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How To Fix Ink-Flow Problems With An External Ink Tank Printer?


aussiebebe

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Hi, I have a Cannon Pixma MP280 with an external ink tank. I haven't printed in a while and the black ink has drained out of the tube connected with the black cartridge. Does anyone know how to fix this? ie. make the black ink flow into the cartridge, or do I need to take the printer to a shop? It has happened to me before, I don't think I'm doing anything wrong as the printer is stationary, the inktanks are glued to the sides of the pinter.

Thanks

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My Canon was a disater after putting on the external tank, took it back to the place that installed it and seems they did something wrong. After the correction works really well, although I run it on the best quality to get good prints. Don't know if that helps at all.

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Sorry, not much help here.... I didn't have much joy with the exact same printer and my current IP2770. So I have been injecting the cartridges manually every month or so, no pipes, no ink dumped out of the cartridges but you do need to fill the cartridges if you're printing a large colour work load to be sure everything is fine on your return.

That's the way i have been doing it, i just don't trust any shop to sort it out for me so it's not worth my effort to travel somewhere.

I hope someone can help you out and i might try the same tips :)

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I have a Canon MP287 with external tanks....had it for over a year. The key to keep the ink flowing in the tubes/printheads is to use the printer at least once a week or so....and by using the printer I mean print/copy at least page which utilizes all four colors (and I'm counting black as one of the colors). Otherwise, you will start getting air into the printheads and tubes leading from the external tanks to printheads. This also ends-up causing another problem where a printhead will clog-up and won't print a certain color at all or prints it badly. I've had these problems...here's what I did to fix the problems:

1) if you have a good amount of air in the tubes you will need to remove the tubes from the printhead and force ink into the tubes by blowing/forcing air into the filters on the external tank....once the ink reaches the end of the tube insert it back on the printhead.

2) Now, there is a good chance air has also got into the top of the printheads also and you may also have to remove the printheads from their holder (but still in the printer holder general area with tubes still attached), place a paper towel/rag under the printheads, force ink into the printheads by blowing on the tube filters some more which forces ink into the printheads displacing the air. A person just needs to get the air out of the tubes and printheads.

3) Now, everyone probably knows it's not uncommon for printheads to clog-up even with no air in the system as air just dries up the ink on the printhead ejection slot which is always exposed to the air. What I've found that works best to unclog them if the printer driver/maintenance cleaning setting don't fix the problem, is to use a paper towel/toilet paper soaked with rubbing alcohol. Remove the printheads from their holders to where you can reach/clean their bottoms/ink ejection slots and then rub the alcohol soaked towel back and forth in the same direction as the slots until you see the ink flowing freely onto the towel...this back and forth rubbing also creates suction which helps to pull the ink through the printhead while also cleaning the printhead ejection slot. For the 3 color print head you will know when all 3 colors are flowing as you can easily see each color on the towel.

4) Now after you have got the air out and printheads unclogged be sure to turn the printer on about once a week and print/copy a document which significantly uses all colors (I'm counting black as a color). Attached is the color print pattern document I copy/print one time about once a week and it has kept my Canon MP287 inkjet printer working just fine. Remember, do this about once a week....repeat about once a week....if you only do it every 2-4 weeks you are probably going to be trying to get the air out of the tubes and cleaning the printheads again.

P.S. Buying some latex-type gloves at your local drug store would be a good idea when dealing with printer inks and doing above steps unless you want your finger tips to be all colorful for several days until the ink wears off. Good luck....I've done above steps a couple of times over the last year like when I didn't follow my own advice and waited over a month to print something---I just never learn. Cheers.

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Unfortunately I too have a Canon Pixma with external tanks! Have you checked to see if the rubber bungs are not pushed in the top holes? If the bungs are in...take them out! Getting the ink to flow will require you to pressurise the ink reservoir! My method is to give it a "blow job"! I hope that this helps.

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One thing you definitely don't want to do to help keep the ink flowing is thinking gravity can be your friend. By that I mean placing the tanks higher than the printer versus even with the printer. What happens when you place them higher is it does indeed help the flow of ink from the tanks to the printheads....but it helps too much....it will probably push the air out of the tubes into the printheads....and leave the tank high enough long enough the flow may also force the air/air bubble out of the printheads (but depending on how an air bubble may be in the printhead the ink may just flow around the bubble leaving the bubble in place)....but at the same time the ink continues to flow through the printheads into the printhead ink trap/pads and can mess things up. Yeap, I did that once in my learning/experimenting process by settting the tanks on top of the printer overnight....the next morning approx 1/3 of the ink in each tank was gone...gone into my printer ink trap/pads...I cleaned it up.

Regarding that air "bubble" in the printhead I've seen some YouTube video where the printheads are removed from their holders, but the tubes are still attached and a person kinda slaps/shakes the heads "downward" on a papertowel/rag to dislodge the air bubble out the printhead slot. If the printhead has an air bubble that bubble will just backflow from the print head to through the tubes and make you wonder where the air came from...you know it didn't come from the ink tank since ink is still in upper part of the tubes. Gotta get that air out.

As mentioned in other posts also be sure the rubber plugs are installed correctly in the tanks. Each ink tank is really a two chamber tank...the larger chamber holds the ink and the other smaller chamber acts kinda like an air balance reservoir. During normal operation for the larger chamber the rubber plug is inserted to keep air out and in the smaller chamber which also has the air filter fitted has the plug removed to allow air pressure in. (Note: during refill of the larger chamber you "first" install the plug in the smaller chamber and "then" remove the plug from the larger chamber to add the ink; otherwise, too much ink will also flow into the smaller chamber. After adding the ink, then reinstall the larger chamber plug "before" you remove the plug from the other chamber to reinstall the air filter to prevent too much ink getting into your smaller/air chamber.)

And that smaller chamber should only have a very lower level of ink (approx a quarter of inch or less) in the bottom....if it's significantly higher you have air in the top of the larger chamber and need to get rid of that air by tilting the tanks to let the air bubble flow escape out of the larger chamber or using a needle through the large chamber rubber plug to suck out the air....the tilting method is easier and faster and should work for most external tank types....I try to avoid using needles and poking holes in rubber plugs if at all possible. Air in the larger chamber contributes to poor flow in the tubes to the printheads. Quite a few videos on YouTube showing how to get air out of tubes, printheads, and external tanks....some of the videos are good...some not so good...you know a good video when you see it.

And just to repeat from my previous post, once you get the system working properly again be sure to use it to print/copy a page or two every week or so....print something that utilizes all colors to a significant amount versus just prints a line or dot pattern....print something like the attachment in my above post....this will force out the minute amount of air that will naturally seep into the system and keep the printhead noozles/slot clear of dried ink. Good luck.

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There should be a code you can enter on your printer, to use to refill the cartridge. A printer shop should b able to tell you. But if it was a long time, it might be better to get a new cartridge.

The epson L100/200 are nice, only problem is they are Epson and the Canon software is much better. But printing with them is great, especially if you have to print a lot.

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