My yellow ink pad is constantly contaminated (for want of a better word) by the black ink so my colours don't print correctly. I can fix this temporarily by blotting the pad with a tissue and then running a clean and several nozzle checks but it wastes a lot of time and ink. Any suggestions please?
Yes, do you refil your own inks. Colour contamination occurs primarily when users overfill ink holes with any colour, then this colour runs into others and voila, a yukky mess. If cartridges are fairly new, heres the quick easy fix. Remove cartridges that are causing the problem, in your case all! Using a proper cleaning solution (you can get this free in refill kits or buy it sepeartely, i got mine from supermarket, works well) and cotton buds, thoroughly clean down where the cartridges sit. There will be both fresh ink and dried ink, so you will have to repeat over and over until all or most colour is gone from cotton buds. Now, let it dry and air, leaving printer cover open. You now have to bleed the black ink as it sounds like it is overfull. This can happen in refilled cartridges, but even store bought ones can have faults. Sit the black cartridge on wet paper towel, on a clean icecream lid or marg lid, even a plate will do, just one that you don't mind ink on by accident. Let it sit a minute or so, now lift it up, and wipe it gently with a wipe (i use unscented baby wipes-huggies, do not laugh, they work well!) press it firmly on a folded tissue, and it should leave a nice clean neat black vertical little line. If it doeas, place it back in its place in printer. Leave open for now. The colour cartridge should need cleaning too, by doing the same, each time you lift it off wet paper towel, wipe it clean, and press it on a tissue to see clean neat 3 colour line. If not, bleed again until it does. When it does place it back in printer and reset ink levels once cover is shut. Try printing now.
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I have the same problem with the Canon i950. The black cartridge seems to soak into the yellow one - capillary action? Very wasteful of ink. After cleaning with tissues I put in a new yellow. - it worked fine but the next day the black had contaminated it again. I have cleaned it again, put in another new yellow and now remove the black when I've finished printing. I hold the original orange plastic tab in place with an elastic band. I have only ever used genuine Canon ink cartridges.
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