L26500 heads dropping out

[kanini]

Have a relatively new L260/26500 and have recently had problems with a couple C-LC heads suddently dropping out causing banding. Changed heads (on warranty) and it seemed to go away but now a Y-K (black) dropped out printing large solids of black, ruining half a roll of material while unattended printing. Changed Y-K head, printed just a bit and now BOTH Y-K heads have missing nozzles and give banding. Even when the new head have only been running 130 ml or so. The other about 1900 ml.

My dealer/tech now says I need to change BOTH heads in the same colors according to HP when you get problems with heads, is this true? They also say I need to shake the light ink carts every now and then since they aren't used as much. Don't know why the brand new head suddently failing at the same time as the older black head, before the test print was perfect. I would understand them dropping out staying unused for weeks but do they drop out in the middle of prints without warning? How's that for overnight unattended printing? Can I do something to prevent dropouts and to keep printheads lasting longer? I print color bars and have the min. drying power at 0.9, sleep time at 120 mins.
Thank you for reading, I'm just nervous it will ruin a roll again if I don't babysit it...

 

[ColoPrinthead]

Running gutters along side your prints might help. Are you able to get the head working again after running a cleaning?
I don't change both printhead colors at the same time, that sounds ridiculous to me.

 

[kanini]

Running gutters along side your prints might help. Are you able to get the head working again after running a cleaning?
I don't change both printhead colors at the same time, that sounds ridiculous to me.

Yep, running gutters and that helps at least determine which head that fails. I get them changed at warranty but it's ridicolous to have to change a head after 130 ml usage
Yes, they get better after cleaning.

 

[ColoPrinthead]

I had to send 3 heads back to HP for warranty replacement all under 300ml. I later found that the altitude setting was not correct on our printer and I have not had anymore problems since selecting the proper setting, you might check to see if yours is setup right.

 

[kanini]

Thank you for the reply, I'll check it out tomorrow and post back... Then I also get new black heads.

 

[kanini]

So, checked the altitude, it was correct 0-1000 m for where I am.
Changed both K-Y printheads. Run fine for the first few meters and then it started banding as before. Took a photo of the color bars. I enabled the extra ph cleaning for a while and it resolved the issue somewhat, but Iäm not sure if I could leave that on without burning trough a PH cleaning kit for each job or so or if I dare to turn around with it switched off. It seems as soon as I take my eyes off it the banding starts again.
I've sent the pics to the tech and requested a visit but in the meantime, does anyone have any opinions?



A good lesson to ALWAYS have at least a couple other machines so you can switch when things like this happens...

Thanks!

 

[kanini]

So this is what the brand new cleaning cartridge look like. As you can see it has jammed from new and also ripped the felt. It doesn't move at all when trying to turn the white gear and it yas tried to clean and clean on the same spot gumming up the heads. The tech told me it has been a couple defective units that is stuck from new but not many. I started to wonder when the extra ph cleaning enabled only seemed to make things worse now.
Because I was printing stuff with only black&yellow I didn't get any trouble with the other colors, and it took a while for the new cleaning cart to gum up so much it started to clog heads with every cleaning when printing. I was baffled! Put the old cleaning cart in (still had some unused felt in it) and whoa - printing like new! Solid colors, no banding at any speed and even the color bars look crisper!
Getting a new cleaning cart on monday from my dealer who also was a bit chocked about it being stuck from new and causing this. Crossing my fingers it was only this but I really think so...

Just wanted to update the solution if anyone has similar issues and thanks for the views and replies! Have a nice printing day!!

 

[ColoPrinthead]

Thanks for the update. I am glad you got your printer working again.