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Author Topic: Canon iPF8400 or iPF8300 Ink Consumption Head Cleaning B ??  (Read 3648 times)

stockjock

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Canon iPF8400 or iPF8300 Ink Consumption Head Cleaning B ??
« on: March 17, 2015, 03:56:55 pm »

Does anybody know how much ink the Canon iPF8400 (or any of the iPFx400 or iPFx300 series) uses when it does a Head Cleaning B?  With a service Nozzle Check 1 I have a single nozzle in one of my black inks blocked and Canon advises doing a Head Cleaning B but the dialog box talks about it uses "a large amount of ink".  I have no idea if that is $10 of ink or $100 of ink?  Obviously replacing the heads are expensive so keeping all the nozzles clear when possible makes sense but ... clearly there is some sort of tradeoff.
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mstevensphoto

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Re: Canon iPF8400 or iPF8300 Ink Consumption Head Cleaning B ??
« Reply #1 on: March 17, 2015, 07:02:17 pm »

cleaning B is a significant amount largely because I believe you're supposed to have a 40% or less full MC for it. when I've done a B cleaning it uses a lot of ink, the techs have always told me that if the B clean doesn't do it you need a new head so the good news is that you'll have an answer. I think it would take 5-6 b cleans to equal the cost of a head, but there's no point in doing that many.
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bill t.

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Re: Canon iPF8400 or iPF8300 Ink Consumption Head Cleaning B ??
« Reply #2 on: March 17, 2015, 07:22:42 pm »

Print a test strip or a small print, then another nozzle check.  Maybe it will get better all by itself.  Or maybe it won't but a print will look OK.

A fall-back option is to print in a higher resolution mode that can hide the visible effects of a few bad facets in the heads.  That might even lead to an eventual improvement, or maybe not.  When I have done back to back Head Checks on shaky heads I have noticed there are often different erroneous patterns.

Have only done a very few "B" cleanings, my recollection is that it usually doesn't use a huge amount of ink.  But it can do a variable number of repeats within the cycle which means the amount of ink used is not quite predictable.  I definitely agree that if a single B cleaning doesn't do the job the head is probably beyond repair, especially if you get multiple cycles in the cleaning procedure.

If you are less than a year from buying the head, it should be covered by warranty.

For future reference,  launch the "Image Prograf Status Monitor" in your program files, select your printer, click the Accounting Tab, Click the Account Button, then under "File" click "Show Ink and Paper Consumed."  Note the "Total Ink Consumed" before and after a Cleaning B.  I'm not 100% sure if the cleaning will bump that number or not, but it might.
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stockjock

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Re: Canon iPF8400 or iPF8300 Ink Consumption Head Cleaning B ??
« Reply #3 on: March 17, 2015, 07:43:24 pm »

Print a test strip or a small print, then another nozzle check.  Maybe it will get better all by itself.  Or maybe it won't but a print will look OK.

A fall-back option is to print in a higher resolution mode that can hide the visible effects of a few bad facets in the heads.  That might even lead to an eventual improvement, or maybe not.  When I have done back to back Head Checks on shaky heads I have noticed there are often different erroneous patterns.

Have only done a very few "B" cleanings, my recollection is that it usually doesn't use a huge amount of ink.  But it can do a variable number of repeats within the cycle which means the amount of ink used is not quite predictable.  I definitely agree that if a single B cleaning doesn't do the job the head is probably beyond repair, especially if you get multiple cycles in the cleaning procedure.

If you are less than a year from buying the head, it should be covered by warranty.

For future reference,  launch the "Image Prograf Status Monitor" in your program files, select your printer, click the Accounting Tab, Click the Account Button, then under "File" click "Show Ink and Paper Consumed."  Note the "Total Ink Consumed" before and after a Cleaning B.  I'm not 100% sure if the cleaning will bump that number or not, but it might.

That is a good suggestion about noting the before and after Total Ink Consumed. 

