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 | Canon i550 printhead by Jay Chiang (4/20/04 2:55 AM) reply | + / - | Where I can buy or get Canon i550 inkjet printer printhead? Please tell me and sent me email at jayjy@21cn.com. Thanks so much!
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| Re: Canon i550 printhead by Barry (4/20/04 5:16 AM) reply | + / - | Part# QY6-0045-000 $49.89
Call 800-385-2155 Canon Accessories
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| Re: Canon i550 printhead by Jay Chiang (4/21/04 2:25 AM) reply | + / - | wow. that price is almost like a brand new printer, btw, if I use the after market inkjet ink, is that hurt the printhead?(like 4-5 bucks for one) Since I used those before and the printhead now is dead.
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 | Re: Canon i550 printhead by Lee (4/21/04 4:51 AM) reply | + / - | As ink jets get smaller and smaller in order to provide the improved quality of printers, the problems with clogging increase.
Your experience with third party inks by Canon customer reports I'm receiving.
However, there is hope. The following has worked for some customers.
Plan A...conservative Approach
Take a paper towel and fold it over twice to make 4 layers. Soak the towel with water and set it on a dinner plate.
Next, set the print heads with the nozzles down on the towel and allow it to stand over nite.
Do not try to dry the print heads. Let them air dry. Never, ever touch the print head nozzles with anythihng.
Now put the heads back in the printer and run the head cleaning utility or maybe even just try to print.
If that doesn't work...
Plan B...more radical approach
Remove the heads again and also remove the ink tanks from the print heads.
Run hot water over the nozzles. Again let them air dry and try.
Let us know if any of this helps.
LEE
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| Re: Canon i550 printhead by Guy Snape (5/28/04 12:28 AM) reply | + / - | I have the same problem. How do I remove/replace the printheads?
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| Re: Canon i550 printhead by Chris  (5/28/04 4:45 AM) reply | + / - | you need to take the cartridges out first, lift the lever up and the head will come out.
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| Re: Canon i550 printhead by Marc (6/3/04 5:32 AM) reply | + / - | I've got a dead printhead for an S600 but I bet it is the same problem. Lee, your "plan A" -- should that be done with our without the print cartridges in the printhead?
I assume that the ink is water soluable and the purpose is to let the water soak into the printhead & dissolve any clogs.
I've just now learned that not printing on a regular basis will destroy printheads. Is there any inkjet that doesn't have this issue?
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| Re: Canon i550 printhead by Lee (6/3/04 6:14 AM) reply | + / - | >>"plan A" -- should that be done with our without the print cartridges in the printhead?
I assume that the ink is water soluable and the purpose is to let the water soak into the printhead & dissolve any clogs. <<
Good question and an issue I hadn't addressed. I'd take the ink tanks out.
Yes...the ink is water soluable and the plan is to allow the soak to dissolve the clog.
However, be aware this is not an absolute cure. However, it has worked for a number of my customers.
It seems that the recent batch of Canon printers seem more likely to clog...smaller jets I assume.
Preventative medicine is to use the printer regularly.
LEE
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 | Re: Canon i550 printhead by Audra (6/18/04 3:12 PM) reply | + / - | I have a bad printhead in my i550 too.
It is not that old, I use mine regularly and have not used non Canon inks. First, the blue ink was leaking from it's tank into the other ink tanks (made my Yellow green, Magenta turned purple). I though it was a faulty ink tank, so I changed all the tanks, did the "deep cleaning" a few times and all seemed well. Then it seemed like the yellow wasn't printing correctly. More deep cleaning, black stopped printing, blue and yellow stopped, then finally nothing but 7 flashes of the orange light followed by 2 seconds of green light. Printhead died.
These printheads seems particularly hard to find (i.e. none on ebay), LOL. I love my i550, but if I have to buy a new printhead every few months, I'll go back to an HP or Lexmark.
