OT..Cannon Printer problems

[miker]

I have a Cannon i455 printer that is printing as though it is low on ink. Two new cartridges installed and no improvement.
Tried 3 deep cleans and 2 normal cleans with a fair improvement but it is erratic in that some lines of black print will be perfect and then some are extremely poor. That is horizontal portions of whole typed lines are missing as though they had white stripes across them. The colour side seems pretty good now after the repeated cleanings. Is this a throw away? It has done a lot of work but I do feel if I could just some how REALLY clean the print head it would be ok. Any advice welcome.

Thanks

Michael

Australia

[egpace]

Not sure about Cannon inkjets. When you replace an HP printer cartridge you get a new printer head (Head is built into the cartridge). I used to refill cartridges a while back and every so often the HP head would start to print lousy. I took Isopropyl alcohol on a cotton "Q" tip and swabbed the head and it would print like new. Worth a shot.
Good luck,
Ed

[Joel]

I am no expert, but the Canon printers I have owned have a replaceable print head that is separate from the ink cartridge. I would try and clean it, otherwise price a new one. Have you tried talking to Canon yet? I recently bought a 3 in 1 from them and had a few questions, so I called them up and found the tech to be both knowledgeable and helpful. Go figure!

[Evan]

I don't know about the price of printers in Australia but here they sell cheaper than the price of a pair of replacement ink carts. When it runs out of ink just buy a new printer.

[Paul Alciatore]

If you are using another brand, you might try a Cannon ink cartridge.

The alcohol/cotton swab cleaning also sounds good. Be sure to have the swab saturated with the alcohol as you are trying to clean down into the ink jets.

Paul A.

[Dave O]

You need a print head QY6-0054-000 msrp $32.74. For less than 50 bucks buy an iP1500 uses the same ink tanks and you get a year warranty. You can try detergent and lots of warm water (nothing to lose at this point). 90% of the time this is caused by after market ink.
Dave

[miker]

Thanks for all the replies. I unclipped the print head and soaked it in warm window cleaner mixed with water. Forced the same solution through the jets with a hypodermic. Dried the whole thing with a hairdryer and re-installed. Performed one more deep clean. First prints are back to about 95% good. I have been using aftermarket ink "Calidad brand" for a couple of years with no problem. I'll see how it goes and if not happy will just replace the printer. As you say, the are not expensive.

Thanks again to all.

Michael

Australia

P.S. Glad that Big Bird landed OK last night.