Pixma 5000 Purge Unit

[Danny Kiwi]

Has anyone had to replace a Pixma 4000 0r 5000 ect Purge unit in their printers yet??
Mine was not printing the BCI 3bk Pigment Black and the Canon Agent is saying that its the Purge unit??
Doesn't the Light Flash Four Times if that happens??
This Machine has a Print head that is only five months old by the way and I had exactly the same problem five months ago and they replaced the Print head??If it was the Purge unit you would think that all the colors would be affected???
It just seems very very odd that the same problem supposedly ,now has two causes
TX...

 

[websnail]

This is an incredibly wild guess but I noticed a few of things about the purge unit when I was fitting my external waste tank tubing and looking at the software for the Canon iP4000 of mine.

1. There's 2 tubes leading out from the unit
2. You have the option to clean either the black BCI3k or the Colour BCI6 or all..
3. The BCI3k and BCI6k outputs seem to be located in different parts of the printhead so it's possible for one part to die/clog and not the other.

All in all this leads me to believe that the unit does indeed have 2 seperate parts of the purge unit but to what extent, it'd be hard to say.. Certainly I've had the BCI3k part of one printhead die on me already but having installed the external waste tanks now I can confirm that for me at least the purge unit is actually purging ink through both tubes, although a whole lot more through the colour section which would of course figure, given that there's 4x BCI6 carts to just 1x BCI3k.

That might shed a little more light on things but I doubt it resolves your problem...

 

[Danny Kiwi]

Thanks Inject Master,Yes as you will know when you do a deep clean, you get the option to do BCI3 By itself so it must have its own tube etc..
The canon Agents are saying that it looks as though I will have to bare the cost of a new Purge Unit unless the Eprom shows that it has has very little use since I had the Head Replaced under Warranty about four months ago...
The Odd thing is the Symptom is exactly the same as it was when the head needed replacing so I am wondering if the last repair they even replaced the Head as they say they did or it was a Purge Unit!!There is a lot of Skulduggery goes on in the Printer Repair business with practices that you and I would find highly unethical
By the way how much would that part cost in the Sates, and how much to put in in??
It,s going on to two weeks now since they have had the Pixma, which I find is a bit long ,even though Canons Head office (where the parts come from )is four hundred miles from the Repair Shop,
They can overnight the Parts I am sure....
Take care and Greetings from lil Oll New Zealand..

 

[websnail]

Given that you're using an old printer and it was already sent away for warranty repair once to repeat the problem I'd actually kick up a fuss and tell them it's pretty obvious the original problem was not properly resolved if it's repeated after just 4 months.

Failing that I'd keep a weather eye out for any eBay iP5000 units to see if you can get one that's not working properly and use it for parts... I suspect it's going to be a lot cheaper than trying to get a new part fitted but that's guesswork on my part..

Best of luck..


PS: "Inkjet master" is a forum rank...

 

[Danny Kiwi]

Good Point,however being down here in New Zealand the freight may be a bit high
I have already contacted Canon and kicked up a bit of a fuss and they say they will run an eprom check and just see how many pages I have printed since the new prinhead and if its reasonable and not excessive they will replace under warranty.
The cost of the Purge Unit is about $40 NZ ($30.US...Plus Canon said one half hour of Labour ,so it should be about $NZ100($66.US)if the worst comes to the worst and I have to pay..
Man, I love that Printer, and down here it comes with DVD and CD Label Print Function as stock standard,so I make heaps of DVDs and CD,s..It gets a lot of use!!!LOL LOL
Anyway we will see what unfolds...Cheers from down under
TX

 

[digitalartist71]

i have a ip3000.... pigment black killed the head apparntly. happened maybe after 7 monthes. Used genuine inks at first...then used generic carts...no problems with CMY, just K (pig. black).

i have taken the head apart, blown out, used hot water, windex,....no luck....used finger nail polish remover...and got some head way...but clog came back after a couple more test prints.

i get good flow through nozzles after removing from unit that hold ink and feeder inlets. poor flow from feeder screened inlet/outlet for black. seems it needs EXCESSIVE force pushing liquid through the inlet/outlet.

I am coming to a conclusiion that the channel between the screened inlet and outlet hole (to head) is SEVERLEY hardened and clogged. I tried a metal twist tie 9after stripping plastic rfom it)...no luck...CANNOT get it around the bend of the channel...but black particles were definatly coming out bit by bit.

next try i am going to use a staple. have to have a extremly thin gauged wire or something to SNAKE it out.

yeah...i got the purge unit error a couple times...but whio knows...could have been set off because of the permanantly clogged head....becasue that error is intermittant...come s and goes.

i think the IP pixma line heads are crap apparently compared to older...due to the channel in the black plastic cart housing.

 

[drc023]

Instead of blaming Canon for the failure, it sounds more like the generic black ink is the culprit. What brand did you use? Those of us who refill using any of the favored inks here (Formulabs, Image-Specialists/MIS and HobbiColors) haven't experienced the problems you describe.

 

[digitalartist71]

yes..i USED crappola pig. black carts apparently (at least it didn't agree with the pixma). www.summitimage.com will try the others when I get anothe printer or head.

the problem i have is I have used these same inks in a S600 (Old Reliable) for a few years now and it's still going strong.... it is what i am using now until i fix the ip3000. .

big differnce of use and failure between the two... had Ip3000 for about 7 monthes before failure and no way near as much printing as the s600 which i have had since it came out.

apparenlty the channel the pigment black flows through seems be more restrictive or causing restrictions earlier and easier than the S600 head.

i will probably cut it apart and see just how bad it is after i get a new head.

 

[websnail]

Daft question but have you actually checked that the S600 uses ink compatible with the ip3000?

Experience has taugth me that there's a whole raft of inks for different printer models and just assuming tends to make an ass out of u and me...

 

[Danny Kiwi]

Well after about three weeks, a happy conclusion to the faulty purge unit on my pixma 5000.
Canon have sent me down a new Pixma 5000 under warranty so it has cost me zilch..)..
It is just so great to have my Pixma 5000 back and printing away...
Down here in New Zealand the Pixmas come with CD Label Printing as stock standard so I have heaps of DVDs and Cd's to whack in the Pixma and watch it do its magic..
Thanks for everyones input also over the past month,it has been instrumental to this happy conclusion..)