K8600 Print Quality

Having a problem with a K8600 - the magenta cyan printhead works perfectly and then when it sites for
a few minutes between uses I get thin white lines in the color printout - black letters are fine.  It sure
looks like several of the jets are not firing.  I then clean and align and everything is find for one print or twenty -
then let it sit and quality drops.  Anybody have an idea what is happening.
On a former K550 printer service had me do an "air purge" one of the TAP programs but
I can't find the info for this anywhere.  I am on my second printhead - first one was worse, second one
is much better but it is $$$$ for a third.
So any solutions appreciated.
Thanks
Colin

I have a similar problem. My K8600 is practically brand new because I haven't been able to print many copies. I was able to print about 20 pages of a newsletter and then it started getting streaks with just yellow and black. After running through all of the tool box items I got desperate and manually removed both print heads, ran a tissue across them and re-installed them. I printed a PQ page and it looked perfect. Then it printed great for about 20 more copies and then the red disappeared from my page. Everything else was perfect, no streaks etc., just no red anymore. So I manually removed the cyan/magenta printhead, wiped with tissue, re-installed and got about 20 more good pages and then the red disappeared again. I repeated this until I got my 50 or so copies of the two-page newsletter.  I have not contacted HP support yet with this problem, but this combined with a few other HP things has made me decide to never ever purchase another HP product. I used to be the one that always raved about HP printers, but since the merger the product quality has gone, i.e. there is none. Sorry I don't have a solution for this very expensive, heavy, paperweight.
Les

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