Can print head recover from letting magenta run completely dry?

[The Hat]

@Nancy R, I would say, looking at your latest nozzle check that your good to go, the head will settle down and clean up as you print more, I reckon congratulation is for having the patience to take things nice and slow to get these results, and to your mentor @stratman...

 

[Nancy R]

Really? I can print real stuff other than nozzle checks now?

I thought that the presence of consistent defects in the cyan throughout all of this meant that my printer head was permanently damaged and it was time to throw in the towel. But I'm not arguing. If you think I can print regularly, I'm happy to proceed.

Thank you very much to both you and Stratman. I'm not well-versed enough in using the forum to know if I'm tagging properly, so I'll just trust that you know that I mean well.

All this refilling and cleaning now means I'm due to buy more ink. I have been happy with the Octoinkjet ink, except the yellows seem weak, and I was considering trying Precisioncolors because of all the profiling work already done. Do I have to worry about gelling when the OEM ink mixes with the Precision colors ink in the print head? Or is that a question for a different thread?

 

[stratman]

Do I have to worry about gelling when the OEM ink mixes with the Precision colors ink in the print head?

YES! Plain water may cause Yello Gello, as will Precision Colors refill Yellow. You need to flush the OEM Yellow cartridge first before refilling.

Are you aware of the procedure using Windex, or equivalent, FIRST for several flushes before using water to complete the flushing? Our fearless moderator @The Hat came up with the procedure, I think.

 

[stratman]

Congratulations on the significant improvement with your print head. Time will tell if any nozzles are truly burned out or just clogged. If @The Hat says you can print again then you can print again!

If you notice any missing ink in your prints then you can try printing in High Quality mode. This lays down more ink and takes longer but the increased ink output may cover up and missing nozzles.

 

[Nancy R]

Thank you again for your help. Do you just flush with Windex with Ammonia until the cartridge looks clear, and then flush with water? Or is there a more precise methodology?

 

[stratman]

Yes, Windex with Ammonium D is recommended.

Here is @The Hat 's instructions on how to flush the Yellow cartridge to avoid Yello Gello (his term).
You may substitute water in place of Pharmacist's Solution (used to enhance refill ink uptake in the sponge).

 

[Nancy R]

Thank you very much.

I am thinking that Pharmacist's Solution is a solution concocted by someone named Pharmacist on the forum, with the pertinent ingredients listed afterwards, rather than Pharmacist's Solution being a particular ingredient in the final mixture, right? Still finding my way around a bit, but slowly learning.

But I am grateful for the permission to use water instead.

I had gone with OctoInkjet before because you could mix the yellows with OEM ink, but unfortunately, the yellow seems to be underpowered compared to the other colors. Hopefully I will have more success with the Precision Colors.

Thank you both for pointing me toward the information.

 

[stratman]

Pharmacist's Solution is a solution concocted by someone named Pharmacist

Yes.

I had gone with OctoInkjet before because you could mix the yellows with OEM ink

Forum member Websnail, the owner-operator of Octoinkjet, initially thought his Yellow did not cause Yello Gello but then he reconsidered and added a warning on mixing with OEM CLI-42 Yellow.

Glad to hear you did not suffer the Yello Gello.

 

[Nancy R]

Oh, I didn't realize that that Websnail was of Octoinkjet. Now your previous comment inviting Websnail to give props to the others makes more sense to me.

I never even got to use the cartridge flushing clips. I realized that I had clips that were meant for different cartridges. It's possible that I just clicked the wrong button when I ordered. But the syringe method worked fine for me, and I'm comfortable with using them, so all was well.

I went back and read the warnings Aug 2017 on the Octoinkjet site, and it sounds like a very small minority of customers were having issues, so they opted to be safe and use the alternate cartridges. I am happy to report that in my case, at least, there was no Yello Gello result from mixing the inks.

Are cartridge chips color specific? In other words, if I want a spare yellow cartridge ready to go, can I take a chip from a defunct light gray cartridge and apply it to the yellow, since I can't buy an old yellow cartridge for the chip anymore? Or would I just need to buy an OEM yellow cartridge and harvest the chip?

Thank you for your continued help.

 

[PeterBJ]

Cartridge chips are coded both for cartridge type and colour, so only a chip from a CLI-42 yellow cartridge can be used on an after market yellow cartridge. The use of a grey chip on an after market yellow cartridge will identify that cartridge as grey, independent of what colour of ink it actually contains.