PRO-100 Nozzle check problem-what to replace?

[RogerR]

After several years of everything working, it appears I have a problem. The PM color on the nozzle check is barely there. The top and bottom of the check area have a little bit of color, but the center portion is white.

I am using Precision Colors ink. On average, my 4 oz. bottles of ink seem about 1/2 full, so the printer has only gone thru 2-3 oz of each color in the 8 years I've owned the printer. I just printed something and swapped the whole cartridge set (since the printer complained a few colors were low while doing my print). I always do a test afterwards to make sure all is good.

I've cleaned three times. And deep cleaned once. No improvement. I also swapped in my other PM cart before the deep clean w/o any improvement.

I bought this printer in the good old days when you could get it for about $100 (with a huge rebate). Since that was cheaper than the ink.....I bought two of them. So, I have options. I have a spare printhead still in the sealed bag. And I actually have a spare printer out in the shed (although it will be a royal PITA to get it down from the 8' high shelf it's on).

I'd appreciate guidance on next steps. It seems that it must be print head or carts?

• Should I buy a new PM cart and try it?
• Should I swap out the print head?
• Should I just give up and swap out the printer?

RR

 

[The Hat]

1) No there’s no need to get a new Magenta cartat this time

It would be good if you could post up your last nozzle check for examination here.

It’s most likely that the print head has had its day, because you shouldn’t be doing any test prints while you have a poor nozzle check, that’s a sure way of burning out the missing nozzles..

2) No keep your spare printer in its box, unless you think it’s time to have a brand new printer, but remember it won’t print any better than your current one will once you fix your current print issue.

3) If the current print head can’t be saved then use the spare one in the sealed bag, and maybe it’s also time to purge all the current carts to start a fresh again, that way you’d be sure everything will be ok going forwards..

 

[RogerR]

 

[RogerR]

I'm not sure my picture does the nozzle check justice, but the problem is fairly apparent.

 

[RogerR]

So, I took your advice. Installed the new print head. Looks perfect now. Thanks!

Guess I'll go buy some ammonia so I can mix up the water/alcohol/ammonia mix and clean the old print head. If it's burnt out, it won't do any good, but if it's clogged, I can recover my spare.

And, I'll have the mix available for cleaning the carts. Although I hate the idea of cleaning right after I filled them.

 

[The Hat]

It’s a crying shame to dispose of a print head when just one ink block is not performing properly, but that’s the nature of the beast, and at least you had a replacement to hand..

It’s quite possible that this head can be saved, because it seems to have some nozzles still firing around the parameter of the block and missing in the middle.

But don’t go soaking or cleaning it with ammonia because that will kill it for sure, the nozzles don’t mind being cleaned with Ammonia, but if left sitting in it the ammonia tends to eat away at the metals in the head.

The best method for soaking the head is washing up liquid mixed into warm water and changed every 4 to 6 hours, (Fairy or Dreft brands) this process is slow but tends to work the best, but not forgetting to thoroughly dry the head before the next use..

Often the use of OEM inks can clean the old 3rd party ink out of the blocked nozzles but that takes a bit of time and a huge amount of patience.. But it does work..

Just clean the spare set of carts to start with and later clean the next set when they are removed on the next change over, because carts fail more often than you think and they deteriorate over time, so it’s better to refresh them periodically..

99% of poor quality prints are directly cause by the Cartridges..

 

[RogerR]

You've convinced me to flush the carts.

I'm also going to write off my old ink and buy some new from PC. Long overdue. Since my old ink was bought in early 2014 and there's a newer version (released in 2015 ) PC says " The totally new magenta inks and PhotoBlack are from a totally different source and offer properties much more resistant to clogging",

So there's two reasons (age and formula) why I suspect it should reduce the propensity to clog. And I now know that I only need to order the two oz containers.

I plan to use the pharmacist's solution for the cart flush
-3 % propylene glycol
-20 % isopropyl alcohol
-water from my Reverse Osmosis filter up to 100 %

If that works, I'll stop there. If I still see colors in the sponge, I'll add one percent of ammonia and retry.

RR

 

[The Hat]

You've convinced me to flush the carts.

It sounds like you'll be ready to go for another 8 years..

 

[RogerR]

My new ink arrived today. I though I was smart to order the 2 oz. bottles since I had only used about that much over many years. But, as soon as I opened it, I realized that the cap sizes are different. My screw up, since Precision Colors has a lot of information about the caps and such.

Being impatient, I decided I'd transfer the new ink to my old bottles. The first step in doing so was to pour out the old remaining ink....roughly two ounces. Doing so made it clear that the 8-year old Photo Magenta ink was about 75% liquid and about 25% gel.

So, it looks like the root cause of my failure was using ink that was far too old and starting to gel....even in the bottle.

This makes me even more impatient to replace the current PM cartridge in my printer (with the old jello'ing ink) which was used to print two photos on my new print head. I, very much, do not want the new print head to clog.

Now I have to get the washed bottles and the cartridges dry. I tried to use my 3D printer heated bed to accelerate the drying process today, but I wasn't willing to go above 60C and a few hours didn't seem to change the cart weight much. I think I'm going to run out to Home Depot after dinner to get a couple of PVC endcaps and a short piece of pipe so I can use a vacuum pump to pull the moisture out of the carts and the bottles in a hurry.

RR

 

[The Hat]

Now I have to get the washed bottles and the cartridges dry. I tried to use my 3D printer heated bed to accelerate the drying process today, but I wasn't willing to go above 60C and a few hours didn't seem to change the cart weight much. I think I'm going to run out to Home Depot after dinner to get a couple of PVC endcaps and a short piece of pipe so I can use a vacuum pump to pull the moisture out of the carts and the bottles in a hurry.

If you rinse out your old ink bottles cleanly, then drying them is very easy, just hold them upside down and shake vigorously for a couple of seconds, any droplets of water still left inside will be in significant and wont effect the new ink..

https://www.printerknowledge.com/th...g-method-for-purged-cartridge.8333/post-65042

https://www.printerknowledge.com/threads/a-perfect-way-to-purge-everytime.7730/