No PGI-5 pattern in nozzle check

[jru]

Hello,

Well today it appears that my PGI-5 is completely blocked, as there is no pattern at all in my nozzle check for my PIXMA ip4300.
Yesterday it was working fine.

I tried drops of distilled water on the park pads and the circular screen that the cart sits on multiple times, but it did not help.

So I went out and got some windex original formula.

I have an empty PGI-5 cart so I filled it with Windex original formula.

Do you recommend that I leave the windex filled PGI-5 cart in and just keep printing nozzle checks until it clears?

Or should I try to print some greyscale only, no duplex so that it draws only on the pgi-5?

Would it hurt to leave the windex filled cart sitting in the printer over night? I haven't done the windex approach before -- when this happened once before, just distilled water overnight did the trick.

Thanks for any suggestions!

 

[jru]

Well my PGI-5 clog has UN-clogged.

Here's what I observed:

Even though I DO NOT have a hole on the top of the reservoir (because I use the "german" method which has a hole on the bottom vertical wall of the sponge chamber instead), I noticed that the PGI-5 cart filled with windex has a slow drip out of the exit port.
I imagine this is because the windex is so much thinner (runnier) than PGI-5 pigment ink.

So this makes me think it would not be a good idea to leave a windex filled pgi-5 cart in the printer overnight --- just in case that slow drip leaks all over the printer.

So I just kept removing the cart and dropping a few drops of windex on the circular screen that the cart's exit port sits on, as well as on the 2 park pads, then running repeated nozzle checks.

I also did one cleaning of just the pgi-5.

But it seemed like it was repeated nozzle checks, along with dropping a few drops of windex on the screen and park pads, and repeating this cycle until gradually, the PGI-5 pattern started to emerge slowly.

So, my experience has born out what so many others here have said when your PGI-5 clogs up: have patience and keep repeating the process until it clears.

Thanks everyone for this great forum. Just knowing there was a place to post helped me keep at it until it cleared.

Happy new year everyone!

 

[The Hat]

jru


Telling us about your clogged print head and then explaining how you didnt give up but fixed it yourself, will certainly help others who have similar problems and are thinking of getting a new print head or just dumping their printer in the skip.
Success stories are certainly appreciated and help make this forum what it is today, many happy returns..

 

[Harvey]

What I did to fix the same was filling a syringe (with its needle) with hot water and directing the jet to the nozzles of the printhead and the mesh in the ink inlet, filled the syringe twice, dried the head well taking care of electronics being dry, and it was perfect nozzle check for the PGI-5.

 

[printfan1138]

That was inspiring and It reinforces the importance of not assuming the printer is dead. I guess I'll have to go out to the back shed and resurrect all my printers that have ( I thought) died in the past. Happy Printing!