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| Re: Canon i550 printhead by DAVID EKINS (6/18/04 4:43 PM) reply | + / - | EPSON ‘EX’ & CANON BJC6500 BLOCKED NOZZLES & CURES
Having read on this and other web forums the problems encountered with blocked nozzles, and the various cures, I would like to relate to others the experiences I have had. I own and use 2 x Epson ‘Ex’’s, 2 x Canon BJC6500’s, 1 x Epson 740. My method of cleaning the Epsons does not involve the “dripping in” or “syringe pumping” of cleaning fluid into the printhead inlets, but the use of ink tanks filled with printhead recovery cleaning fluid. Purpose filled tanks are readily available in the UK for both the black & colour sides although I find it much cheaper to refill used tanks with a cleaning fluid bought for about £5-00 per 250cc bottle ( about US$16-00 per US pint ? ). Many users will be familiar with the ink refilling kits available and the process involved. I will not repeat here the instructions usually included within yet will say that ‘well dried out tanks’ should be avoided. Some ‘test prints’, run out by some printers, use many sheets of paper and take an age to complete. I prefer to use a small ‘test doc’, just a few lines of IIII ‘s in about size 20 font and typing a few of the characters in each colour available from the dropdown. This should ensure all the nozzles are used. The cleaning cycle and test print utilities are run with the ‘cleaning tanks’ in the printer instead of the normal ink tanks, therefore actually ‘pumping through’ the nozzles, surely a much quicker and more thorough method than ‘soaking’ for several hours with the ‘dripping in’ method and safer for the heads than syringe pumping. Surely it must also help in washing out the sink pads and pump assemblies. As the fluid is usually clear, and dilutes the ink residues within the printheads, the printouts will gradually fade out until totally clear. A small amount of the colour appropriate to the individual tank could be added to assist with visibility. With very badly clogged nozzles the cleaning tanks can sit in place for as long as required to soak. An occasional ‘run’ during this period will prod the process along. When the ‘nozzle check’, usually the ‘barred gate’, is run and shows all is clear, the ink tanks are replaced into the machine and a couple or so ‘test doc’ run, hopefully to satisfaction !! When tanks, whether ink or cleaning ones, are removed and replaced the normal sealing and seal breaking procedures should be followed to eliminate the inclusion of air. I have read somewhere (!!!!!) that original new tanks are pressurised when made so as to force any air lock through the printhead upon installation. I would suggest that any pressure would be lost long before installation by way of leakage under the vent sealing tape. If they are actually pressurised why are the outlet sealing tapes never swollen through such pressure? Upon installation surely such sealing tape is broken before the tank seal around the outlet has time to seat correctly. Tanks which have been removed from and then replaced into a printer, could certainly contain some air. This will normally be purged with the ‘test doc’ run or by resting the machine for a while to allow the air to rise up within the tank. Tanks in storage are best kept upright.
Part-used tanks installed into an ‘EX’ (and some other printers) through the normal ‘replace ink tank’ routine will fool the software into believing that ‘new’, ‘full’ ones are being used. The danger is of course that the printer will continue to ‘print’ when the tanks have emptied with the status monitor still showing ink to be available.
The same would happen if the driver software is re-loaded with other than full tanks installed. BE WARNED:- Dry running can burn out the printheads. At best it can ‘bake’ ink residues within the assembly making cleaning far more difficult if not impossible.
The ‘EX’ is a parallel only machine with a parallel to USB conversion cable being available. The original driver disk includes all drivers for both styles of connection yet the Epson website with give only the parallel drivers. I find the USA website to be better than the UK one which seems to have some bugs. Selecting the wrong method of communication to the printer through ‘control panel’, ‘printer’, will throw up an error. Make sure you have it right.
