Canon iPF 6100 - TRUE nozzle check pattern

[Landscapes]

So browsing the site today, I came across an incredible link right here on how to get an actual nozzle check pattern from my heads, not one where the missing nozzles would be remapped.  I was always frustrated by not knowing the "health" of my print heads.  Sine this is an older printer, I have already gone through 2 sets of new print heads, and the worst part is that you are given no indication of when they might fail.  This of course happens at the worst time in terms of how much you have to print, and all you get is the "do nozzle check, then if it doesn't work, replace print head" message.

Anyway, so I followed the instructions and booted up in Service Mode and it worked beautifully.  Attached is my output.  (never mind the terrible quality.. just a cheap all in one scanner).  Outlined in red though is the blue (although it looks purple to me) color channel, and there seem to be quite a few missing nozzles here in an interesting pattern.  Some of the other colors have a few dropouts, but nothing too bad.

So my question is, has anyone else done this?  What is considered acceptable?  How many of these can be clogged before the printhead fails?  I have had issues with this color before in that random blobs of this color would appear on my paper or canvas, and this ink channel also seems to clog more often, but this was with previous printheads, so once a new one was put in I thought the issue wouldn't continue.  My prints are great now, but seeing this rather large set of dropped nozzles, I wonder if someone can comment.  Thanks!

Here is the link to the video where it explains it.  It is for the 8300 but it worked just fine for my 6100.

http://www.inkjetcarts.us/support/article/canon-ipf8300-service-menu-enter-97.html

[John Hollenberg]

I ran across a written description of how to do the Service Mode Nozzle Check here:

http://www.dpreview.com/forums/thread/3812165

From the Service Menu on my ipf6300 I selected:

Service Mode -> Adjust -> Print Pattern -> Nozzle 1

There was one nozzle missing in one of the blacks, so I ran Head Cleaning A (about 10 ml ink used).  A repeat Service Mode Nozzle check was perfect.  Here is a photo showing the missing nozzle before Head Cleaning:

[Landscapes]

Wow.. shocked to see one of my posts come back to life! LOL  I've learned lots since then, and have even moved on to a 6400.

I really don't think you need to worry about one missing nozzle from the Service Mode Nozzle Check.  These nozzles are actually designed to burn out over time so some will never clear up.  Wasting ink to get it perfect is really just wasting ink if a problem doesn't show up in the regular mode Nozzle Check.

I do wish there was some write-up somewhere about how many nozzles can be mapped out to different nozzles and what will constitute a head that needs replacing.  (ie.  is 50 blocked nozzles considered a dead head and does it matter in what arrangement they are?)  When I had my 6100, I never knew about this service mode nozzle check so had no way to know what the actual health of the heads looked like throughout their life, nor could I see what the final pattern looked like after the printer refused to print until the heads were changed, but I assume that over time, you get more nozzles that drop out until it won't print anymore.

[John Hollenberg]

I really don't think you need to worry about one missing nozzle from the Service Mode Nozzle Check.  These nozzles are actually designed to burn out over time so some will never clear up.  Wasting ink to get it perfect is really just wasting ink if a problem doesn't show up in the regular mode Nozzle Check.

I don't think we have the data to say that the head clean is wasting ink as opposed to prolonging the life of the printhead.  Have you done a Service Mode nozzle check weekly as was suggested in the post I referenced, and if so how often were there blocked nozzles?   Since I set up my ipf6300 about 10 days ago, I didn't think that starting out with a blocked nozzle was a good way to go. 

[Landscapes]

I don't think we have the data to say that the head clean is wasting ink as opposed to prolonging the life of the printhead.

Well... this is a good point and I am just guessing.  But I will say that even with this service mode nozzle check, the nozzle dropouts will come and go with printing.  So if you do a clean cycle just because you see one missing, if all you did was a few prints, which might even use less ink than the 12ml for cleaning, you will often find that the nozzle has cleared up all by itself.  I bet as you go forward, this one blocked nozzle will come back, but you may find another blocked nozzle somewhere else.

[stockjock]

I am not going to represent myself as an expert on this but I am a fairly low volume user of an iPF8400 so I am always concerned about head clogging.  I try to run a print through the iPF8400 every 2-3 days.  On cheap paper this is a very small cost annually compared to the cost of new print heads.  And I do a Service Nozzle Check 1 every 2-3 months.  A few times I have found deterioration in the nozzle check pattern and a Head Cleaning A has cleaned that right up.  Once I completely lost all of one of the black channels and I did a Head Cleaning B which fixed that.  My gut is the Head Cleaning A uses relatively little ink and it is worth doing if you notice a significant deterioration in the print pattern.  I wouldn't worry about one or two nozzles.  The Head Cleaning B does use a lot of ink and made a big dent in the capacity of my Maintenance Cartridge.  I would avoid doing that unless it is necessary.  Again, just my experience with 16 months of using the printer.