Canon i860 - how to tell if printheads work or damaged?

[Bob_M]

Hi all;

Ealier this week I was printing about 50 pages of color screen prints
on regular paper. All printed well as always.

Two days later I seem to get NO blacks at all or at least none of the
3eBK output. I tried new cartridges and also soaking and cleaning the
print head unit. Still no 3eBK black using the nozzle check.

Any ideas or suggestions on how one determines if the printhead
mechanism needs replacing?

TIA

 

[Taliesyn]

Hi all;

Ealier this week I was printing about 50 pages of color screen prints
on regular paper. All printed well as always.

Two days later I seem to get NO blacks at all or at least none of the
3eBK output. I tried new cartridges and also soaking and cleaning the
print head unit. Still no 3eBK black using the nozzle check.

Any ideas or suggestions on how one determines if the printhead
mechanism needs replacing?

TIA

Hmmm. I tried soaking and cleaning without luck for a previous i860
printhead which was producing vertical print lines on photos. You're
next resort is either to get warranty help from Canon if it still in
date. Or, you can simply get a new printhead yourself on eBay for about
$55 US (free shipping, I believe), which is what I ended up doing. The
replacement seems to work better than the original.

The i860 is my "workhorse" printer and runs on bulk filled ink
cartridges (costs me but $5 to fill all five). And my iP5000 is my
privileged printer for those special high quality jobs. It uses
prefilled cartridges (Formulabs inks) for colour and bulk black for the
BCI-3e. No problems at all at the moment and both printers are used
almost every day on rather light jobs. I've never had to clean/prime the
printhead other than when I change cartridges. It's wise to do a nozzle
check often to make sure things are as they should. Some people even go
to the extreme of aligning the printhead every morning. But unless
you're in the business of selling your product, I think that's a rather
extreme measure. Though I may perhaps make it at least a weekly
maintenance thing.

-Taliesyn