Blockages with the Canon BJC6500 can be tackled in the same ‘cleaning tank’ way as above although each colour has its own individually removable tank. Unknown to many is the fact that this model has printheads which are very easy to remove from the machine. Some owners may have bought a used printer with no instructions, others may have lost theirs or just simply forgotten. This machine can use two of the three printheads available. In the righthand carrier the 3 standard colour head must always be installed. The lefthand carrier must hold either the single black head or the photo head which uses photo black, photo cyan and photo magenta tanks. THE CORRECT COMBINATION MUST BE SET IN THE UTILITIES PROGRAM. The ink tanks are removed by pressing the tab on the front edge and lifting out. The printhead assemblies are extracted by swinging toward the machine front and then upward the lever on the side of the printhead carrier. Soaking in a shallow tray of cleaning fluid is then possible. Shaking, blowing and careful wiping should ensure they are dry before returning to the machine. Recently one of my 6500’s had very bad clogging caused by a long period of disuse. I bought 1 standard colour & 1 photo colour head complete with new Canon ink tanks for £66-00 (US$ 100-00) before attempting a different way of cleaning. Many readers will have a mechanical/scientific interest and have maybe some knowledge of ‘ultrasonic cleaning’. I have a small ‘LEO 50’ ultrasonic cleaner and although not too good for cleaning heavy crusty deposits from coins and the like, it will knock holes into test pieces of cooking foil !!!! I stood the printheads (without ink tanks) upright in about one and a half inches ( 38 mm. ) of very warm tap water, YES, TAP WATER, NOT DISTILLED WATER !!!!. FILTERED DISTILLED WATER MAY WELL BE BETTER. The water level just covered the inlet filters and seals. As the machine ran the ink deposits could be seen to ‘cloud’ away from the nozzles and filters. Three x 5 minute sessions followed by drying, and of course cleaning the contacts, returned them to excellent working order!!!!! As I had new ones to hand what had I to lose? A couple of ‘test doc’ runs proved the point it was worth the risk. The ink level monitoring is achieved through optical sensors, one for each ink tank, within the printer body, built in around the ‘parking area’ I believe. A much better and cheaper to run system than the chipped cartridges on some machines. It is always a good idea to run the ‘head alignment check’ routine after cleaning.
I have read of problems with various ‘tints’ or ‘hues’ appearing on user’s prints. My own experiences have indicated that these are sometimes, but not always, caused by software issues. I have found that if more than 1 printer is installed on a PC, usually each with its own packaged version of a photo manipulation program, the ‘colour profiles’ can cross-over. I would suggest they are checked and any profiles not used or needed are removed. Ensure of course that copies are to hand to re-install if necessary. Selection of the printer to be used, through control panel etc., BEFORE opening Photoshop or whatever is to be used, may well avoid profile conflicts.
Now for a few questions to others reading this : - Can anyone tell me if ultrasonic cleaning is used by printer repair shops for head/nozzle cleaning? If I removed the heads from an Epson ‘EX’, my 740 , a model 1290 ( UK version of the 1280 ) for cleaning, and I do mean also disconnecting the wiring from them, would they have to be reset electrically when re-installed? I am sure I have read somewhere that the printer has to have some kind of adjustment made to the electronics when NEW printheads are installed.
I must now add that whatever you do to your printer is not at my risk. I offer the above information on my experiences, which may or may not work for others.
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| Re: Canon i550 printhead by LDThornton (6/7/06 9:06 AM) reply | + / - | I had the dreaded 7 flash error code on my i550. I bought a new print head off ebay for $47 delivered. Fixed the problem. The print head was genuine Canon. I use generic inks and the print head I replaced was 3 years old so generic inks don't hurt the printer. The print head can be changed out in 10 seconds and the instructions to do that will come in the box. No worries.........
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| Re: Re: Canon i550 printhead by Anonymous (6/7/06 9:09 AM) reply | + / - | I use generic inks and my print head lasted about 3 years. The i550 is far better than an HP or a Lexmark.
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| Re: Canon i550 printhead by mefree (7/29/08 2:52 PM) reply | + / - | You can pull out the entire print head and spray it with ammonia--this does a good job of removing encrusted ink. In fact it's a great multipurpose household cleaner for just about everything. The real problem with Canon & HP (and some others) is that they are designed to gradually destroy the print head by zapping it with a high current pulse until the circuit traces eventually burn out. When this happens it's clearly visible on the bottom of the print head. No matter what ink you use, you will have to keep buying new print heads every year or two anyway. In the long run it's cheaper to buy a printer that's not designed to break.
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