Can print head recover from letting magenta run completely dry?

[stratman]

Ouch.....

I hand wash my dishes and put them in a rack to air dry, you muppet.

 

[Nancy R]

I went ahead with the soak in dish detergent as you suggested, as well as an 8-hour soak in a 1:3 ammonia:water solution. After rinsing and drying, I did a nozzle check. The magenta returned, and I didn't see the defect, but there were other absent colors. So I did two regular cleaning cycles and a deep cleaning cycles interspersed with nozzle checks. These are the results.

Would you suggest waiting overnight before any further cleaning cycles or some other action?

I appreciate your time and patience.

 

[stratman]

This looks like classic ink starvation. Ink is not flowing properly through the sponge material.

The probable solution is to either purchase new cartridges, preferrably OEM Canon that you can then refill, or flush your current cartridges and then refill them. Do this for every cartridge that displays defects in the nozzle check.

 

[Nancy R]

Oh really? That surprised me because they are the same cartridges that I had been using before the print head soaking and they had been giving good results on the nozzle checks previously. I put them back in the storage clips to keep them from drying out. But I will see if I can get the cartridges flowing properly again tomorrow. Thank you!

 

[stratman]

These cartridges were printing OK before the print head soak, right? If so, then what has caused the change?

• An irreparable electrical malfunction caused by short circuiting or physical damage to the circuit board or electrical contacts on the print head secondary to soaking. If this occurred then you will never see an improvement in the nozzle check. Did you let the print head dry completely before reinserting in the printer?
• An air bubble in the channels in the print head that ink is unable to push out. This can be resolved but you must not print anything other than nozzle checks until resolved or nozzles will burn out. You have done regular and deep cleaning cycles. There was also a maintenance purge when you reinserted the print head with the cartridges which is supposed to re-establish a patent channels of ink. This did not happen. Maybe letting the printer rest over night will help.
• Anything that impedes the flow of air into the cartridge to equilibrate pressures inside the cartridge as ink flows out of the cartridge will cause lack of ink flow. Ink inside the air maze or something sealing the air vent on top of the cartridge will cause this issue. The solution is to re-establish the air vent-maze patency. If ink is in the air maze then you can blow into the air vent to push the ink out. Do this over the sink or outside because ink will drip out of the cartridge!
  
• Malfunction of the purge system. When the printer is not in use the print head parks itself to one side, usually to the right as you look at the front of the printer. Underneath the print head are two purge pads that correspond to the shape and size of the nozzles underneath the print head. If one of the purge pads or the vacuum tubing gets clotted with old ink or some other malfunction of the system then ink flow from the cartridge will become poor. This would take longer than the time spent soaking a print head.
  
• Your refilled cartridges are not delivering a proper flow of ink to the print head. Long story short, the sponges can become gummed up causing poor ink flow both into the sponge from the spongeless side and out of the cartridge into the print head. Following my recommendation above will refresh these old cartridges. Once you flush and refill these cartridges, or use new OEM cartridges, the forum wisdom recommends refilling at the LOW warning, not the EMPTY warning to prevent this poor ink flow situation.

One thing to keep in mind is to print something every week or two that uses all the cartridges. A nozzle check is thought to suffice. Doing this, as well as refilling at the LOW warning, is believed to significantly reduce the risk of ink flow problems.

 

[Nancy R]

I let the print head dry for 23 hours in an 80 degree room with good circulation before I re-inserted it. It should have been completely dry.

I let the printer rest overnight (nozzle check 5), then removed the four offending cartridges and blew through the vent holes (nozzle check 6), then did a regular cleaning cycle (check 7) and a deep cleaning (8). Nozzle checks 5-8 look identical to 4, so I didn't bother scanning them.

Is it possible that when I soaked the print head that I introduced clogs into the printer head by using tap water? We have a water softener, but I think the water still has a high mineral content. Should I soak/rinse the print head in distilled water?

I appreciate your taking the time to work through this with me.

 

[stratman]

Nozzle checks 5-8 look identical to 4, so I didn't bother scanning them.

I appreciate your detailed and organized information.

At this point, either the print head has an irreparable electronic failure, which will require purchase of a new print head to resolve, or you need to attend to the cartridges, either flushing and refilling or purchasing new ones.

I would start with the cartridges. Flushing and then refilling is relatively simple, albeit messy, and is inexpensive to try (versus purchasing new cartridges).

 

[Nancy R]

That sounds reasonable. I will need to go out tomorrow and buy some distilled water to flush them. I will let you know how it goes afterward!

Thank you!

 

[stratman]

You are very welcome.

distilled water

You can use plain tap water unless you have hard water or contaminated water.

 

[The Hat]

a 1:3 ammonia:water solution

Two things come to mind that might explain the irregular nozzle checks.

one, is the soaking of the head in a 1:3 ammonia water solution, regardless of the quality of the water, that I reckon could be the culprit and running to many deep cleaning cycles can also cause electrical failure.

Soaking the print head in soapy water can never do the nozzles or the electrical contacts any harm but the same can’t be said for ammonia, there was never any suggestion that you should use such a harsh method.

It might be better to wait till there’s a good discount on the printers to get another one again, it’s a far better way to get a new print head and a set of inks for $100...
P.S You have nothing to lose by soaking the head again but this time use soapy water...