No black printing on my Smart Tank 551

[chiefstg88]

The black will not print on my Smart Tank 551 although the color prints.  I have gone through all troubleshooting I can find.  Black ink level is full.  I have aligned to the best of my ability as the alignment printout seems worthless with no black printing. I have gone through the three levels of cleaning print heads.  There is no error message saying a print cartridge needs to be replaced and the the error is required to get the carriage to move to center for cartridge replacement.  I've already replaced this printer with an HP Laserjet.  The Best Buy sales person said that unless the inkjet printers are used regularly, the print jets can dry up or become clogged.  I haven't used the Smart Tank frequently, so if true, that could be an issue with the black jet.  He said that while the Laserjet cartridges are a little more expensive to replace, they don't need to be used regularly and generally last longer.  I don't know if any of that is true, but I took the bait and bought the b/w m141 first, then added the color m182.  I'd welcome any ideas on the Smart Tank as I hate to just trash it with the color working. 

Any help out there?  Thanks. 

[sandytechy20]

@chiefstg88 

Welcome to the HP support community.

I understand that you are getting print quality issues, I am glad to assist you.

If you have tried all the steps mentioned in this HP document:- Click here

And if the issue still persists, this might require one on one interaction to fix the issue, 

I am sending you a private message with the steps to talk to HP support.

Please check the mailbox icon at the top-right corner of this screen.

I hope this helps resolve this issue completely.

If this helps, please mark the public post as an accepted solution so that it benefits several others.

Cheers