IP5000 eighteen months later

[jackson]

Used mainly for text.
The pic shows the nozzle check after an alignment.
There is a leading trail of colour in the magenta.
I switched the C and M carts, the problem stayed in the same position.
The head has been cleaned, washed, soaked (in my tears) and had compressed air to dry.
Alignment selection for the magenta was uniformly vertical lines separated by varying degrees of white space.
Use this link and 'enlarge to regular size' http://tinyurl.com/34a6yq

 

[jackson]

Thank you.
I have the cleaning carts plugged in and shall try this method for a few days.

 

[kelvinyany]

I have a question on purging the cartridges. After you flushed the inside of the cartridge with water, how do you get the sponges to be complete dry before filling it with ink?

 

[ltsang]

Just an idea, has anyone ever filled a cartridge with colored Windex and printed with it in order to clean the print head? That will carry the cleaning fluid right past the individual nozzles. Will this work on pg40's also?

 

[on30trainman]

I have a question on purging the cartridges. After you flushed the inside of the cartridge with water, how do you get the sponges to be complete dry before filling it with ink?

I just blow out excess water - use my compressor that is hooked to an airbrush (do model railroad painting) through the ink injecting hole in the top of the cartridge. Don't know if one of those "compressed air" cans would work or not - may try one next time. Then I let the cartridges set for several days. If you are using dye based inks I don't think a slightly damp sponge is a problem, as long as it isn't real wet. Hopefully some others will give their methods. Probably should be a different thread.

Steve W.

 

[Trigger 37]

hpnetserver,...I used the same process you listed above but it was on a very clogged printhead. The results were great. However, I used a cleaning solution I purchased from Atlanticinkjet.com You used 100% Windex. What I like about the process I used is that there was ink already in the cart when I added the cleaning solution and therefore when I printed, I could see what the nozzles were doing. With just windex, you don't know if you got them all clean. I would print a half page of black and then do a nozzle check. Then I could see down to the individual nozzle which ones were working and how many were still clogged. I don't think the windex alone would do that.

However, when I run out of the Cleaning solution I purchased, I will try your 100% Windex idea, but I will add some color to each cart to make things visible.

What I'm really happy about is that it works. I do 2-3 printers a week now and that is a lot of cleaning and a lot of time. This should help me a lot. I still have to take each printer all apart to get down to the waste ink pads, plus to check the purge unit and clean everything else. When someone gets a printer from me, it is as close to new as I can make it.

Jackson, by the way, you can see from your nozzle test pattern that your Magenta ink cart is starved and not getting the correct amount of ink to the printer. Even though you see a decent magenta bar, look at the pale green bars near the black bars. Those are supposed to be shades of gray produced by combinations of the three colors, Cyan, Magenta, and Yellow. You have Green which is Cyan and Yellow only,... therefore you are not printing any magenta there.

 

[Trigger 37]

hpnetserver,... The black ink cart was virtually empty when I added the cleaning solution so the amount of ink was very small, just enough to add some detectable color. As my note indicated it took several printing cycles to finally get the last couple of nozzles clean and that only came after I did a deep cleaning of black using the cleaning cart as the source of ink.

On the issue of purging or cleaning a BCI3e blk ink cart, I use a similar process that Grandad35 provided, except I don't use any extra hardware. I'm sure it takes a little longer but since I don't have to do one of those except about once a month, it is simpler to do it my way. I just hold the ink directly under a strong stream of luke warm water such that the stream hits the open fill hole. This fills the reservoir and forces water through the bottom and out of both the bottom exit hole and the top rear air hole. I keep this stream running until all the black ink has been washed out. It usually only takes about 5-10 minutes. Once there is no more black coming out, I dry everything with a paper towel and just let the ink cart drip clear water into the sink. This is kind of a test of the ink cart flow rate. When it is full of clear water, it should drip at the rate of one drop per second. This proves to me that if there were ink in the reservoir it would come out at a similar rate. I believe that is one of the tests that Grandad35 uses to confirm an ink cart is working OK.

