Minor clog - should I do something or leave it alone?

[Glomgold]

Printer model: Pixma MG6650.

I got this printer for free, the owner bought a new one after it clogged up. I bought demineralized water and cleaned the printhead as best as I could, I got all the ink out and the water was clear. The black 551 on the color tested showed some minor defects, I removed the printhead and cleaned again, the minor defects on the test are still there but I've printed several complex pictures and as far as I can see they are completely fine.

During the first clean I had it standing in water overnight, is it likely that more cleaning will help? Is my best option to just leave it? I've searched around and found some recipes for several cleaning fluids, but I've also found warnings against using some of them, particularly those containing alcohol.

Would it be unwise to print large black pictures to try and purge out the clog?

Help is greatly appreciated.

Plain paper

 

[The Hat]

Would it be unwise to print large black pictures to try and purge out the clog?

Printing is a better way to clear nagging little clogs, but I reckon you’ve got nothing to complain about, because your nozzle check looks almost perfect and your sample Pic is more than acceptable, I wish the black on my printer was half as good as that.

Stop worrying and enjoy your new printer, you’ve done a great job at getting her back to printing as new..

 

[Glomgold]

Thank you for your reply.

It's a relief really, deep cleaning uses so much ink.

I'll get some photo paper and print some pictures for further testing.

 

[The Hat]

It's a relief really, deep cleaning uses so much ink.

Deep cleaning is a big no, no, if you do need to use it then only do one a day, they can make the matter worse by damaging the very nozzles you want to clear.. Normal cleans, you can do all day..

 

[Glomgold]

Oh, did not know that.

 

[maximilian59]

I also can’t see a problem with the black. Take a magnifying glass to inspect the row. You should see the dots of the ink and check for irregularities.
You can perform a printhead alignment to be sure that this is ok.
Cheers,
Maximilian

 

[PeterBJ]

Common errors in the printheads of the PGI-x50/CLI-x51 and possibly more generations of printers is damaged/warped nozzles in pigment and dye (photo) black. Here is a nozzle check showing these two errors in a Canon Pixma MG5450S, probably caused by bad non-OEM inks, click to enlarge:



I see no such damage to the dye black in the MG6650 nozzle check and no fuzziness in the black parts of the photo. I also think that the printer is in good working order after the cleaning, so no more cleaning should be done, excessive cleaning might damage the printhead.

Printing large black areas to clear the nozzles would be a bad idea. The nozzle heaters need a steady supply of ink for cooling. Clogged nozzles are not cooled and risk burning out. Only print nozzle checks in case of print head problems. These won't damage the printhead. Purge pages with large areas of the same colour are only useful for cleaning out contaminated ink.

Here is a thread with more about the problems caused yellow refill ink and from post #5 also about damaged dye black nozzles. Also see this post to see what damaged dye black nozzles do the the photo print quality.

 

[The Hat]

Printing large black areas to clear the nozzles would be a bad idea. The nozzle heaters need a steady supply of ink for cooling. Clogged nozzles are not cooled and risk burning out. Only print nozzle checks in case of print head problems. These won't damage the printhead. Purge pages with large areas of the same colour are only useful for cleaning out contaminated ink.

On the MG6650 when you print large black areas, the printer will use mostly colour inks with a little black so no harm will come to any of the nozzles on the print head, the printer should be able to handle any solid colour whatever it is, this type of print can also highlight poor performing cartridges..

 

[Glomgold]

This is the complete test in a better light. Possibly I've damaged the PGBK, there are some splitting of the lines.

 

[PeterBJ]

The test looks very good to me.