Cleaning a Canon printhead manually 

That’s great to hear. Glad it helped.

Exactly the result we always hope for.. Glad it helped.

Glad it was helpful!

Good to hear it’s helping keep a few more devices out of landfill a bit longer..

Thanks... the key with that compressed air is always the "slight" part though right? Heard too many horror stories of people going all out and wondering why things didn't work... 😕

Interesting idea.. Word of caution though.. make sure working in a well ventilated area in case there’s any fumes from the cleaning solution, particularly ammonia, etc…

Glad it helped!

お役に立てて光栄です。 ご意見ありがとうございます。 Glad we could help. Thank-you for your feedback.

Thank-you for your feedback

No plans specifically as Canon printers are life limited by the availability (or rather lack thereof!) of printheads. But if we can clear the backlog of printers we still have pending we’ll certainly consider it.

I'd be guessing as to cause but the things I'd definitely be looking at are: - Whether the cartridges themselves are feeding properly - Is ink age a factor - Does a set of new OEM cartridges work (not refilled, genuine ink carts) - Is the cleaning system still intact and functioning (has the tube or other parts perished/disconnected from the capping station or has the capping station itself got a leaky gasket/skirt. Of course the other thing to be doing is testing across all three printers. You can't magically have the same issue hit all three printers unless the factor is common which is why I'd be leaning towards the cartridges and ink as the most likely culprits. Using OEM inks removes the variables hence that suggestion. Let us know how you get on.

@@octoinkjet swapped the heads with another printer. Prints correctly now. Apparently something went wrong with the printer, not the head.

Good to hear you've found a fix. At least you have plenty of other printers to be able to figure it all out.

It certainly would be useful but with a variety of different printer carriage designs and because I lack enough examples to demonstrate the process I’ll have to leave that for a different video. Worth noting that the printhead removal process is covered in the Canon user manual for each model (barring some higher end units like the Pro-1) but if you’ve got any you’ve struggled to find guides for please comment below and I’ll add it/them to my to-do list.

Appreciate the comment but you don't appear to have watched the video properly if at all. This video is about cleaning a removable Canon printhead, not an Epson type which you appear to be talking about. Your warning about minimal pressure is absolutely correct for Epson printhead cleaning but again, due to the design of Canon printheads (as per the one shown in the video) it's near impossible to apply too much pressure to these because the tubing will pop off if you even try. You also wouldn't clean a Canon printhead in the actual printer or you really would risk spraying the insides of the printer with cleaning solution.

@@octoinkjet I tried to clean printhead while it's inside the printer. I applied more pressure because I thought it's clogged. Tubing bursted and sprayed the printer as you said. I should've removed it before trying to clean it. Your guide is helpful, I appreciate it. But I think cleaning printer with this method is dangerous. Ordinary people should stick with putting warm wet napkin under the printer head and let it rest for a day.

Yikes! Okay... definitely not a good idea to attack the printer clog inside the printer, but it sounds like you've learned some important lessons, much as we have ourselves in the past. I do wonder how much pressure you were trying to apply such that the tubing actually split. Can you explain a bit further why you feel the process would be "dangerous"?

@octoinkjet I applied a lot of pressure to the air inside tubing condansated 3ml. This method can damage your print head if you don't know the pressure you need to apply, like me. I thought it's a pipe that the solution would flow. But it's more like cleaning something, only dripping a few drops every 5 seconds. It's so hard to understand if it's unclogged or not.

Thanks for the extra information. It's probably worth you looking for examples of printhead disassembly's to understand how applying a lot of pressure is a bad idea. The design has a number of places where that pressure would just blow a gasket or similar if the ink itself was not moving. In terms of understanding if the printhead is unclogged, the only real way to be sure is to rinse, dry and reinstall to run a nozzle check. There's no real visual way to verify outside of the printer itself.

The key areas to dry are the circuit board in the rear and other electronics. Rinsing with deionised or distilled water should remove any conductive materials but better to rinse and dry as much as possible to avoid shorting out the electronics and potentially bricking your printer.

Would always recommend you rinse with distilled or deionised water to remove any lingering traces of cleaning solution, then let the printhead dry off before installing. As for leaving the printhead to soak overnight. That's only something we've done if the clog is beyond stubborn as the printhead cleaning solution can damage the printhead. Always good idea to check with the solution distributor to see if it's suitable for short or long term use.

We don’t have access to the recipe but a good recipe that is publicly available can be found if you web search : printer knowledge recipe cleaning pharmacist.

For the US look up InkOwl. Not sure if it’s the same solution but they’ll have something similar.

It probably can but my own experience of ultrasonics was limited when I effectively destroyed the internal nozzles system in a Canon printhead I was testing. Doubtless the bath I was using was incorrectly setup but I've never found the time or suitable reference materials to take another stab at it. That aside, it's worth remembering that not many end-users are likely to have the necessary equipment so, while this is a long winded approach this is one of those times where I resort to our family motto, "If it's stupid and it works, it ain't stupid!" ;)

@@octoinkjet yes agreed we also use "If it aint broke dont fix it ":-) thanks

Glad it helped. As for the old carts. Best to toss them and start fresh. 2 years for the dye inks (the CLI type) will likely have encouraged biological growth inside while the pigment PGI ink will likely have clumped. Best to move on..

