Pro9000II ink clogs: Do they ever really get cleared?

[jjohnl]

That makes sense, fotofreek, but these are carts that have been in the printer, in use, and the outlet ports look dry.

 

[fotofreek]

That makes sense, fotofreek, but these are carts that have been in the printer, in use, and the outlet ports look dry.

If they are refilled carts I would suspect poor feed from some ink accumulating in the sponge after several refills. If they are the OEm carts perhaps they are old???

I haven't looked to see how the 9000mkII purge pump area looks. I have to guess that if it is functioning properly it would work equally on all the carts.

I was going to edit my last post to include a reference to one of my old posts on purging carts. It is in the thread that introduced cart purging by Grandad35. Just above it was a simple device that requires no work to make - a spray hose attachment that attaches to a kitchen faucet. I like my "cart enema tube". I then use a vacuum to pull as much water out as i can, after which I use the fan as pictured to dry the carts out. Our water in San Francisco appears to be naturally soft and I haven't found it necessary to use any other solutions or additives to get a good refill after purging and drying a cart. http://www.nifty-stuff.com/forum/viewtopic.php?pid=57178#p57178

 

[jjohnl]

It doesn't look good guys. After washing the head out thoroughly then soaking in windex, I put it in the vicinity of a furnace vent and gave it about 24 hours to dry. When I put it all back together I gave it two regular cleanings and it couldn't even print a head alignment; it got one partial line printed and quit. Then I gave it a deep cleaning and a regular cleaning and tried again and it was the same. A nozzle check was a horrible mess. When I took the head back out there was green ink all over the bottom of the head around the nozzles. I cleaned it up and put it back together and tried again. It got a little more of that one line printed of a head alignment and quit again. Took it apart again and there was the green ink again. Looks like I broke it somehow even though it looks good.
Oh, and the ink is definitely coming out during those cleanings; I started this with almost full carts and the ink levels are all way down.

 

[The Hat]

It may be time to check out Craigs list for a replacement printer because I think the head is lost forever and is not coming back.
A new printer will be cheaper to get than a print head and youll also get a complete set of new cartridges.

Could you post a complete nozzle check on here so we can assess the results and see if there is any possibility of saving the head at all.

While your working on the print head you should only do nozzle checks and nothing else
and head alignments are of no use whatsoever unless you first have a fully functioning printer..

 

[fotofreek]

I'm sorry to hear that your printhead appears to be dead. I read in your post that you reversed the process with windex and washing, didn't wash the windex out of the printhead afterward, and did a prety thorough drying next to a heater duct before reinstalling the printhead, doing cleanings, and checking the nozzles. Please re-read my post #4 in this thread and the link to another thread in my post #4.

I can't tell you that my technique will work every time, but the only printheads I damaged further with cleaning were damaged by over-working the cleaning process. Gentle cleaning techniques are the key to the success I've had. I've never force-dried the printhead prior to doing a few cleanings and testing the nozzles. Basically, you let the cleaning routines pull the water out of the printhead and replace it with ink before checking the nozzles. As I recall, that was mentioned in either post #4 or the post that the link took you to.

 

[barfl2]

I have OEM carts that have been purged several times over the years. I don't remember ever having to throw one out! After five or six refills I continue to test with blowing into the air vent before installation until I sense that there is some restriction that prevents ink from flowing properly.

It might be overkill, but I would purge a set of OEM carts, dry them, and refill them with the ink you've been using. I would also clean the printhead as described, dry it, install the refilled, purged carts, do a few regular cleanings to pull ink into the printhead, and do a nozzle check. If it isn't perfect do another regular cleaning or two to be sure you have ink in the printhead/nozzles.

A little routine I go through to be sure the outlet port filter is wet. When I refill a cart I seal the fill hole and then remove the orange cap and let it drip. If it doesn't drip I then blow gently into the air vent to make the cart drip. Blot the outlet port on a piece of newspaper or toweling paper that is firmly on a flat surface so you don't blot the outlet filter. If I store a filled cart and then need to install it later I remove the orange cap, hold the cart over a wastebasket wtih some paper in it, and I blow gently into the air vent to be sure the outlet filter is wet before installing it into the printer.

Basically, what I am doing is eliminating or limiting the variables that can either cause poor prints or ruin a printhead. A bit more time spent, but it works for me.

Very interesting comments which whilst I have never done will certainly try in the future. My Canon Pixma 620 up to now has been fault free. I refill using OEM carts some bought S/H from E-bay oters from Octoink. I also use Octoink Canon compatible ink.I had low ink warning on Magenta replaced it immediately with a spare. 1 week later again low on Magenta, on inspection was still 90% full. I purged the first one and put that in. Again 1 week later same problem which I noticed in the print output anyway.

I topped up the first one and it has been printing happily ever since. The PGBK also emptied quickly but the replacement seems OK. I suspect flow problems and will certainly in future check for dryness of the output filter, and try your procedure as well. It seems a very good idea to reduce the number of variables as possible which you have done

 

[jjohnl]

It may be time to check out Craigs list for a replacement printer because I think the head is lost forever and is not coming back.
A new printer will be cheaper to get than a print head and youll also get a complete set of new cartridges.

Could you post a complete nozzle check on here so we can assess the results and see if there is any possibility of saving the head at all.

There's nothing to see with the nozzle check; a few smears and lots of white paper.

While your working on the print head you should only do nozzle checks and nothing else
and head alignments are of no use whatsoever unless you first have a fully functioning printer..

I wasn't actually trying to align the heads. I did the alignment because if it's not getting any ink it will stop; the nozzle check keeps trying.

 

[jjohnl]

I'm sorry to hear that your printhead appears to be dead. I read in your post that you reversed the process with windex and washing, didn't wash the windex out of the printhead afterward,

No, I washed the printhead thoroughly after the windex.

I can't tell you that my technique will work every time, but the only printheads I damaged further with cleaning were damaged by over-working the cleaning process. Gentle cleaning techniques are the key to the success I've had. I've never force-dried the printhead prior to doing a few cleanings and testing the nozzles.

You put a wet printhead back into the printer?

 

[fotofreek]

First of all, when I wash the ink or windex out of the printhead I direct a small stream of warm water onto the intake screens. When it runs clear I then run a very little bit of water onto the nozzle plate. I don't flood the entire printhead and I try not to get any splashes onto the electronics at the back. Before I reinstall the printhead I completely dry the electical contacts. A gentle blotting of the nozzle plate wouldn't hurt, either. I blot the water out of the wells that surround the ink intakes.

I expect what you meant with your question is if i left water inside the ink channels and nozzles. Yes. That water is replaced by ink with a few cleaning routines. I then check a nozzle test. No printing is done until I have a good nozzle test.

 

[jjohnl]

After many cleaning cycles, I was able to print a nozzle check, which was good except for two colors, PC and PM. While the other colors improved and finally lost their white lines over the course of many cleanings, these two haven't changed. So I went back to the windex followed by hot water and the nozzle check is exactly the same. I have at least 12 that look exactly like this:

And I would continue cleaning, except that the bottom of the printhead looks like this:

I confess I never looked at the bottom of the printhead when it was working right, but I believe the heavy lines and globs of ink aren't supposed to be there. I clean them off and they just keep coming back. So I think I see a new 9500 in my future. (I thought I'd give that a try since they're so cheap right now.)