Cleaning Clogged Canon Print Heads

Canon printers have a removable printer head that holds the ink cartridges. It is important to print a few pages in both black and color at least once per week in order to keep the ink flowing and prevent clogging.

If the printer head nozzles are blocked or dried out you will need to dissolve the dried ink. An inkjet nozzle has a diameter of about 45 microns which is about 1/2 the width of a human hair. Normally you can clear up minor clogs and streaking by running the cleaning cycle found in your printer's software utility.

However if the cleaning cycle doesn't do the trick in clearing up poor and incomplete output, don't give up and assume you'll need to buy a new printer head (which can cost more than a new printer). Canon owners have reported multiple ways to resolve this problem at little or not cost - some of the most popular methods are described below.

Steps for Manually Cleaning the Printer Head

Step 1 - Remove the ink tanks and printer head. Remove the ink tanks from the printer head (tank holder) and seal them in a zip lock or other sealable plastic bag. Set them aside, preferably propped upright.

Next remove the printer head (it snaps out). NOTE: You may want to wear latex gloves to help keep ink off your hands.

Step 2 - Soak the printer head. There are multiple suggestions on ways to clean the printer head and all have some variation on the following:

• Get a small, shallow pan and lay down a layer or two of paper towels in the bottom of the container to protect the printer head circuitry from contact damage.
• Heat up (via microwave) enough purified/bottled water to cover the paper towels. You can also use a 50/50 mixture of ammonia and distilled water (about a pint will do). Heat the mixture in the microwave for about a minute or so - it should NOT be boiling.
• Slowly pour the water or mixture over the paper towels so that you have approximately 1/2 inch of liquid in the bottom of the pan.
• Set the printer head into the container on top of the towels. You should see ink 'bleeding' out. Move the print head to several different spots (about a minute each spot) and shake gently. This will dissolve the ink clogs.
• If the printer head is badly clogged let it soak for 3 to 4 hours or overnight. You can move it slightly to a different spot every hour or so.