Canon BJC-5000 nozzle cleaning?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Bodo Diehn
  • Start date Start date
B

Bodo Diehn

I have a Canon BJC-5000. A very fine printer, but after I came back
from a 1-month vacation, both black tanks have clogged nozzles and do
bad test prints. I believe the nozzles are at the bottom of the
cartridges, but nothing I did, including soaking the foot of the tank
for 2 days in isoppropyl alcohol, made the slightest difference. Does
anyone have a good suggestion?
 
Replace the print head.

BC-21e printheads I've come across have lasted as long as 18 months or as
short as 6 months. If this the your original one, you've done VERY well.

Cari
www.coribright.com
 
Thanks! Where do I get a print head, and how does one replace it?
These are big and expensive tanks, and must have a lot of ink still in
them.
 
If you're talking about the standalone black ink cartridge, it IS the
printhead in itself. If this is the one that's not printing, it's probable
that the ink has dried up within the cartridge itself. If it's the unit
with the two separate cartridges, the small black and the small tri-color,
they fit into a unit called the BC-21e..... The BC-21e can be found almost
anywhere.... OfficeMax, OfficeDepot, Staples etc. It comes with the two
tanks included... but you can just not install them and use the ones you are
currently using, putting them into the new unit.

It could also be that the ink in the tanks you have has dried up after
non-use... but purchasing the two tanks separately is almost as much as the
new BC-21e which has two new ones anyway.

Amazon.com have them at quite a good price...

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/t...28343-2239866?v=glance&s=electronics&n=507846

I know you love the printer, but it is an obsolete model now... and won't
run (at least not easily) in WindowsXP.

You might want to think about asking Santa for something a little newer and
faster for Christmas. Most newer Canon printers have separate tanks for
cyan, magenta and yellow and therefore are far more economical if you print
a fair amount of color. Instead of replacing one tri-color tank, you replace
each color separately... so if you know you print more (eg) magenta than any
other (for some reason it's usually the most often used color), you just buy
one magenta tank... if you have tri-color tanks you have to replace the
whole unit when you may still have plenty of yellow and cyan.

Just a thought there. If you're happy with the BJC-5000, by all means
replace the print head.

Cari
 
Cari said:
Amazon.com have them at quite a good price...
Click to expand...

Yikes! When I got rid of my BJC-5000 a few years back (best thing I ever
did) the BC-21e was $55 or so. I hardly consider having to plunk down $50
every 8 months (that's how long my print head lasted - I'd say I printed
around 1,000 pages) as affordable. Ink wasn't that cheap either and they're
small (9ml and 15ml). Instead I went with HP and have been happy ever
since. I bought a Canon i320 for the second computer and more recently the
Canon i560. While they're definitley better than the BJC-5000 POS, I still
wouldn't trust Canon as my only printer. I will *always* keep my HP's handy
and hooked up.
 
Yikes! When I got rid of my BJC-5000 a few years back (best thing I ever
did) the BC-21e was $55 or so. I hardly consider having to plunk down $50
every 8 months (that's how long my print head lasted - I'd say I printed
around 1,000 pages) as affordable. Ink wasn't that cheap either and
they're
small (9ml and 15ml). Instead I went with HP and have been happy ever
since. I bought a Canon i320 for the second computer and more recently
the
Canon i560. While they're definitley better than the BJC-5000 POS, I
still
wouldn't trust Canon as my only printer. I will *always* keep my HP's
handy
and hooked up.
Click to expand...
I 'retired' my last BC-21e printer about 2 years ago.... BJC-4400. Now run
a S800, S600 and i950. All nice separate ink tanks. Never had any problems
with any of them. Have a retired BJC-8200 (as of July this year) as well.
IMHO ink should be about $10 -$11 per tank... and that's what I pay for them
at Amazon. Perfect!

Cari
www.coribright.com
 
Cari said:
I 'retired' my last BC-21e printer about 2 years ago.... BJC-4400. Now run
a S800, S600 and i950. All nice separate ink tanks. Never had any problems
with any of them. Have a retired BJC-8200 (as of July this year) as well.
IMHO ink should be about $10 -$11 per tank... and that's what I pay for them
at Amazon. Perfect!
Click to expand...

The only problem I have with my Canon i560 (with the BCI-3e black ink) is
that it seems to smudge more than my HP's. It's humid here so I'm sure
that's a contributing factor. If you want the ink even cheaper, I just went
to Costco and saw that all three colors (Y, M, C) are $27 - so $9 each. Two
BCI-3e black inks are $21 - so $10.50 each. Pretty good prices. I can't
believe Canon put out such garbage...the BC-21e system is the worse thing
ever in the printer world. Canon is lucky their cheap i320 redeemed their
company enough for me to buy the i560. I typically buy a printer every
other year and after the BJC-5000 fiasco I swore never to buy another Canon.
Well...I'm cheap and the i320 was on sale. So I bought it :0P. $35!

Would you happen to know what the difference is between the BCI-3e and
BCI-6e inks? I noticed the previous generation (i550/i850) used the former
and the latest generation (i560/i860) use the latter - and the higher up
photo printers use the 6e inks as well.
 
I had nothing I had to print in color for awhile, thinking I was saving
money that way, so I let my BJC-5000 sit on the desk for a few months while
using an Epson LQ570+ for my printer needs. Now when I HAD to use a color
printer the flipping thing won't come on. I get a flashing green light the
book says is a communication error. I'm using the same parallel cable as
the Epson. Can dried up print tanks cause this kind of error? Nothing
else has changed. Cleaned the print tank contacts with a soft eraser, then
alcohol and q-tip. Anything else I can do before I have to buy new tanks to
try. It was a very good printer when it was working. Hate to loose it.
 
How compares i950(D?) to BJC-8200 Photo ?

Philippe

PS Here a new head for the latter costs a third of the price of the
former...
 
Philippe Lemaire (remove oldies) said:
How compares i950(D?) to BJC-8200 Photo ?

Philippe
Click to expand...

There's no real comparison..... Much much faster and a lot better
resolution. Used Canon photo pro and plus papers.

Printing on Meritline photo glossy DVD covers gives nice results... but let
the paper dry for at least an hour.... which of course means remembering to
grap it from the printer before the next cover comes out or they'll just
stick together.

Wouldn't go back to the BJC-8200..... ever.

Don't take my i950 away. I'm in love with it!
Cari
 
Would you happen to know what the difference is between the BCI-3e and
BCI-6e inks? I noticed the previous generation (i550/i850) used the
former
and the latest generation (i560/i860) use the latter - and the higher up
photo printers use the 6e inks as well.
Click to expand...
The S600 uses the 3e, the S800 and the i960 use the 6e...... since the 600
and 800 are old, I use cheapo ink from EBay... (the 960 gets spoiled and
uses genuine Canon 6e's every time)...

Having run out of 3s, I stuck a 6 in the S600... worked just fine (obviously
can't do that with the black cos of the tank size)..... a few months later I
did the same the other way round... put a generic 3 in the S800. Also
worked fine. I'm sure there must be some technical differences, but you'd
probably have to ask a Canon ink techie for the answer!

Cari
 
printer the flipping thing won't come on. I get a flashing green light the
book says is a communication error. I'm using the same parallel cable as
Click to expand...

I know I saw that type error on my Canon 5000. Seems to me I had to
unplug the printer from the power (not just turn it off), delete the
printer icon in the Printers Window, then restart Windows and let it
redetect the printer. It has been a while, so I can't say for sure.

Now I did have a BC-23 cartridge give me a error too

You know what to do: shdb at slip dot net
 
Back
Top