Printhead Maintenance

[William Seaward]

To keep a printer healthy, should you have some kind of maintenance schedule for cleaning the printhead? Or is it best to do nozzle checks periodically and if something is detected, then do some cleaning cycles.

 

[The Hat]

There is no better maintenance on a Canon printer than to print regularly and leave the rest to the machine to look after itself using up your valuable ink to keep the heads nice and clear, all dough it doesn’t do any harm to flood the purge pads with Windex every couple of months..

 

[William Seaward]

I was thinking more of removing the printhead and doing a thorough cleaning with "Pharmacist Solution". This could also be a good way to clean out the printhead if you're not going to use it for awhile. I was even thinking of getting a used set of carts and having them dedicated for cleaning with "Pharmacist Solution", for those tough clogs.

Is there a printer potty for the Canon Pro printers?

 

[William Seaward]

all dough it doesn’t do any harm to flood the purge pads with Windex every couple of months

What does the Windex do for the purge pads?

 

[palombian]

I was thinking more of removing the printhead and doing a thorough cleaning with "Pharmacist Solution". This could also be a good way to clean out the printhead if you're not going to use it for awhile. I was even thinking of getting a used set of carts and having them dedicated for cleaning with "Pharmacist Solution", for those tough clogs.

Is there a printer potty for the Canon Pro printers?

As @The Hat said, regular use is the best.
Only if I plan not to need the printer for several months, I lay it up with cartridges filled with pharmacist solution (or better: printhead conservation solution).

Only do some cleaning cycles, do not print with these solutions, even not nozzle checks (I didn't know this before, but I have strong suspicion now it can harm the printhead).

 

[William Seaward]

As @The Hat said, regular use is the best.
Only if I plan not to need the printer for several months, I lay it up with cartridges filled with pharmacist solution (or better: printhead conservation solution).

I've never heard of printhead conservation solution before. I'm going to have to do some research on this. Thanks!

 

[William Seaward]

I found this link that explains it...

http://www.printerknowledge.com/threads/how-to-store-a-print-head.6343/#post-47497

 

[The Hat]

The Canon Pro printers don’t need any intervention on the part of the owners, they are very resilient at what they do, and so are best left alone to get on with it.

The Pro pigment printers that I have just work each time I turn them on and I never have to do any external maintenance to them, even when left for week on end without printing a single sheet.

The only help I give mine is to agitate the cartridges before installing them, other than that they work perfectly, and are happy to be left unused for 4 to 6 weeks, but I do flood the purge pads every 3 months to keep the pump in pristine condition.

Contrary to belief the Canon Pro pigment printers seldom if ever suffer from any sort of clog nozzles even after long periods of idleness but to make double sure I always start mine with Ink Quality Maintenance rather than the standard Nozzle Check first.

I use a Printer Potty on all my Pro printers and wouldn’t be without them, there’re great at monitoring ink usage, but there’re only worth while fitting if you can reset your own waste ink counter first, which fortunately I can.

Only do some cleaning cycles, do not print with these solutions, even not nozzle checks (I didn't know this before, but I have strong suspicion now it can harm the printhead).

If you install maintenance cartridges filled with cleaning solution, then don’t be tempted to print whilst there installed, not even a nozzle check, you can run head cleans nothing else, they are more suitable for Epson printers..

 

[William Seaward]

I use a Printer Potty on all my Pro printers and wouldn’t be without them, there’re great at monitoring ink usage, but there’re only worth while fitting if you can reset your own waste ink counter first, which fortunately I can.

Is there a program that can reset the waste ink counter on the Canon Pro printers? Is it a difficult process to get to the tubing that goes to the waste ink pads?

 

[Slagathor]

Is there a program that can reset the waste ink counter on the Canon Pro printers? Is it a difficult process to get to the tubing that goes to the waste ink pads?

Not for the newer ones, all you can do is give it a whirl though with the service tool...