A blocked print head can be caused by a build up of ink residue which stops ink from flowing. This causes havoc with the quality of your edible prints, even when your cartridges are full.
This is a quick and easy guide will talk you through how to tell if your printhead is blocked with edible ink, and what steps you can take to resolve it and restore your edible print quality. This guide covers all edible printer models sold by EPS, including Canon PIXMA iX6850, TS6350 and TS705, TS705a edible printer models. We've also included tips on how to take care of your edible printer and prevent your printhead from becoming blocked.
How to Tell if Your Print Head is Blocked?
There are several ways to tell if your print head is clogged. But the most common tell-tale signs are listed below:
- If your cartridges are all full but your edible prints are coming out blank, or with particularly colours or areas missing, then it's likely you have a clogged print head.
- If faded or white lines or stripes start to appear on your edible prints, this is also a sign a blockage in the print head may be preventing the edible ink from fully flowing.
- An imperfect nozzle check pattern can also point to a blockage in your print head - for steps on how to print a nozzle check pattern, please follow this guide.
A perfect nozzle pattern check - no missing colours or lines
Why Does your Printhead get Blocked?
All inkjet printers require some level of cleaning and maintenance to avoid the print head from becoming clogged, since a large amount of ink sits within the heads between use. As edible ink is made from 100% edible ingredients, and no toxic solvents which make up regular ink, the effects of this can be amplified when using an edible printer, since the ink will dry much more quickly and cause a blockage. If an edible printer is sat idle for a long length of time (anything more than a few days), the ink may crystallise and cause a blockage in the printer heads.
How do EPS Edible Inks and Printers Reduce Blockages?
- All edible printer models stocked by EPS have a removable print head, so these blockages can easily be cleaned and removed - this will ensure you get a longer life out of your edible printer, and you can easily resolve a blockage without wasting large amounts of inks using cleaning functions on the device.
- EPS Edible Ink is also double-filtered, removing some of the sediment which can cause a blockage. Using high-quality ink such as this, rather than cheaper alternatives works out far more cost-effective in the long run, since it prolongs the life of your printhead and ensures the quality of your edible prints does not deteriorate.
- EPS have also formulated a dedicated Edible Printer Cleaning Solution which you can use as part of our Refillable Edible Printer Cleaning & Maintenance Kits or Pre-Filled Edible printer Cleaning & Maintenance Cartridges to help keep your edible printer running smoothly and avoid a build-up of edible ink in the print head. We also recommend using our cleaning solutions before any periods of prolonged storage - you can even leave the cleaning cartridges in place to prevent ink sitting in the print head. The cleaning kits and solutions are for preventative maintenance and may not be able to clear a blockage once it has formed, so it is important to use regularly to prevent this.
*Please note - we don't recommend soaking your printhead for a prolonged period of time or forcing water/cleaning solution through the heads using syringes or tubing - this can cause irreversible damage to the print head.
If you have an edible food printer, it is highly advisable that you follow our edible printer cleaning and maintenance advice and regularly clean the print head, even if it not clogged. This preventative maintenance will save time, effort and cost in the long run – most importantly avoiding dreaded edible printer issues and the need to clean out a blocked print head when you need to urgently print!
How to Remove a Blockage in Your Canon Printhead
If you've diagnosed your printer problem and think you may have a blocked print head, there are a few steps to take to clear this:
- Print a nozzle check pattern to identify the blockage and to compare to following cleaning.
- If you have an EPS Edible Printer Cleaning & Maintenance Kit or Pre-Filled Edible Printer Cleaning Cartridges, you can first try replacing your edible ink cartridges with the cleaning cartridges and running our recommended cleaning routine (full instructions for this are provided with the kits/cartridges).
- Print another nozzle check pattern and compare for any signs of improvement.
- If you have tried all the cleaning kit instructions and their still appears to be a blockage in the print head, you will need to carefully remove the print head and manually clean it under hot running water. You can follow out video guides on how to do this - how to remove your Canon print head and how to wash your Canon print head *Please note it can take several cleans of the printhead under hot water for the blockages to clear.
- Print another nozzle check pattern, if all colours are showing and there are no missing lines (see above example) then you have successfully unblocked your print head. If it is still showing signs of a blockage and you have repeated the above steps several times (we advise repeating the clean after 24 hours) then it may no be a blockage causing the issues with your edible printer head.
What Should I do if Cleaning the Print Dead Doesn't Work
Eventually, even with consistent cleaning and maintenance, the print head in your edible printer may require replacing. How long your edible printers print head will last will depend on a number of factors - how many pages you have printed on your edible printer, how often you use your edible printer, how you have stored your edible printer in between use and the quality of edible ink you have used in your edible printer. By following our recommended cleaning and maintenance of your edible printer and using EPS double-filtered, quality edible inks, you can ensure you prolong the life of your edible print head for as long as possible!
If you have exhausted all cleaning steps for your print head, your cartridges are filled properly (both the sponge and cavity is filled and there are no dry patches on the sponge) and there are still lines or missing colours on your nozzle check patters/your edible prints are low quality or have lines across them, then it may be time to replace your print head.
EPS stock a range of genuine Canon and Canon compatible print heads for a variety of printer models (TS705, TS705a, TS5050, TS5051, TS6350, TS6350a, TS6351, iX6850, iP7250) you can find the correct print head for your edible printer here.
Once your print head has been replaced, you can run a cleaning cycle using the printers control panel (Setup (tools button) > Maintenance > Cleaning or Deep Clean) to get the ink flowing through the new heads.
For further advice on cleaning and maintaining your edible printer, see our Edible Printer Cleaning and Maintenance Guide. If you have any more questions about cleaning, maintaining or replacing your edible printers print head, you can email us at sales@edibleprintsupplies.co.uk and our dedicated team would be happy help!