Canon iPF 8400 with air bubbles and print head errors: time to toss the printer?

[alan a]

Many thanks to all, in advance, for any advice and guidance.

I have a Canon iPF 8400 that was purchased in 2015.  Haven't used it much in the last several years, but every few weeks I ran a nozzle test print through it.  It usually went through a long cleaning cycle each time.

Now I am getting print head error messages.  Usually the left side, but sometimes the right side.  There are visible air bubbles in the lines.  I've read that even new print heads won't work with air bubbles.  My guess is that the air bubbles were created when I replaced a maintenance tank and it chugged away on that. 

But how to remove the air bubbles?  All that Canon will tell me to do is a cleaning cycle, which I did using service menu.  Made no difference.  The You Tube videos are all on much cheaper printers and are not applicable.  A service tech told me not much to be done after cleaning cycles except maybe the capping stations, but cautioned that Canon doesn't supply parts for old printers.

I don't think Canon will even service the iPF 8400 any longer.  (I am sitting on some extra new spare parts, including the entire assembly that rolls back and forth and contains the print heads, as well as what I believe is the main board.)

And drivers for the latest Mac OS (14 aka Sonoma) don't exist.

If I thought it was repairable at a reasonable cost, I would either repair it, or give it away to a young photographer.  But the cost of two new heads would be close to $800 is that is what is required.  Throwing good money after bad?

Out of curiosity how many generations old is the 8400 compared to the 4600?  Four?  8400 --> 4000 --> 4100 --> 4600 ??

My current plan is to buy a Canon Pro 4600 and have the dealer haul away and dispose of the old iPF 8400.  With the $800 rebate, a new Pro 4600 is $3716, but added to that by the local dealer is a $400 charge for bringing and installing the new printer and hauling away the old 8400 beast.  (Maybe a bit high as such charges go, but if I had to pay two guys to pick up and haul out the old printer, it would be pretty close as such charges go.)

If anyone is interested in a cheap way to mount a 40" print on foam core, let me know and I can provide details.

Please see my next post on Canon versus Epson for a new printer.

[Kyle Jackson]

Hi, I know bugger all about the Canons, but can relate that air in lines and heads is also a gremlin for HPs. It is however fixable with fairly simple tools available from after-market online sellers -- basically just special syringes to suck the air out and prime with ink. Just takes a little time to do.

So if other printer brands are even remotely similar to HP printers, I would think similar solutions also exist for Canon? I mean I assume they all need to pass ink thru some tubing, and then thru some heads, and out thru nozzles. So I would think the basic methods to remove air would be similar.

But an owner's FOMO about newer models is much harder to purge. 

[Lessbones]

you may just need to wipe the nozzle plates with some isopropyl alcohol.  If ink gets dried up down there it can cause the heads to error out prematurely.  Otherwise, replacing the heads would be the next step.  The maintenance tank has nothing to do with it-- it's literally just a dumping bucket for ink pulled thru the capping station.  If there's ink crusted up on the seals of the capping station, that could also cause air to enter the lines.  But when i've had bubbles, i've only needed to run some cleanings or tell the printer i wanted to swap the heads, then put the same ones back in.

I HAVE had another much more serious issue, which is that the clip holding the ink lines on one side snapped off, causing one of the lines rub against the top of the machine and ultimately develop a small hole.  That ink line needed to be replaced.

[Kyle Jackson]

Just a thought... Make sure the ink tubes you're looking at are actually the *supply* lines to the printheads, and not the discharge lines from the capping station to the maintenance tank. The discharge lines always have a lot of air in them.

I'm only mentioning this because I saw this come up in an HP discussion. They're complex looking machines and it's easy to mistake the discharge lines for the supply lines at first.

Please disregard if it's not the case here. Cheers

[Richard.Wills]

The tubes to the head are supply.

A few bubbles don't hurt, large voids are different. I tend to run our 8400 witht he lid open (advance warning of head strikes on unruly media. Last time I had major voids, a head clean A got rid of them (check the capping station is clean!)