New Canon Pixma Pro 100 Nozzle Check Pattern Help

Hello,

I just purchased a new in box Canon Pixma Pro 100 and am already having issues. I first did the nozzle check pattern and noticed that photo magenta was almost non existent, so I ran it a few more times and it looks fine now, but now the photo cyan ink has some empty spaces. Can someone please tell me if this is normal? I don't want to already do a head cleaning because these are new ink cartridges and I know that wastes alot of ink. Here is a picture of what I'm referring to. Sorry for the quality of the image.

https://imgur.com/a/hM​dYW

Thank you!

Hard to see the pattern from that image, but anyway: empty areas in nozzle check patterns are never a normal thing.

Your best choice now is to perform a head cleaning (you may even need a few runs of it, 12 hours or so apart), it doesn't consume much ink. Deep cleaning is the one that does.

Don't user the printer for real work until you get perfect nozzle checks, as clogged nozzles could burn out in normal use.

Have you printed an actual picture yet? Maybe print one of those photo test charts on small paper, to really use some ink, and then do a NC. If still an issue, consider return/exchange.

In general, I avoid head cleans. Lots of ink ending up as collecting waste. If its a single color, print something or a test page of that specific ink.

Thanks for the help! After running a few nozzle checks it looks as though the issue has been resolved. Hopefully, this doesn't happen again for a long time.

Nevermind. Now nothing is printing. I did some searching and think that I might've missed a step when installing my cartridges. There is a pull tab on each one that I didn't remove and some mention that this is covering a vent hole and needs to be removed. So, I did that but still nothing. I'm assuming that I need to do a head clean to get rid of any air?

Thank you!

Uh oh, vent hole is very important. As ink empties into the tank, air needs to be allowed in, so can continue to flow, think 2.5 gallon water jug. Eventually a vacuum effect can form, and the tank sucks back ink from the print head to equilibrate with atmospheric pressure.

The ink itself acts as a coolant for the print head. You dont want to run those dry as you can permanently damage from overheating.

If you havent done so already, take out and reinstall the cartriges, and let it go through a priming phase.
Head /deep cleaning may help, as it will push ink through again, but sometimes air bubbles cannot be easily displaced.

Good luck

Thanks for the reply! I've removed the tape covering the vent hole and did a nozzle check pattern and it was horrible. I did 2 head cleanings and it's fixed...did a nozzle check pattern and it came out better than the first time. Printed one thing from it and it came out 100x better than the other prints because now more ink was making it to the print head. Am I in the clear now or should I still worry?

Thank you!

David

Insufficient ink flow through a nozzle (be it due to nozzle clog or inadequate ink feed from cartridge) can burn the nozzle if continuously exercised. For this reason it's imperative that you are getting 100% perfect nozzle checks before printing any photos.

I have printed a couple of pictures prior to resolving the insufficient ink, but I did the head clean and check and it looks good now. Should I still be worried? If it hasn't burned out yet am I good as long as I don't do it again? I printed a picture and another nozzle check and both look fine.

Thank you!

David

david.g.photo84 wrote in post #18557032
Am I in the clear now or should I still worry?

I think you are in the clear but should not be shocked if you have problems in the future. Depending on your volume of printing and the printer's environment nozzles of all jet printers do clog. Low humidity seems to be problem and frequent use a positive.