Help with Canon Pro9000 II - Clogged head or ink starvation issue?

[jondave]

Hi, I've had my Pro9000 II for about 4 months now and have been refilling my OEM cartridges (top fill method) for the last 3 months. With regards to usage I've approximately consumed only 1 set of OEMs, 1 refilled set of UW-8, and 1 refilled set of IS inks (except for the Red and Green which hardly get consumed). I currently have IS inks in the printer.

I haven't used the printer for the last 2 weeks until 3 days ago. I performed a deep clean first, then after printing about 10 sheets of 4"x6" photos I suddenly get banding in the middle of a print job. So I immediately did a deep clean again and printed out a nozzle check pattern, which showed banding in all cartridges except Y and G. Did a deep clean again, DIFFERENT banding pattern, but same cartridges. Clogged heads I thought, so I took the head out for cleaning.

I let running tap water on the ink receptors until the water was clear, then let the head sit on a pool of Windex for about 2 hours, where every 20 minutes I would do a reverse flush using a syringe with a tubing attached to the ink pads. To dry of the head I poured household isopropyl alcohol on the ink pads, then taped a paper towel on the bottom of the print head to wick away fluids in the chambers and let it sit for half a day.

I installed the head back, and the same problem occurs but now only appears on PC, PM, M, C. I couldn't run a head alignment either as the ink clog error comes up. So I thought I didn't clean the head long enough, so I repeat my cleaning process again but now for half a day, and the same half day for the drying process.

So I installed the head back yesterday, did a deep clean, and I still get banding on the PC, PM, M, and C channels. Still couldn't run a head alignment. But one thing I noticed is that the banding pattern was different in between the deep cleans, so it may be a ink starvation issue I thought. So to test this I loaded my spare set of OEM R G B PC PM and UW-8 refilled-OEM C M Y, ran a nozzle chack, and it comes out ok EXCEPT the for the PC which is still banding.

So it's an ink starvation issue I thought, but I can't understand as I'm using an OEM PC cartridge. Anyway, I ran a deep clean, nozzle check shows PC is still banding badly, but less than before. I repeated the deep clean about 4 times, with the PC showing less banding after each nozzle check, but still doesn't disappear. At this point my cartridges went from about 90% full down to 20%, EXCEPT for the OEM PC which went from about 90% to about 80%

So could it be my refilled OEM cartridges are starving the heads? Could my OEM PC cartridge be defective as well? Or is my head damaged and I need to replace it? HELP!

 

[jtoolman]

Yes, yes and maybe, to your last sentence. The only way to eliminate an ink starvation sitiation would be to install a brand new set of OEM carts and see whether you are still experiencing the sale problem. That would answer your first two questions. Heads will be damaged if run dry. As in printing full images with carts that are not feeding enough ink or are empty.

I have a feeling it is an ink starvation problem but I am not yet sufficiently experienced the Canon sponged cartridges to be 100% sure.

 

[jondave]

How should the sponge in refilled-OEM cartridges look to assess if they're properly feeding the head? I ask this because my refilled cartridges don't saturate with ink as much (i.e., heavily saturated at bottom half and lightly saturated at the top half) as the still sealed OEM ones. I remember drying them after (water) purging using the paper towel method left overnight, then baking the carts for 2 hours in a fan forced oven on 65C heat. Did I overly dry them?

 

[jtoolman]

Like I said, I am no expert on the physics of sponged carts but from what I've experienced on refilling my OWM CLI-9s for my PRO 9000 MKII I always get a visually more saturated bottom third portion of the sponge and some times the top surface is almost white. I top fill and exchange the complete set whenever any color reaches 30%. That way I minimize haveing to conatantly exchange an empty cart for a filled one. Also gives me time to refill the second standby set for when ever it is needed.
I also used inks from Precission Colors and didn't even bother to purge the original carts. Just added my new PC ink and all was fine. I di not see any major difference.

 

[stratman]

How should the sponge in refilled-OEM cartridges look to assess if they're properly feeding the head? I ask this because my refilled cartridges don't saturate with ink as much (i.e., heavily saturated at bottom half and lightly saturated at the top half) as the still sealed OEM ones. I remember drying them after (water) purging using the paper towel method left overnight, then baking the carts for 2 hours in a fan forced oven on 65C heat. Did I overly dry them?

Some people want the sponge of a refilled cartridge to look like the sponge of a new cartridge - the top portion white and untouched by ink. I don't care. My sponges can be colored by ink completely and do not present a problem. You can, however, overfill a cartridge and the sponge will not have any white. A drip will occur until enough ink has been removed. Also, overfilling can lead to ink rising above the sponge and getting into the air maze causing blocking of air exchange in the cartridge and preventing ink leaving the cartridge during printing. Blowing into the cartridge from above the air maze, or purging the cartridge, should unblock the air maze/vent.

