HP Officejet Pro 8600 Premium leaking black ink

[mbailey5]

Printer is four years old, out of warranty, and used in a small business office (~300 pages/week). Only new HP ink cartridges purchased from Costco have ever been used.

Yesterday, black ink was noticed on the back of the top right edge of the top paper tray.  An examination of the underside of the main printer body revealed a lot of black ink on the back of the right side. After cleaning this, I opened the front access door used to change the ink cartridges. I removed all of the cartridges but observed absolutely no ink at the back of the cartridge compartment. I removed the printhead and noticed some ink below the ports from each of the cartridges (this area could also be visualized without removing the print head by tilting the print head up and looking underneath the ink cartridges) but it was not excessive and did not appear anywhere else on the printhead. Shining a flashlight into the front access door, the far right side beneath the area where the printhead parks when not in use appeard wet with ink. This has not affected the print quality in any way (i.e., there are no streaks or blobs of ink on printed documents). If not for the ink observed on the edge of the paper tray, we would not have suspected a problem.

Discussion boards for the Officejet 8000 and 8500 suggested that the ink tubes leading to the printhead should be examined for kinking but the image did not correspond to the 8600 so I'm not sure if or how to do this. I could find no similar discussions for the 8600 and nothing in the 8600 documentation available to me addressed ink leakage.

Can anyone tell me or point me to instructions on how to correct this problem?

[Sizzlingsum_13]

Greetings!!@mbailey5

Welcome to HP Forums, this is a great place to get support, find answers and tips.Thank you for posting your query.I read your post I see that you are looking for assistance on print quality issues on your printer.I'll be more than glad to help you out.

These solutions are explained in detail in this document: Click here

Please complete the steps and let me know the outcome.

I'll be eagerly waiting to assist you with same, cheers 🙂

Have a nice day.

If this helps, please mark this as “Accepted Solution” as it will help several others with the same issue to get it resolved without hassles.To simply say thanks, please click the "Thumbs Up" button to give me a Kudos to appreciate my efforts to help.

[mbailey5]

Sizzlingsum_13,

Thanks for your response. I had already met most of the recommendations in the document you referenced but, to be specific:

   Overall: No error or failure on printer - just ink leaking.

   Step 1: Use genuine HP cartridges. We have only used genuine HP cartridges purchased from Costco.

   Step2: Make sure that the cartridges are inserted correctly. Done - I observed no leakage inside the cartridge area of the printhead.

   Step 3: Check the carriage latch. Carriage latch was completely down.

   Steps 4,5,6: Remove and clean cartridges. Done. As mentioned before, there were no errors or failures to resolve.

   Step 7: Reset the printer. Done three times.

    Step 8: Replace the problem cartridge. Not done due to cost of high capacity black cartridge (I'm not sure if I can use the remainder of the cartridge after removal). Will do this after checking other possible solutions.

   Step 9: Replace the printhead. Not done. Given the cost, I would be more likely to purchase a new printer unless this could be guaranteed to fix the problem.

I removed the printhead and the only area that showed any ink buildup was on the lower front portion where it appears that ports lead to or from the ink cartridges. This area is visible without removing the printhead or cartridges by tilting the printhead up and shining a light beneath the cartridge area. I cleaned this area but the printer has not been used since I did so. No ink on left or center sections under the printhead - only on the right. For earlier models, the user was advised to check for kinking of ink tubes at printhead but I did not see tubes in my printer similar to images for the earlier models.

Thanks, Michael Bailey

[mbailey5]

A correction to my reply of a few minutes ago. It appears that the high capacity black ink cartridge was replaced with a new cartridge shortly after the initial leakage of black ink was noticed. The replacement was in response to a message indicating that the black ink cartridge was empty but the leakage continued after the new cartridge was inserted.

[sandytechy20]

@mbailey5

Thanks for the reply.

It seems to be a hardware issue.

I request you to contact HP phone support for assistance.

Cheers.

[floorgryl]

I to am having the same issues with the ink leaking out.  same exact thing.. i dont think HP support can help.. ?? think its time to replace the printer

[quarius465]

I too am have the same problem.  I have done everything also including using only geninue HP cartridges, reseating the printer heas 3 times and replaced the printer head.  I am still having the same problem.  My printer is also out of warranty as it is about 4 years old.  If anyone has solved this issue please let me know also.

[ErinTaylor]

Same thing, here.  Exact same thing happening with my 8610.  And, also not under warranty.

[Printermark]

I wonder if you could overcome the problem? I just posted a ink leakage problem of my 5 years old officejet Pro 8500 with, it looks like, a similar problem. Looking at the forum responses I am afraid a solution is not available. If the leakage is also on the right side it might be the cleaning reservoir that overflows with ink from the printerheads when they are flushed/rinsed?

[ErinTaylor]

I didn't have a problem until I used an XL cartridge.  I wonder if that was the problem.  Needless to say I will NEVER buy an XL cartridge again.

I have had to get rid of the printer because it was throwing an error eventually and it made the entire thing not function -- couldn't even use the scanner, which had nothing to do with the printing problem.  I don't remember the error, but it persisted no matter how many times I restarted.

I have had nothing but trouble with HP printers, but I keep buying them like a fool.  I now have a very cheap model -- the OfficeJet 3830.  It doesn't have all of the features I like, but I'm tired of throwing hundreds down a hole once a year.