MAXIFY GX5020 just prints black

[dirtyheads007]

So I've been out of town for about 3 months and upon printing a color photo my printer GX5020 just prints it in black and white. 

I tried some deep cleans to no avail and now I'm getting a maintenance cartridge full when I try to do more deep cleans. I noticed that there appears to be no ink or just very little in the rubber hoses from the tanks to the print head. 

I've ordered a head cleaning kit - syringe and some cleaning fluid, and will try to flush out the print head but one would think the color lines would still have ink in them? I will also order a new maintenance cartridge but I swear I changed it a while a go. Taking out the maintenance  cartridge shows no signs of it being full. Assume it would reset automatically when a new one is inserted. 

Seem like I am on the road to inkjet hell again. this happens to my old cannon inkjet printers when I went away, it happened every year to all of them!! I even ended up running a script that printed out a page of color every so often wheel away! 

[MSmith1516]

I also need help with this exact issue except I wasn't out of town & I use my printer 3-4 times a week. I ordered a syringe kit also, flushed out the print head to no avail now I have a printer cartridge that will be delivered tomorrow I hope this solves the problem but idk will see.

[dirtyheads007]

I fixed it with a cleaning kit off amazon and a new maintenance cartridge. 

Keep on flushing it, I had to do it for ages. I think you don't even need to use their stupid solution and can just use running alcohol from Target 99c. Also make sure you do a bunch of flushes afterwards, the type that uses a ton of ink 😞 

You got a new print head - do you. have the same printer - this is a big inkjet printer with tanks? Not sure one can get printheads for the MAXIFY GX5020. If so (at $400) canon one would just buy a new printer 😞 Even the clone print heads that I would not recommend are $180 on amazon. 

I know it sucks and the solution is to set up a print Job to print every two weeks automatically - either log in remotely (Tailscale) or some scripting. 

[Hector]

Hello,

If you have not used the printer for an extended period of time or rarely print in color, air can slowly seep into the color ink lines. If the color ink lines are empty, I would suggest performing a color only ink flush to refill the ink lines. You can use the steps in the link HERE. If the maintenance cartridge is full, it would need to be replaced before performing an ink flush.

If you do not use your printer often or leave the printer unused for extended periods of time, I suggest our two cartridge printers. The models like our TR4720 use a disposable black and color cartridge. Each cartridge has a built-in print head and is replaced whenever the ink cartridge is replaced.