The good news: the rubber can be cleaned! Best tool is a Q-tip dipped in water. This prevents a tight seal, allowing the head to dry out. All these rubber pieces get “gunked” up over time with condensed ink. Some printers also have rubber wiper blades that move across the bottom of the printhead to remove accumulated ink. These seals have two purposes: 1) to keep the printhead from drying out when it is not printing, and 2) to provide a tight seal for strong suction when the printer is self-cleaning the head. The parking station has rubber seals that are supposed to surround the printhead when it’s parked. Usually it’s on the right side of the printer (looking at the printer from the front). The parking station is the place where the print head “rests” when it is not printing. Sometimes the printhead problems are caused not by a defective print head but by a “gunky” parking station. Some of our customers have reported they've been able to get their print head unclogged by soaking the nozzles in Windex. If that doesn't work, try removing the printhead and carefully cleaning the bottom of it with water. Of course, first start by running several cleaning cycles using your printer's software. Sometimes print heads can be 'resuscitated'. If a nozzle is dried, it will show a blank where there should be a line.ĭried nozzles can be caused by several things, including a poorly seated ink cartridge, or lack of use (letting the printer sit for a few weeks without using).

Usually you can print a nozzle check from your printer software which shows a pattern of lines. The symptom of dried nozzles is white horizontal lines in the print for one or more colors. Wondering what causes print heads to go bad? Usually it is not circuitry failure but simply dried nozzles. You can install the ink cartridges from your old print head in the new printhead if they still have ink in them. Canon does not include ink cartridges with their new print heads. This is a new, unopened, genuine Canon printhead manufactured in Japan.

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