Prevent clogging

[qwertydude]

To me it looks to be pretty much the heads are shot. The repeating patterns in the C alignment test portion show that every other band is missing. If it was a normal clog I doubt the clog would be conveniently every other printhead. The best chemical I've found to unclog printheads is denatured alcohol. I place the head on top of a folded up paper towel and drip alcohol onto the screens and it dissolves chemical clogs, I move it to a fresh part of the towel as the current part gets saturated in alcohol and ink. For tougher clogs I then take a long length of some tubing and instead of blowing through the clog I suck it out, because if the particle is bigger than the printhead you'll never get it out except back through the top. Plus blowing at high pressure can damage the delicate printhead mount.

 

[ghwellsjr]

I have some print heads with stubborn clogs. I think I'll give your scheme a try. How long do you wait after putting the alcohol in the print head before returning it to the printer? Do you wash it first?

 

[qwertydude]

Since the electrical contact area doesn't get wet, all I do is after the alcohol and sucking treatment I just drop some water (distilled water) on the screens and put it right back in the printer. Never had any electrical problems burnt out nozzles show up cause of this treatment, of course I have burned out a couple nozzles on a previous printhead due to a flow issue on oem carts. Found out you gotta watch the amount of surfactant you put in your ink, for me it's photo flo. Surfactant causes the ink to flow faster but a side effect is that it also causes the foam to swell in the cartridge and can cut off ink flow from the reservoir into the foam after soaking for several weeks. Only solution to shrink the foam is to rinse out the cartridge in alcohol which causes the foam to dehydrate and shrink the foam so ink can flow again.

 

[ghwellsjr]

I tried the alcohol but it didn't unclog any nozzles. Fortunately, the print head survived without a long wait. I also tried the sucking idea but my tubing didn't form a tight fit. I will have to get some that is tight and try again but I'm really looking for another idea.

 

[Metallo]

Hi all,

just to confirm that I tried compressed air in the magenta screen, nothing changed at all, I always get the same nozzle check pattern.

I'm afraid I have to throw my print head in the bin

Do you know any cheaper place to buy a new print head?

Thanks guys for your suggestions, even if they didn't work, I appreciate your help!

Regards
Alex

 

[ghwellsjr]

The best place I know to buy print heads is from a local Canon service center. Mine charges $55 including tax. If you're going to throw the print head away, at least salvage the rubber seals off it.

I picked up some tubing of the correct size to connect up to the ink inlets on the print head (with the rubber seals removed) and plan to soon try the sucking process qwertydude suggested. Question: when doing the sucking process, do you still put the print head on an alcohol soaked piece of folder paper towel, or something that will provide more alcohol, like a shallow pool?

 

[fotofreek]

Gh - Do you know if there is anywhere that print head rubber seals might be available?

 

[ghwellsjr]

I have a bunch of dead print heads that fit the i860, iP4000, MP780. I know the seals are the same for your iP5000 and probably for your i960. Which ones do you need?

 

[fotofreek]

I have a feeling that the glitch in the i960 printhead is related to old, compressed seals. I've had to run a cleaning or two before a print run after which I can print several pix just fine. Then, a few days later I have banding and color shift until I run a cleaning or two after which the printer works just fine again. I tossed a dead printhead a few months ago without thinking that I should have saved the seals! Sad that the printhead is now discontinued as the printer still works just fine. If you don't mind scavenging some seals and mailing them to me I'll email my home address to you. thanks for the offer!

 

[ghwellsjr]

OK, but here's the deal. If they don't help, then you get to send your extra seals to the next person that wants to see if they will make a difference for their ink flow problem, agreed?