Pixma G6020 Printing Pink

[emirich286]

I've had my Pixma G6020 for about a year and a half now. 

I did a high volume of printing about a week ago (in black & white) and halfway through my prints started coming out with pink, purple, red & blue sporadically in the prints.

Now when I print in black & white, some prints are entirely pink with no black ink, and some are mostly black with some pink areas. I have had one or two print black normally with no pink as well. Weirdly enough the black prints fine in color, but then the other colors seem off.

I did a nozzle check and the black prints normal, but on the side where it says CMY, those are printing pink instead of the black the nozzle check pattern shows, and in the color bars to the right of that for cyan and yellow aren't printing at all -- magenta might be a little off, it doesn't seem too vivid, but there aren't any lines or streaks in the magenta and the black pattern is fine.

I did a printhead cleaning and did another nozzle check and got the same results.

My ink tanks are pretty full and I haven't needed to replenish any since buying it (we don't print that often). 

I updated all the drivers and software before running any nozzle checks hoping that was the problem but obviously had no luck. 

Is there something else besides clogged print heads that could be causing this problem? 

I don't want to do an ink flush unless absolutely necessary. 

[Patrick]

Hi emirich286,

Because performing printhead cleanings did not get your G6020 to print correctly, it is recommended that you perform an ink flush.

[Wimby]

How I did an ink flush?

[Patrick]

Hi Wimby,

If you own the PIXMA G6020, you may perform an ink flush by following these steps:

1.  Please press the wrench and screwdriver button on your G6020

2.  Repeatedly press the right arrow button to select Maintenance and press the OK

3.  Press the right arrow button to select Ink Flush and then press the OK button

4.  Choose All Colors, Color or BK and press OK

5.  Check the displayed message and press OK button

6.  Select Yes and then press OK button

7.  Select Yes and then press OK button

https://ij.manual.canon/ij/webmanual/Manual/All/G6000%20series/EN/NTR/ntr_h_01.html

[pjb1988]

What can be done to prevent the need for an ink flush? I usually print primarily in black and white. I have only printed about 500 pages in a year, and now I am having trouble with getting pink tinged prints. The flush is very wasteful, so I want to do what I can to avoid doing another one.

[GLP]

I was thinking I would need to replace the print heads, if that were possible.  The cleaning did not work nor did deep cleaning.  But the flush worked!  Better than a new printer.  I just need to remember to run color now and then to keep the heads from drying up.

[jimonqa]

This is such a common problem (me too) that it's clearly a defect worthy of recall for consumers.