Pixma Pro 100 needs new print head

[Davidgstoy]

My Pro 100 needs a new print head. Any suggestions on where to get one?

 

[brwinters]

If you get one from eBay or a similar source, make sure to get one that's still sealed in its plastic packaging.

1. There's a storage fluid inside the print head to prime it for charging, which you don't want dried out or clogged.
2. If the print head is opened, it's probably been used in another printer -- you can't use a print head that's been installed in a different model of printer than yours, unless you are in service mode.

I got one that was not sealed but had been put back in its plastic carrier. Reported being installed years prior, and hit the error about being installed in a different model before. Put my Pro-2000 in service mode and bypassed that software lockout only to find dead nozzles. I wasted a few hundred at least in ink and MT costs before finally concluding it was for-sure dead and getting a refund for the head itself. Got a different one for a bit more, from some Japanese seller. Came way faster than expected, and it's been going in my printer ever since.

To clarify, there's an outer box, an inner plastic pouch, and then a plastic carrier. Make sure the plastic pouch is present and intact.

 

[The Hat]

Any suggestions on where to get one?

Don’t buy from EBay at all, use only official Canon agents in your country, or Canon.com..

 

[MooreDesignLabs]

I got one that was not sealed but had been put back in its plastic carrier. Reported being installed years prior, and hit the error about being installed in a different model before. Put my Pro-2000 in service mode and bypassed that software lockout only to find dead nozzles. I wasted a few hundred at least in ink and MT costs before finally concluding it was for-sure dead and getting a refund for the head itself. Got a different one for a bit more, from some Japanese seller. Came way faster than expected, and it's been going in my printer ever since.

Can you define a dead nozzle for me please? I ask because I assume the channel has flow when flushing but not when printing? I'm asking because I have one single color channel in a Pro-100 printhead that refuses any flow whatsoever. I can't imagine what could be blocking the flow inside the unit.

 

[brwinters]

Can you define a dead nozzle for me please? I ask because I assume the channel has flow when flushing but not when printing? I'm asking because I have one single color channel in a Pro-100 printhead that refuses any flow whatsoever. I can't imagine what could be blocking the flow inside the unit.

A dead nozzle, at least in my experience, is when a thermal print head nozzle has been electrically destroyed (usually by overheating, or running it dry which is just extreme overheating speedrun). I suppose yeah it would probably still pass ink during a cleaning cycle since the purge plate is mechanically flowing ink, not electrically firing it. But ink or not, it won't ever fire ink during printing. If I understand correctly -- Canon print heads are resistively fired (think of it as a thin wire that gets hot when you put electricity through it) so if you overload it without cooling, the line just blows open physically from my understanding. Here's a literal resistor overloading and blowing open to get the idea across -- a resistive nozzle element would just be a microscopic version of this in essence.

I think Canon print heads are supposed to have some overprovisioned ("spare") print nozzles to use if one dies but I don't remember where I heard that from. Plus it would have to be aware that it's dead in order to know to use a spare.

If you've tried solvent cleaning and the syringe methods maybe it is in fact a dead nozzle. Check out Jose Rodriguez's videos, he's a lot more knowledgeable about specifics than I am and I'm sure he's got plenty of videos about your issue.

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EDIT:
After re-reading I realized you meant an entire channel and not just one nozzle (like a horizontal line in the printout). Yeah if it's an entire channel I can't see why else it would lack any output. I've had the same thing happen with a Pro-2000 before and I had to replace the printhead.

 

[Artur5]

Usually, when a whole channel comes blank in the nozzle test and all the others are fine it means that an electronic component controlling the output of this channel has failed. Depending on the design of the printhead, sometimes only 25% or 50% of the nozzles are disabled, but the outcome it's the same : a new printhead is needed, unless you're OK. printing without that color in particular (for instance, if you print only black text ).

 

[MooreDesignLabs]

Usually, when a whole channel comes blank in the nozzle test and all the others are fine it means that an electronic component controlling the output of this channel has failed. Depending on the design of the printhead, sometimes only 25% or 50% of the nozzles are disabled, but the outcome it's the same : a new printhead is needed, unless you're OK. printing without that color in particular (for instance, if you print only black text ).

This is exactly what I am silver lining this project as. I'm going to do some more testing with it. But every other color works and I only print in grayscale 95% of the time. If my attempts at restoring flow to the channel don't work, I'll adopt it for grayscale prints.

 

[Artur5]

In spite of having gray inks, the Pro-100/200 printers use also a blend of other colors to simulate different gradient of grays on the paper. If one the colors is missing ( for instance magenta ) your grayscale prints will appear greenish in some areas. That won’t happen printing pure black text on ordinary paper. Problem is that the Pro100 isn’t exactly the best option for printing text. Great quality but slow as a comatose snail. and the text won’t be water fast because it’s dye ink.

 

[MooreDesignLabs]

I was worried about that becoming evident in the prints. Printing grayscale without any photo magenta flow produces results that are still very much workable as grayscale. Worst case scenario, I'm running this head for grayscale prints until something else happens to it.