Do you have an MP780?

[ghwellsjr]

I have been supplying refilled ink cartridges for over half a dozen MP780 printers. I refill with Inktec ink. The pigment black ink is very good at not smearing on the printed page if it happens to get wet.

However, everyone of these printers has developed a problem in which all the pigment black ink nozzles appear to be clogged because there is no grid pattern for them when you do a nozzle check.

It turns out that the problem has nothing to do with the print head itself, rather it is the pigment black ink purge pad gets clogged and as a result the printer cannot prime the pigment black nozzles.

So I'm asking anyone that has one of these printers to do a little experiment, even if your nozzle check is perfect and even if you use a different pigment black ink:

1) Open the printer cover and fold down the two internal flaps so that you can gain access to the print head.
2) After the print head stops in the center, deposit some Windex or other window cleaner or just plain water on the two purge pads. The purge pads are off to the right where the print head parks. You can do this with a syringe, an eye dropper or a straw. You will need to use a flash light.
3) Make sure the pool of liquid remains on the purge pads for a few seconds and doesn't drain away.
4) Close the cover and wait until the motor noises stop (about ten seconds).
5) Open the over and see whether the liquid has been sucked away from the two purge pads. They should appear dry.

Please report your findings here and what ink you use for your BCI-3eBk cartridges and thank you for your help.

In case you are interested in the history of this development you can read about it on this thread:

http://www.nifty-stuff.com/forum/viewtopic.php?pid=26346#p26346

There is a lot of learning going on during the first half of this thread, the first breakthrough occurs at post #13 when Trigger 37 advises that the purge pad needs to be cleaned and then post #19 when pourhaus discovers the secret to fixing the problem and then at post #38 when I began to understand these discoveries.

Pharmacist provided the alert concerning the clogging problem of Inktec black pigment ink on this post:

http://www.nifty-stuff.com/forum/viewtopic.php?pid=26813#p26813

Many thanks to all who have participated in this arduous exercise.

 

[pharmacist]

Hi ghwellsjr,

You could make cleaning cartridges for the BCI-3eBK cartridge and use them every 2 weeks to clean the purging pads to overcome the problem with the Inktec pigment ink (with 2 standard cleaning cycles for the pigment black only). This will prevent the ink from clogging the purging channels overtime or you could use the KMP pigment ink, which has much better flowing properties and from my own experience -and others from druckerchannel.de- does not clog the purging pads.

 

[ghwellsjr]

I have already decided to switch my supplier of pigment black ink and I'd really like to switch to KMP but I don't know how to get it here in the USA. Do you know of a way?

 

[leo8088]

I have been supplying refilled ink cartridges for over half a dozen MP780 printers.

However, everyone of these printers has developed a problem in which all the pigment black ink nozzles appear to be clogged because there is no grid pattern for them when you do a nozzle check.

It turns out that the problem has nothing to do with the print head itself, rather it is the pigment black ink purge pad gets clogged and as a result the printer cannot prime the pigment black nozzles.

I have refilled my MP780 for about 5 years. I found that the main cause of print head clogging is caused by not purging my BCI-3ebk ink cartridge. I never had a single problem with the purge unit. Besides, I have not reached the point the waste ink tank being almost full. This is credited to the fact that I rarely needed to run cleaning cycles. Most cleaning cycles were invoked by the printer itself. Maybe I did not build up much pigment black ink there so it did not clog up the pad.

I am on a 2nd print head though. I lost the first one because of an electronic defect (wrong cartridge message). My friend's MP780 also lost its print head the same way too. This must be the weak spot of Canon MP780.

 

[ghwellsjr]

Thanks for your reply, leo8088, but I'm really interested in knowing what brand of pigment black refill ink you use. I'm trying to learn is it's just Inktec pigment ink that has the problem.

 

[leo8088]

I actually don't know. I got it from Hobbicolors and it is their PMT-BK. I lost this thread for a while. Sorry.

 

[ghwellsjr]

That's what I wanted to know, thanks.

 

[Maureen23669]

You guys rock (again!)!
I scrounged a used i560 for 5 bucks at a thrift store. Ran a deep head cleaning and print pattern and all was good. I was VERY pleased. The next day, no pigment black, and it's a Canon cartridge.

Put a few drops of water onto the pads, closed, then opened the cover. The pigment pad was still coated with water, ink pad was clear. Did a deep cleaning of pigment with a few more drops of water, and now all is good.

I may go out to the garage and try this on my old MP780. That printer was my baby!

Thanks once again!