Waste ink almost full

[ghwellsjr]

...I wondered how difficult it is to clean the sponge pad. I can see this pad under the printer head. Do you need to remove it and wash it out?

The small pad(s) that you can see by looking into the printer with the cover up where the print head parks is not the pad that is being discussed here. These small pads and the tubing that goes down to the large pad that covers the bottom of the printer can be cleaned easily by squirting a little Windex (or just plain water) on them and doing a cleaning cycle. You do not need to nor should you attempt to remove them.

The large pad that is being discussed in this thread cannot be seen or cleaned without dismantling the printer.

 

[websnail]

It has been suggested in the past that it's worth considering drilling a large bore hole or two in the base of the printer (where the pads are located obviously) and then locating the printer over a drip tray of some sorts.

That way, no need to worry about overflow and you can reset as and when required. Obviously you do need the service manual to be able to ID the location of the pads properly and you would want to be VERY careful when drilling... Should work just fine though

 

[kayin_1993]

Walk-through for Cannon IP1600 Waste ink absorber full prob:


Cleaning Waste Ink Absorber Cannon IP1600 without tearing the whole printer apart(theres no need to, really.)

Materials needed:
Cotton buds, tissue paper, warm water,long tweezers/ Chopsticks (its quite useful if you know how o use it),toothpick/something with a fine end, torch


1)Unplug the printer. Put it on you desk so its easier to work with.


2)Lift up the cover of the printer. There should be a whitish kind of tape-like ribbon attached to the ink cartridges. The ink cartridges should be the the very right end of the interior of the printer.


3)Gently pull the ribbon the is attached to the cartridges so as to expose the waste ink absorbers that nest directly underneath the original position of the cartridges. For your convenience you can just pull the cartridges to the very end so you have a bigger working area. The waste ink absorbers are really tiny,hard and flat pieces of material that are around 1+ to 2cm long in breath and length.


4)Using a torch, locate the waste ink absorbers (2). They should be held by two small black flaps each. If you are really not sure just use a tissue and feel around. The area where you get a exceptionally much ink stains should be at/pretty near the absorbers. Using tweezers/chopsticks, remove the absorbers carefully(don't lose it). You might wanna clean up the interior abit using cotton buds..


5) Press each absorber gently in between layers of tissues to get some ink out first. After that just rinse it with warm water. (I just used warm water, but if you have cleaning agents you can go ahead and use them) Dry it in between layers of tissues and air it abit for further drying.


6) After it is dried you can put them back to their original positions. Keep them in place with the flaps on the sides. The flaps can be easily put in place with the help of toothpick/fine end objects. If you cannot reach the flaps just use the tweezers to help you with it.


7) Next up, at the base of the interior of the printer you can feel something soft and spongy. It looks like a long grey piece of delicate sponge. Clean that too if it is dirty. Replace it after cleaning and drying. Be careful not to tear it and remember to put it back securely, by using cotton buds to tuck it into place, if not it might interfere with printing process or come lose while printing.


8) Reset your waste ink counter (there are walk-throughs online)


9) If not reset your printer. I did.

[ Step 1 : Manual Temporary
1. Unplug power and USB.
2. Open cover and hold power button.
3. Connect the printer cable.
4. Close door, then release power button. ]


Kay thats all folks! I had a REALLY TOUGH time trying to figure out all these myself, GAWD. Hope my experience will be helpful to you though!

 

[kayin_1993]

Sorry for the lack of URLs and credits. the forum won't let a newbie post htmls

 

[Grandad35]

Here is a thread showing a printer that was reset several times without cleaning the pads.

 

[ghwellsjr]

Kayin, you are not cleaning the waste ink absorber pads. Those are what we call the purge pads and they are really just ceramic sponges that are used during the purging and head cleaning processes. As Grandad35 pointed out, you are going to end up with a big mess if you keep reset the counter without actually cleaning or replacing the absorber pads. Here are several links having to do with this subject:

http://www.nifty-stuff.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=4880
http://www.nifty-stuff.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=4881
http://www.nifty-stuff.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=4882

 

[DustMite]

From my experience, the hardest part about replacing the absorber pads is figuring out where all the screws are to disassemble it. Once you've taken one apart a few times it becomes easy enough. It takes longer to take it apart that it does to actually replace the pads.