This single nozzle clog isn't having any impact on my printing and it might even have been a defective nozzle from when the head was new.  I think I will just do a Service Nozzle Check 1 every few weeks and monitor the situation and see if any other nozzles clog and decide to do the Head Cleaning B at that point. 
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Geraldo Garcia

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Re: Canon iPF8400 or iPF8300 Ink Consumption Head Cleaning B ??
« Reply #4 on: March 17, 2015, 08:17:11 pm »

Service mode nozzle checks show even the already remapped nozzles, so it can show some missing "steps" and that will have no impact whatsoever on the printing quality. On the other hand, if the regular nozzle check displays a missing line you will probably notice some quality degradation on the actual print (and is worth to try to clean it).

Don't waste time and ink trying to clean away clogged nozzles that only appear on the service mode nozzle check, they are probably "fried", not clogged and were already remapped. The service mode nozzle check is good to give you a visual reference of how many nozzles were remapped on each channel (comparing against a regular nozzle check) so you can estimate how close you are of a print head replacement.

Edit: My 8400 after one year of daily use displays some missing "steps" on some channels when I perform a service mode nozzle check, but the regular nozzle check is perfect as is the print quality. At this pace I estimate another year before a print head replacement is needed. If I eventually notice many missing "steps" on the same channel during a service nozzle check I would buy a spare head even if the print quality is unaltered. That probably means the head is on its final days. Anyway, a technician once told me: "If you notice quality degradation and it does not go away with feed alignment and 'head cleaning A', don't bother with 'head cleaning B' and just buy a new head."
« Last Edit: March 18, 2015, 01:08:10 pm by Geraldo Garcia »
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Simmons

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Re: Canon iPF8400 or iPF8300 Ink Consumption Head Cleaning B ??
« Reply #5 on: May 14, 2018, 12:11:03 pm »

Interesting.

The service mode check show me some missing steps. The normal check seems all ok. So what's the purpose of the service check? There is a limit to the remapping?
What if i still have a problem on black even if the normal check it's ok and the service check no?
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stockjock

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Re: Canon iPF8400 or iPF8300 Ink Consumption Head Cleaning B ??
« Reply #6 on: May 14, 2018, 01:29:39 pm »

I use the service mode nozzle check to determine the overall state of my print head health, and to decide if a preventive head cleaning is necessary.  I've generally found a Head Cleaning A will bring back most of the blocked nozzles with minimal ink usage.  My assumption is that will extend the print heads life though Canon Print Heads seem to fail catastrophically with no warning but common sense would suggest the more ink channels that are available to remap the longer the print head will last.
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Simmons

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Re: Canon iPF8400 or iPF8300 Ink Consumption Head Cleaning B ??
« Reply #7 on: May 15, 2018, 10:05:09 am »

So if the remapping cover the failure with new nozzle, why if i make a nozzle check in normal mode and everything is perfect, i still have vertical stripes on my black print?
I previously had this kind of behaviour:
n°1 normal check perfect, service check with some problem ==> problem on prints.
n°2 normal check perfect, service check perfect ==> prints perfect

Seems to my experience that even the remapped nozzle in someway participate in the print process.

Look for example the file attached. I have vertical stripes and the situation is the n°1
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stockjock

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Re: Canon iPF8400 or iPF8300 Ink Consumption Head Cleaning B ??
« Reply #8 on: May 15, 2018, 01:50:09 pm »

I have never seen that kind of banding on my prints.   I've gotten horizontal banding with new papers and I have solved that by using the Media Configuration Tool to have the printer automatically create the settings for the paper.  I've forgotten exactly that that is called in the Media Configuration Tool and I am traveling so I can't check.
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Simmons

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Re: Canon iPF8400 or iPF8300 Ink Consumption Head Cleaning B ??
« Reply #9 on: May 15, 2018, 01:53:09 pm »

i've found the solution....or better the guilty:
http://forum.luminous-landscape.com/index.php?topic=124776.0
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