Thank you for your quick reply. I suspected the old carts might be done for...glad I asked. How do you feel about refilling OEM carts with ink from Precision Colors? I saw this on another vid. Thanks again.

They're marketed as a similar ink quality to our own, as are InkOwl so those are options if you're based in North America.

Best guess is that the printhead manifold is very different compared to other pigment ink printers like the Pro10… Might be worth dropping them a line to ask why though.

We use a cleaning solution formulated for bubblejet printhead so basically HP and Canon printers. We don’t have the specific recipe as our supplier doesn’t share that information but hope that helps identify suitable options.

I can’t find any references for that error code. Can you check and confirm the code please.

​@@octoinkjet Sorry for the mistake i meant B200 error code...😊

Ah, The B200 is a bit of a catch all error relating to the printhead. Cleaning might help but given that your printhead is probably coming up for 8+ years old it may simply be that the printhead is dead. Recommend you check printerknowledge.com to see if you can find any hints and tips that might help.

We always cap the cartridges with the orange covers/caps that come with the cartridges when you get them. Just rubber band them in place if need be. Failing that, use some cling film (Saran wrap?).

I’ve tried but not had much success with pigments. There’s undoubtedly a suitable solvent that will remove any ink but it could damage the gradient markings on the strip. On balance I’d probably recommend replacement if you can get the part.

@@octoinkjet thank you. I ask because there’s an error about the print head alignment and turning it off hasn’t made any difference. I print a lot in black

Not sure what would cause that but my guess is you're on the right track.

Depends on the printer model. Which printer do you have?

@@octoinkjet Thank you for your response. I have a Canon Pixma MG 6200.

This RU-vid video should provide some clues: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-dArneRy0HUg.html

Thank you very much! Now clean, it works like new!!

We do have adapters that work with the Pro-10/9500 and 300 printheads but they aren't yet listed along with the cleaning kit (will update when I get that done). In terms of cleaning solution, I generally recommend against using Isopropyl or any other alcohol on its own (even with water) as it has a nasty tendency to cement clogs in situ rather than breaking them down. A tried and tested cleaning solution for printheads is preferable as a result.

@@octoinkjet hi thanks for your reply, it really helps as I had no idea alcohol could have a cementing effect if diluted - I feel like that’s exactly what has happened to the magenta nozzle as it didn’t print a single bit of colour after the first time using the alcohol solution whereas before that the magenta had no issue whatsoever. It’s really stressing me out now to think I have made it worse! What would you advise I do now? Will a printhead cleaning solution unclog the damage? I have been using your technique in this video of pressing the printhead on a wet paper towel and can see water wicks up through all of the nozzles to the mesh except magenta, not even the tiniest drop of liquid appears there. I have tried using a tube to blow through it but as mentioned, due to the ink port’s oval shape it’s really hard to get a good fit. After watching more troubleshooting videos I have even tried Windex on a paper towel hoping that will break down the stubborn clog but so far nothing.

If you have access to Windex then check it has ammonia in its ingredients. The EU/UK version is not allowed to use ammonia so it's not nearly as effective. If not, the cleaning solution is probably worth a try but I would probably look at buying a new printhead and accepting it as a sort of teaching fee for the lessons learned. The main lesson to learn though is to regularly use the printer so it doesn't have the chance to clog up so readily...

@@octoinkjet I live in the UAE and it’s proving really difficult to get a new part (been quoted over 250 GBP + a 30 day wait!), so until that’s a success I can only keep trying to repair. The windex doesn’t state ammonia in its ingredients but neither does the label specify it’s “ammonia-free” so a cleaning solution is my next attempt however without the appropriate adapters for the ink port I can’t ensure I carry out the procedure correctly. I have tried unscrewing the screws on either side of the white plastic underneath (as per a video on repairing the QY6-0086 printhead) but can’t flip it open to manually unclog anything because it’s attached to the long metal plate - Any tips on how to carefully open this part? It is loose since removing screws but feels like some kind of latch is preventing it from fully opening and I don’t want to force it without some technique advice.

Sorry, completely missed this reply. I'd recommend visiting printerknowledge.com and searching on there for posts with keywords "canon disassembly printhead" as that should turn up some useful resources. There shouldn't be a latch on the head (assuming I'm interpreting your problem correctly) but the ribbon cable on the back is delicate so you will need to be careful.

Have to admit, that thought did occur to me but I was more interested in demonstrating the technique rather than making a sale. Doubtless I’ll do a follow up to show it working on a live printhead at some point but for now glad it’s still useful.

It's our Canon/HP cleaning solution here: www.octoink.co.uk/pid/402

A bit more context to that question would be useful.

Well, we do ship to Germany but you can always try Octopus office.