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Author Topic: Canon iPF 6300 printhead problem  (Read 4096 times)

Niels Have

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Canon iPF 6300 printhead problem
« on: December 30, 2013, 03:50:41 am »

A nozzle check shows only one of the two grids of thin, red lines (right head). All other colors are ok on both heads, at least on the nozzle check, but not in print. Cleaning doesn't help, nor replacement of the printhead. Could the problem be a defect circuit board?

Our iPF 6300 is from July 2010 ($ 3600, with rebate, in Denmark).
Before the iPF 6300 we had a HP 110 A1 printer for 3 years, printing om sheets. OK paper handling, always ready to print, no clogging, but print quality could be better. It died slowly from software problems.
The iPF 6300 makes excellent prints from roll paper, very fast and reliably, normally. Sheet paper handling is best with heavyweight papers, dropped, not pushed, precisely down the paper feed slot. Lightweight papers, pushed down, will inevitably print askew. Forget about the "autoskew correction".

We replaced the right printhead PF-05 ($ 675) on our iPF 6300 in June 2011, after 90 m2 (1000 sq.f.)  of Canon media. There was no sign of bad print quality, the printer just kept on asking for printhead cleaning, but refused to print after cleaning.
October 2012 again a replacement of the right printhead was necessary, when the printer kept on asking for printhead cleaning.

August 2013 the red in the printed photos tended to become more of orange, and some very thin, darker red lines appeared in the red areas. The total amount of media printed on the iPF 6300 was 300 m2 (3200 sq.f.) Maintenance cartridge 60 % full. From a nozzle check, red and black inks needed cleaning.

Our media supplier is a printshop, run by a former Canon technician. He has an iPF 8300 that prints a lot more than ours, and told us that he has to replace a printhead once a year, and always the right printhead. He said that only one deep cleaning should do; more cleaning just wastes ink. After a b-cleaning (deep cleaning) of our printhead, the nozzle check showed now one of the two red grids of thin lines was missing.

After a replacement of the right printhead and adjusting, everything was ok. 5 days later a nozzle check of the new printhead again showed that one of the two red grids of thin lines was missing; everything else ok. A printhead adjustment showed no problem. The red colors in photos were wrong, as were the red colors in my fullcolor cad drawings. We did not replace that quite new printhead, but hoped to find a solution to the problem.

Now a few months later also the green colors in my cad drawings are wrong, and there is some banding in the green, even if a nozzle check shows all colors are ok, except for the one red grid missing. The time is here for action...

During our more than 3 years with the iPF 6300 we have left the printer on at all times. But I know that it is a production printer, and we are light users. Our advice now to users of iPF 6300 is to print something every third day, it could be a nozzle check or some other small print, just to keep the printer alive. After more than 4-5 days without printing, when we send a print to the printer it always cleans itself for 10 minutes, and then gives a message: hardware error, turn the printer off, and on again. After doing that, it prints normally, but has used a lot of ink for cleaning.

We have Macs, and our software is the newest VectorWorks, Lightroom, Capture One, and Photoshop, with Canons Photoshop plugin. My wife is a graphic designer, I am an architect, and we are both photographers. So we need a good, reliable large format printer. 
3 years and 4 printheads later, we don't regret buying the Canon iPF 6300, but it has been expensive in use. Can it be repaired, or must we buy a new iPF 6400? And print regularly to keep it alive...
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