Pixma 3000

[Fano]

Actually it's more likely the cyan ink has a viscosity too high for ink to flow fast enough. For nozzle check it's fine because it needs little ink. But when you print large photos the ink flow is too restricted and can't catch up with the speed the printhead consumes ink. Your cyan ink probably has an incorrect or incompatible viscosity.

I have tried 2 different ink brands and they both give the same result.
In the past I tried various different compatible ink brands and they all resulted in the same phenomenon on the Cyan colour.
Perhaps if I put some cleaning fluid in the cartridge with the ink it may decrease the viscosity ?

i am wondering if the cyan cartridge might be the problem, since u r refilling? obviously if u keep getting new heads, and cyan stops working soon after....i don't think the head is getting clogged that quickly....sounds to me the cartridges...maybe they aren't sealing correctly or something?

The cartridges seem good ,they are feeding properly and are sealed correctly.
I tried a new cartridge which hadnt been refilled and the same problem occurred.

 

[hpnetserver]

Fano, have you tried using a Cyan OEM cartridge atfer all these happened? A BCI-6 Cyan OEM cartridge is about $10. It will serve you well in finding out if the printhead is causing the problem or not. If an OEM cart works absolutely fine than you have proven that Your printhead is out of the question of problems. Then the next step would be just to find a good quality ink and cartridge for your printer. I suspect it is still the problem in ink, cartridge or a combination of both. Before buying another brand of product to be disappointed again try an OEM cart. Frankly I do not like ip3000. I had one for about a week and disliked it and returned it. It is too much trouble to solve the problem maybe it's time for a new one, a better one.

 

[Fano]

Fano, have you tried using a Cyan OEM cartridge atfer all these happened? A BCI-6 Cyan OEM cartridge is about $10. It will serve you well in finding out if the printhead is causing the problem or not. If an OEM cart works absolutely fine than you have proven that Your printhead is out of the question of problems. Then the next step would be just to find a good quality ink and cartridge for your printer. I suspect it is still the problem in ink, cartridge or a combination of both. Before buying another brand of product to be disappointed again try an OEM cart. Frankly I do not like ip3000. I had one for about a week and disliked it and returned it. It is too much trouble to solve the problem maybe it's time for a new one, a better one.

I will get an OEM cartridge tomorrow morning ,I dont have one at the time being.
I might look to upgrade too as I've wasted alot of time trying to remedy the problems I've encountered with the IP3000.

 

[hpnetserver]

I hope I am not causing you to lose $10. I really did not like my ip3000. I believe ip4000 is far better with one additional cartridge of black ink. If you are into photo printing it's really a good investment into one better printer.

 

[Fano]

I hope I am not causing you to lose $10. I really did not like my ip3000. I believe ip4000 is far better with one additional cartridge of black ink. If you are into photo printing it's really a good investment into one better printer.

I do alot of photo printing to be honest.
I probably use around 5-6 sets of colour cartridges a month.
I'd like to get an upgrade but the new range of Canon printers are chipped and cost too much to run.
I'm really finding it weird that the Cyan colour is causing such difficulties while the other 3 colours are perfect.
What model would be a good one to get instead ?
I've had a look around for an IP4000 but they are very scarce.

 

[Osage]

To Fano,

Right now the bargain in non-chipped canons seems to be the ip6000d--try online at either outpost.com
or amazon.com. Now selling far below original list price last I heard.

 

[Fano]

To Fano,

Right now the bargain in non-chipped canons seems to be the ip6000d--try online at either outpost.com
or amazon.com. Now selling far below original list price last I heard.

I'm in Ireland but I'll look around for one in Europe.
Prices here seem to be around 230 for one as opposed to $99 in the US.
Bit of a difference.
Cheers,I'll check further.

 

[ocular]

I have 3x MP730 (2 CIS, 1 refillable) and 3x IP3000 printers in action at the moment. All have the same print head. I don't do a lot of colour work as these are office machines. But I have had the partial blockage that has been described. Interestingly it was with Cyan. I swapped printers/cartridges and print heads and isolated the problem to the printhead. Once established it seemed to occur with all brands of cartridges. It would seem to get better with flushing and soaking, but then come back.

I had contemplated pulling the printhead apart , but had done this once before and this destroyed a IP3000 completely - I had replaced the reassembled printhead and the printer started up and parked the cartridges and then went dead, tested power supply and this is OK so presumably the main board got blown.

So what I did was connected a metre of clear plastic tubing to the cyan inlet of the printhead and filled this with 50/50 windex and purified water, held it vertically and rested the head on a sponge and let this solution drip thru the cyan printhead channels under gravity - repeated this a few times. This rejuvenated the printhead.

With minimal use of colours presumably the printhead channels got blocked with dried out ink (?poor quality). The printhead would allow partial flow , but was limited. Normal soaking and flushing may not dissolve the channels completely and thus appear to be a short term fix. I have now sourced a supply of formulabs ink and use this solely.

 

[Fano]

I have 3x MP730 (2 CIS, 1 refillable) and 3x IP3000 printers in action at the moment. All have the same print head. I don't do a lot of colour work as these are office machines. But I have had the partial blockage that has been described. Interestingly it was with Cyan. I swapped printers/cartridges and print heads and isolated the problem to the printhead. Once established it seemed to occur with all brands of cartridges. It would seem to get better with flushing and soaking, but then come back.

I had contemplated pulling the printhead apart , but had done this once before and this destroyed a IP3000 completely - I had replaced the reassembled printhead and the printer started up and parked the cartridges and then went dead, tested power supply and this is OK so presumably the main board got blown.

So what I did was connected a metre of clear plastic tubing to the cyan inlet of the printhead and filled this with 50/50 windex and purified water, held it vertically and rested the head on a sponge and let this solution drip thru the cyan printhead channels under gravity - repeated this a few times. This rejuvenated the printhead.

With minimal use of colours presumably the printhead channels got blocked with dried out ink (?poor quality). The printhead would allow partial flow , but was limited. Normal soaking and flushing may not dissolve the channels completely and thus appear to be a short term fix. I have now sourced a supply of formulabs ink and use this solely.

Hmm this is very interesting.
I have used Windolene in the past to try and clean the printhead.
It is Windex in the USA.
However I noticed that Windolene is kind of syrupy,is Windex like this ?
I'll try a canister of compressed air too and hope this will resolve the issue.

 

[fotofreek]

There's more than one version of Windex. The one you want to use is the original formula with ammonia and not the newer "dripless" version. I believe you can still buy the original one.