More important than keeping some white in a sponge when refilling is having a non-compliant sponge that does not take up ink readily. In this case, there will be too much white (or lighter ink color) sponge compared to a new cartridge sponge. It has been hypothesized that completely drying a sponge can cause this issue. Baking a cartridge at 65C may not be a good idea if you want to maintain the structure and function of the sponge.

What to do? You could squirt ink onto the sponge either through the ink exit port or, if you use the Durchstich method, squirt ink under the sponge to further moisten the sponge. You could try purging again but not bake or completely dry out the sponge before refilling - posters have commented how a slightly wet sponge more readily takes up ink than a dry sponge. You could also try Pharmacists sponge reconditioning formula.

Nifty-Stuff.com Pharmacist's cartridge flush/conditioning solution recipe:

-3 % propylene glycol (or 2 % glycerin)
-20 % isopropyl alcohol
-distilled water up to 100 %

This solution has been tested by several forum members already and they are very happy with it. It also enhances the absorption degree of ink into the sponge after flushing, especially with the difficult pigment based BCI-3eBK/PGI-5Bk cartridge.

Conditioning: after flushing the sponge has difficulty to absorb the ink well and tends to be become a bit hydrofobic (water repellent). By completely immerge and drenching the sponge material with this solution and then blowing as much solution as possible the sponge is revived again. The pigment BCI-3eBK/PGI-5Bk is the most difficult one and using this conditioning solution improves the absorption degree of your favourite refill pigment ink.

 

[stratman]

Forgot to write ---

You can now post an image(s) to show us your nozzle check. Avoid performing printer cleanings or printing anything else until we can see and hopefully diagnose your problem.

 

[mikling]

Why was the step to dry off the heads performed? This, I suspect is where the problem is. My own experience is that I stop doing this completely. Remember that new printheads are not shipped dry. They have liquid which I think is based on glycerin or something similar.

Printheads do not suffer from their internals being wet, so after flushing them, they can be left soaking in liquid bath while the cartridges are being worked on. This prevents any deposits from forming. Additionally, when the ink is reintroduced, the internal wetted surfaces will naturally draw the ink along. If the internals were completely dry, it is possible that air pockets will remain even after ink is reintroduced.

Whether it is air pockets or deposits, it is going to be hard to determine. What I would do is rerinse the printhead, soak it again for a few hours but this time, after drying off the surfaces only, reinstall it back into the printer and install the cartridges. Do a nozzle check and if necessary do a normal cleaning and then let the printer with cartridges rest for a day. This will allow the ink to seep in all the crevices and nozzles if they had not been wetted.

I've lost two printheads due to attempts of storing a known good used one and then reusing them from storage. I had done this before with success but I am now totally leery of storing used printheads as my attempts to clean them properly poses risks of not being totally clean and causing problems upon reuse.

 

[jondave]

I just put in a brand new PC cart. Here are scans of my nozzle checks, each one printed after a deep clean. Notice the banding pattern for the PC is different everytime -

I've seen prints from damaged heads, and consistent banding pattern is a common symptom, which is not the case here. So is it safe to say that this is a clogging/starvation issue rather than nozzle/head damage?

 

[jondave]

I currently have the print head soaking on top of a paper towel in windex. I can see the Windex being absorbed by the receptors when I deposit small amounts on top - all EXCEPT for the PC receptor. To agitate the head I slightly push the head down on to the paper towel, and I can even see small amounts of windex come out of the receptors - EXCEPT for the PC. Surely a sign of a clog?

 

[The Hat]

I currently have the print head soaking on top of a paper towel in windex. I can see the Windex being absorbed by the receptors when I deposit small amounts on top - all EXCEPT for the PC receptor. To agitate the head I slightly push the head down on to the paper towel, and I can even see small amounts of windex come out of the receptors - EXCEPT for the PC. Surely a sign of a clog?

Your method of purging your cartridges with water can in itself cause problems if you live in a hard water area.

Dying your cartridges out with paper towels should have being sufficient enough to get 99% of the water out
but I am not sure cooking them was such a good idea at all and that maybe the route of your ink problems.

Doing deep head cleaning servers no purpose other than wasting ink a normal head clean is usually enough to clear most clogs.

Looking at your nozzle check its quite possible that you have damaged your print head
the PC printout shows signs of that but lets just say the jury is still out.

That said if you have already tried a new OEM PC cartridge and the results are still the same then your print head is
definitely fried and no amount of cleaning will clear the problem.

Your should start and purge all of your cartridges again this time leaving out the cooking bit
while you wait for a new print head sorry..