Cone inks for Epson 9900 vs Epson inks and print head clogs

[Sunshine7]

I bought a new Epson 9900 printer early this year.

I used the Epson cartridges that came with the printer to charge the lines, and after this changed out the by now almost empty cartridges for the Cone color cartridges and ink.

In my understanding the Cone inks are a pure pigment ink while the Epson inks have some dye in them. It was also my understanding that the colors are the same and that the longevity is the same. (from some posts on this forum according to tests the longevity may not be the same though, as I just read today).

From the beginning I had issues with print head cleaning failures etc and the printer saying it needed to redo the cleaning. THis would happen again and again, even if the nozzle check printed out ok. The rinter then developped a more serious clog and I did not want to continue to waist ink to clear the clog.

So I just had an Epson technician come out and change out the print head, wiper and assembly cap (can not remember the exact words/terms for this).

However, still, I do not get a perfect nozzle check each time, and the results are very intermitted. FOr example, after some head pair cleanings last night, and finally having a perfect nozzle check printout, this morning I printed out a perfect nozzle check pattern. Then this afternoon I had to make one print, and did another nozzle check print. LC and LM  had nozzles missing at the bottom. I did a head cleaning using the 'pair' option' I printed another nozzle check. This time the Magenta was missing nozzles on the bottom. I did another head cleaning for 'pairs' then a nozzle check print and the LC was missing nozzles on the bottom. After another cleaning of pairs the orange, also on the bottom. This is what happened a couple of days so far.

Since all the major parts of the printer were changed out (except for the electric boards etc) could it be that the cone inks are causing a problem? I've put back in the Epson inks for now, to see if it will make a difference, but it may take a while for the ink lines to be charged with Epson inks.

Humidity in room is 41% temp is 70 degrees. It is completely dust free.

My Canon printer prints nozzle checks fine, without fail, after I changed both print heads last year.

Anyway, the tech switched off the 'aid' board so that I use less ink since, as I understood it, all printhead channels get cleaned and recleaned if only one microscopic nozzle fails the cleaning, and he said its much better to switch off the aid board and do manual dual channel cleanings instead, since it saves ink.

I've used up 4 maintenance cartridges so far, most of them due to 'cleanings'. Epson will not even provide one ink cartridge. THis in contrast to canon who eventually did provide cartridges (long story).

Any ideas? could this possibly have to do with the Cone inks? In order to ask Cone one has to create an logon id and ask the quesiton on a support page. I did this before when one of the cartridges split and I needed to get the spilled ink of the floor, but things did not get resolved in the way I hoped for so am asking this question now here, and I am hoping for an perhaps more objective response than I would get from Cone...

[Jager]

I would use the OEM inks until you reach some semblance of stability.  And I'd do enough head cleanings to assure that those OEM inks have completely filled the lines, replacing the Cone inks - not at some indeterminate time in the future.

I'm a big fan of Cone's Piezography inks (one of my two printers is dedicated to K7).  But I'm not convinced his inks - or any 3rd party inks - are as trouble-free and maintenance-free as the factory stuff.

And by all means I would contact Cone and his crew, either on the website or otherwise.  They typically are very responsive to customer problems.

[Doombrain]

Great troll.

[KeithR]

I have ConeColor in one printer & Piezography in a second. One thing I did when I started using third party inks (I had used MIS before I found out about Cone) was to clean out the lines before adding the new inksets. Inks from different suppliers may not always mix as well and I have found that the dampers are were the clogs usually cause the most problems. The super fine mesh in the dampers might clog up with mismatched inks leading to faulty nozzle checks. The solution I now use is to run piezoflush (I purchased a third set of carts specifically for this) through the lines peridically-especially if I haven't printed in a while. While some might say that is a waste of ink, I find it a lot less expensive than a new print head or printer. And yes, I did learn how to replace the dampers. Another (relativley) inexpensive cost.