe I can give it back to the previous owner.

Also I have another question, I bought some everyday use glossy from canon, but the ink seems to me that comes up with weird reflections from color to color. I am not sure if this has to do with auto clear coat CO, or the print-head is wrong.

This are the samples, you can’t see as much in here, hope you can appreciate some of it.

When there are not reflections the prints looks amazing.
Please tell my I can save this print head.

Thank you in advance

 

[The Hat]

Please tell my I can save this print head.

I don’t have the time right now to give a lot of advice but what I will say is STOP doing test prints, you can probably save the print head but only do test nozzle checks, nothing else.. More later..

 

[Anthonycano_2013]

I don’t have the time right now to give a lot of advice but what I will say is STOP doing test prints, you can probably save the print head but only do test nozzle checks, nothing else.. More later..

I apreciate, thank you

 

[The Hat]

@Anthonycano_2013

As this machine is an unknown to you and you don’t know what went on before, we can surmise that the previous owner only gave it up because of running costs.

The printer seems to be working ok but I reckon some of the inks are very low, or if not have run out, now with the printer turned off remove each cart in turn and shake (agitate) them, if you have a scale then weight each cart.

The cart should weight more than 50gm, (Technically empty) but will still have 8 ml of unusable ink left, any cart at or just above that weight should be replaced, don’t wait, Don’t print below Red X, because you’ll get air into your tubing system and that is very costly to remove. !

Once all of the carts have been reinserted or replaced, turn on the printer and run a Normal head clean, followed by a nozzle check, this should give you a 100% good nozzle print, and if it doesn’t then let the printer stand for 30 mins and do the same again, 1 Normal head clean and a nozzle check.

If you examine the previous few nozzle checks you should see a vast difference in them, this is what you should expect to see, and if everything is ok then you can print any photo or test print you wish, good luck..
click to enlarge..

Any other problems please come back if your unsure.. Sorry for the late reply...

 

[Anthonycano_2013]

Thank you @The hat
You are right, one of the ink was low, actually pgi-29 M. I did find out about the nozzle pattern when only this one was low, then I did a cleaning cycle and a few nozzles test. Then PC, LGY, and MBK got low too, M is empty now.


Unfortunately I don't own a scale, but will get one.


She was using the cartridge as shown in the picture below, hope they are good enough if you know them.


I will get all of those inks as soon as possible, but I still concern about those reflections from black to white or vice versa.


Is this normal on this printer? Or this is due the paper I'm using? Before I continue spending any more money on this printer.

Those reflections are very annoying to my eye, I had spent so much time and effort into these photos, so I would love to be excellent, and to be honest the whole process is so expensive to not be completely happy with my prints, I wish it is something I'm doing wrong.


So I will hold for your answer first on that.


Thank you so much for the help

 

[The Hat]

I’m afraid the gloves are off when it comes to getting the photos looking right, I’m not a photographer and don’t do much quality Photo prints, but I’ll help as best I can.

From the previous photos you’ve posted it looks like you’re getting the effects called Bronzing, this happens when the inks reacts with certain paper surfaces, but gloss optimiser is supposed to supress or eliminated this, and it’s not. !

If you use Satin or Matte Photo paper Bronzing is mostly eliminated, but I suspect it’s the compatible inks your using that is causing this issue, OEM inks don’t suffer from Bronzing for two reasons, 1 is their ink quality and the other is the quality of their Gloss Optimiser.

The Pro 1 is a high class printer and should only be used with OEM inks, which of course happens to be the most expensive, but you get the quality and performance you wish for every time, unfortunately there are no shortcuts when it comes to perfection.

I have not seen or used the inks you showed, but there are better compatible inks out there that will come closer to OEM quality, but you are at a crossroads, because if you decide to get different or OEM inks, it will take a system flush to remove all the existing ink from your printer, that also uses 35% of the new ink to replenish the system. (Very Expensive)

All Canon Pro printers are expensive to run and the Pro 1 is probability the most expensive of all, but it also gives the most outstand results, again I would recommend a Pro 10 (New or second hand) because the running costs are more controllable and it’s easier to swap from one ink to another in an effort to get the best results.. the Pro 10’s results are also outstands..

Some of the photo guru’s here on nifty might be also be able to help or even suggest an alternative way for you to achieve better results and to eliminate the Bronzing you are getting, as I said I’m no expert when it comes to top quality photo printing..

Hope this helps..
This is the type of scale mentioned..