ip4500 pale printing

[popsy]

I recently purchased a used Canon ip4500. It has started printing very pale. The carts appear to still have ink and I don't get a low ink notification. The ink is Canon. I'm not familiar enough with this printer to know what the problem might be. Nozzle check attached.

 

[ghwellsjr]

Are the colors of your printout off or just pale?

 

[popsy]

The cyan looks about right but the magenta is too blue and the yellow has a tinge of blue. Hmmm. Sounds like the cyan is not keeping its place.

 

[PeterBJ]

Hi popsy

I agree with your findings. It also looks like that to me. Also note the vertical bars on both sides of the letters C-C-C-M-M-M-Y-BK: These bars should be different shades of neutral grey. They are made by printing a mix of all three colors in the right proportions to make a neutral grey. They are shifted towards a dark green, indicating a problem with magenta and yellow, caused by the contamination by cyan.

This cross contamination could be caused by a leaking seal inside the printhead or a leaking cyan cartridge. Was the printer OK when you bought it and has the error appeared later? Do the cartridges look like new OEM's or do they appear to have been tampered with, indicating a refill? If a refill is not done properly, it could cause a cartridge to leak and create just the symptoms your printer shows.

To increase the chances of solving your problem a little more info please.

Has the ink level in the cyan cartridge suddenly dropped when the error occurred?

Do the cyan ink appear to have been wicked up into the yellow and magenta cartridges?

Do your cartridges look like these?

and show no telltale signs of refilling like these?

From left to right: First cartridge has been refilled by the "German Method" This hole is about 1/16" or 1.5 mm. The second has been filled from the top and the refill hole has been sealed with hot melt glue. The third cartridge has been filled from the top and sealed with a silicone rubber plug. The thee first cartridges are OEM. The fourth is a third party AKA compatible cartridge, which has beed filled from the top and sealed with a screw. Note different label.


You are 100% sure your cartridges are new OEM's ?. I have had terrible experiences with bad 3rd party cartridges leaking and causing exactly the same problems as yours.

Peter.

UPDATE: The picture showing the refilled cartridges has been updated as requested by stratman.

 

[stratman]

PeterBJ:

Great graphic of the major refilling method cartridge appearances. Very clean and neat. Well done.

If you include a top hole sealed with a screw then you would have the 4 major methods displayed.

 

[popsy]

As far as I can tell, they look like unrefilled Canon carts. They came with the printer. The cyan cart is almost full, the others less in them. The colors look as I expect the ink to look. The printer worked fine when I got it. A nozzle check came with the printer (ordered on-line) and it looked good, the same way it looked when I printed. I have used it seldom, recently, I would just print out a nozzle check at least weekly to keep it open. I noticed the check looking different a couple of weeks ago but it wasn't skipping lines so I just sort of ignored the fact that it seemed to be dimmer. Until I printed today and finally had to pay attention.

 

[ghwellsjr]

You don't see any green color around the outlet port in the yellow cartridge?

 

[PeterBJ]

If the labels on the cartridges look right, it is OEM cartridges. The labels on third party cartridges are different. Also if you take a closer look at a Canon OEM cartridge you will see that the sponge is actually made from two different sponges. Except for some very old and rare cartridges all third party cartridges only contain one sponge. The two sponge design is patented, and the two sponge compatibles were banned.

The Canon OEM cartridges are very high build quality and very unlikely to leak if not damaged or improperly refilled.

Sadly that indicates to me that the internal seal (a kind of rubber gasket) has failed, so you will need a new print head. I think it is impossible to repair the seal and and taking the print head apart could result in electric failure that could burn out the main board, rendering the printer totally worthless. The Canon part number is QY6-0067-000, so you can search for one.

The Canon printers using the BCI-3/6 and PGI-5/CLI-8 cartridges are very popular. The build quality is high and the cartridges have a fair capacity and are transparent and therefore easily refilled. Some later models have smaller partly or totally opaque cartridges which are more difficult to refill, and the build quality is lower. So if you are able to find a reasonably priced print head I recommend buying it.

Good luck with the search
Peter.

 

[popsy]

Bad news for me, but I bought this printer specifically for its carts so I'm not giving up now. Just a quick look around the net shows me a new printhead for $79, or a refurb one for $41. Any thoughts on which would be the better choice? Both are from inkjetprinthead.com.

 

[popsy]

dhwells, I don't see any green color around the yellow cart.