iP4700 Cyan Clogging.

[RMM]

My iP4700 printer has been driving me crazy this past week! I went to print something and the blue was obviously streaking/missing. Ok... I did a nozzle check. As many of you know, there are three shades of cyan/magenta on these printers. The darkest blue is all there, the next shade lighter partially there, and the lightest shade completely missing. I ran a clean cycle and all shades returned. I printed 10 photographs with no streaking problems whatsoever. I figured that it was just a clogged nozzle from inactivity.

The next day... the same problem occurred. Cleaned head again, nozzle check restored, printed without incident.

Yesterday... the same thing occurred. I was sick of printing a nozzle check and cleaning every time I wanted to print a photo with this printer. So I purged the cartridge clean (with pharmacist's method and fluid), dried it, refilled it, and flooded the purge pads with Windex. After I reinstalled the cartridge I proceeded to print 22 4x6 cards with heavy blue. No streaking, everything was fine. I came back a few hours later, printed a nozzle check, and again the lighter shades were starting to disappear again. Did another head clean and everything was back to normal. Proceeded to print 22 more cards (back sides) without incident.

The printer prints fine once cleaned and I don't suspect a flow problem because I can print lots of heavy blue photos in a row with no problems. Everything is fine unless I let the printer sit for a few hours.

Does anyone have any advice?

I am going to put a cleaning cartridge in and run some cleaning cycles and see if it fixes my problem. Maybe let it sit in the printer for a day or two, periodically printing nozzle checks. It almost seems like the cartridge loses it's "prime". I have checked and the seal and everything looks fine, the cartridge is seated correctly and the sponge appears to be making good contact with the print head.

Thanks for all of your help and advice!

 

[qwertydude]

Sounds like you have a seal problem somewhere. Did you remove the printhead and see if any ink buildup may cause a poor seal. Or also if the rubber seal on surrounding the metal screen in the intake is ok.

 

[ghwellsjr]

The last time someone had a problem like this, it was traced to bad cartridges. I recommend that you buy a new Canon OEM cyan cartridge from a different place than you have purchased them before try it out.

 

[RMM]

Thanks for the responses qwertydude and ghwellsjr.

I installed a cleaning cartridge last night (Windex) ran a few cleaning cycles and now will let it sit for a day or two.

If that doesn't work I will try another OEM cartridge (I've got a few installed in other printers.)

The questionable cartridge is the OEM cartridge that came with the printer. It worked fine until the last time I refilled it. I have since purged it and refilled it and the problem is still there. If the cleaning cartridge doesn't fix the problem I will definitely install another OEM cartridge and try that.

I also removed the print head. Underneath where the nozzles are is clean. No signs of leakage or ink contamination.

 

[ghwellsjr]

Make sure when you swap a cyan cartridge from another printer that it does not have the same problem in the other printer. In other words, do the same kind of printing and waiting that you are doing on the problematic printer and verify that it works without any problem. Then swap cartridges and see if the problem goes to the other printer. This is how you prove where the problem is (if it is in the cartridge). If you try to solve the problem some other way, you can temporarily mask the problem, making it more difficult to learn what the real problem was and possibly delaying the solution.

 

[RMM]

Good thinking ghwellsjr

 

[nche11]

RMM, I had a similar problem last year with my ip4200. I emailed Dave at Hobbicolors. He said my cartridges were leaking. I replaced the cartridge that was suspected and the problem was gone. You should try another cyan ink cartridge. Or you should check your cyan cartridge. How did you refill your cartridges? Did you do it exactly right? It may be just a minor mistake. It may go away if you refill the cartridge carefully one more time.

 

[pharmacist]

@nche11: could it be that you use the top refill method ? maybe a bad seal or a starving plug, causing a tiny and minute leak.

 

[RMM]

I refill using the German method. I have never made any holes in the top of these cartridges.

 

[RMM]

Quick Update:

After having a cleaning cartridge installed for about three days, I reinstalled the cyan cartridge with ink. After a few hours the lighter nozzle "clog" began to show up again.
Next step? Try a cartridge from my MX860.