Then I take the ink cart to my air compressor and blow air at about 80 psi into the fill hole. This pushes all the water out both the bottom and the rear air intake. It only takes 10-20 seconds to get all the water out. Then I let the ink cart set on a paper towel for about an hour and then fill it with new black ink. To make sure the ink pushes all the air out of the sponge, once I have it about 75% full of ink I tilt the cartridge so the reservoir is about 30 degrees above the sponge. Since water is heavier than air, all the air in the sponge is force to the top of the sponge and excapes out the air vent hole and ink fills the entire sponge. Once the ink begins to appear at the top left rear corner of the sponge I lower the ink cart back to level. I don't ever want to get new ink to touch or clog the air intake hole. This all seems to work fine for me.

 

[jackson]

The result of three days cleaning.
The same as my original - only worse.Lost most of what I had before.
These are new, virgin, oem carts.

 

[jflan]

I am not too sure about adding ink into the cleaning fluid idea. Never used it before. It seems logical the added ink won't do any help in cleaning out the clog. But if it works it's not a bad idea. If you add color into the Windex fluid I am not sure it makes the fluid compatible with normal ink. Not sure if the print head will print.

Having a little ink in with the cleaning fluid doesn't seem to matter and it provides the added benefit of acting as a tracer so you can track progress, as Trigger37 eluded to. The first time I did this by default, in that I used a spent cart for the cleaning cartridge.
I use the Art Entlich recommended formula of one part Isopropyl Alcohol (90+%) and two parts Windex Original w/AmmoniaD (not No-Drip)
For Durabrite inks, Art uses a one-to-one mix of the above.
If possible, check for "compatibility" with your ink by placing a drop or two into the cleaning solution. It should disperse immediately.

No matter what you do, the most critical step in cleaning a clogged print head is to make the cleaning fluid reach the clogged nozzles or the cleaning action won't take place. This is sometimes difficult. The cleaning fluid just won't get in there if it is clogged. You don't want to force it in there with pressure. It can break the delicate print head nozzle assembly. Some soaking may be necessary. But soaking for too long can cause damage to the electronics. So use of a cleaning cartridge for days is a good idea and it works.

Agreed.
I had an almost fatally clogged iP1500 printhead that required some radical measures and the two-day effort was ultimately successful.

1. Heated the solution in the microwave (20 sec or so) to a temp that I would estimate to be about 110F...uncomfortable to the touch.
It was amazing to see the printhead release ink when submerged in heated solution.
"Submerged" as in 1/8" - 3/16" deep...do not let solution touch electronics !

2. Sat printhead overnight in this solution (1/8"-3/16" deep) careful not to wet the electronics. I also completely flooded the intakes so that they soaked as well.
The ceramic base shoe was loosened to allow more access to the solution.
"Loosened" as in slightly separated from the plastic "tub"...not removed !

3. The final ingredient was to force solution into the intakes with a syringe adapted with surgical tubing with the printhead sitting in the heated solution.
I carefully used moderate pressure and when I saw that big cloud of cyan come out it was victory.
Applying solution under pressure is a delicate procedure and should be avoided if possible. I would only use it as a last ditch effort.
Epsons, supposedly are more sensitive to this "pressure" method than Canons.

 

[on30trainman]

Jackson,
You may just need a new printhead. I had an ip4000 that was acting similar to your ip5000. Cleaned the head many times and many ways (de-ionized water, Windex, alcohol, removed the ceramic part from the holder, more cleaning) and it didn't get better. Actually one color would improve a little and another would get worse. Decided to try brute force - ultrasonic cleaning. That finished the printhead for good. Bought a new one (about $50 I think) and the printer is as good as new. Printheads do die, or at least deteriorate. Actually I think your ip5000 printhead has smaller holes than my ip4000, so clogs could be much harder to clear. Your first 3eBK nozzle test looks OK - probably same hole size as my ip4000. Never had any problems with that cartridge.

Steve W.