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Author Topic: P7000-Possible Humidity Issues  (Read 1057 times)

Garnick

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P7000-Possible Humidity Issues
« on: December 14, 2017, 07:52:47 am »

Hello all,

Now working with a P7000 at home.  At my former place of business I used a humidifier close to the 9900 and that seemed to do a good job.  Of course I could do the same here at home, but I've been pondering a somewhat different approach recently.  The procedure would be rather simple, and I believe possibly quite effective.  I would place a small tray in the left end of the printer, behind the ink bay.  In that tray I would then put a wet sponge.  Not sopping wet of course, but enough moisture to perhaps keep the printer happy.  In many ways this procedure is based on a humidifier for an acoustic guitar, which I use for my instruments during the winter months.  Any wood body instrument requires some sort of humidity control during the dry months.  My initial idea was to place this combination in the right end of the printer, but there simply isn't enough room there, although I could use a smaller instrument humidifier there as well I suppose.

Any thoughts?

Gary           
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deanwork

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Re: P7000-Possible Humidity Issues
« Reply #1 on: December 14, 2017, 09:34:43 am »

I used to do what you are describing, putting a wet sponge inside the printer close to the head assembly, or even put a little plastic cup of water there with a sponge when not in use. It did something to minimize clogs but not nearly enough. On my 9890 I started to directly moisten the cap station with distilled water and that has been a dream solution for me for the last three years. No clogs, and this printer has a k7 inkset of pure carbon and sometimes goes a month without use. And I only use cotton matte papers on it.

My procedure is:

While starting up the printer wait until the head comes out from the cap assembly area toward a the middle of the printer.

Quickly open the front cover.

Move the head to the far left side and put a flashlight inside the printer shining on the cap assembly at far right side.

Take some distilled water by sucking into a straw while holding your finger over the end of the straw.

Drip the distilled water over the ink absorption pads on the cap station. There is one for each nozzle.

I also clean any dried ink on wiper blade every week.  .

You could also just run a lint free clothe soaked with distilled water over those sponges.

I do that anyway to clean dried ink off of the cap area.

I usually place a lint free white cotton glove under the cap assembly while doing this to catch any excess drips.

When they are soaked quickly put the head back on the cap station and shut the front cover.

 At this point the printer will do a short startup cleaning.

Now turn off the printer.

 I do this about once a week whether the printer is being used or not.

By doing this once a week your capping pads never dry out and loose shape that fits the print head. That is one of the main reasons clogs occur , poor fit of the print nozzles on the cap station because  when the printer does a cleaning the contact is not tight. This is especially important if your printer doesn't get used every day or every week.  Once the pads get deformed with ink dried on them it can be impossible to reshape them. This is one of the main reasons people have to replace the whole head cap assembly which is half the cost of the printer or more . I wish I had known this 15 years ago. I could have had much less headache with several piezo printers and they would have lasted a lot longer.

The other thing I do with all my printers is keep a heavy cover over them when not in use. I use large muslin painters drop cloths from Home Depot. They cover the entire 44" printers down to the floor.

John




Hello all,

Now working with a P7000 at home.  At my former place of business I used a humidifier close to the 9900 and that seemed to do a good job.  Of course I could do the same here at home, but I've been pondering a somewhat different approach recently.  The procedure would be rather simple, and I believe possibly quite effective.  I would place a small tray in the left end of the printer, behind the ink bay.  In that tray I would then put a wet sponge.  Not sopping wet of course, but enough moisture to perhaps keep the printer happy.  In many ways this procedure is based on a humidifier for an acoustic guitar, which I use for my instruments during the winter months.  Any wood body instrument requires some sort of humidity control during the dry months.  My initial idea was to place this combination in the right end of the printer, but there simply isn't enough room there, although I could use a smaller instrument humidifier there as well I suppose.

Any thoughts?

Gary         
« Last Edit: December 14, 2017, 09:38:21 am by deanwork »
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Garnick

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Re: P7000-Possible Humidity Issues
« Reply #2 on: December 14, 2017, 10:45:35 am »

I used to do what you are describing, putting a wet sponge inside the printer close to the head assembly, or even put a little plastic cup of water there with a sponge when not in use. It did something to minimize clogs but not nearly enough. On my 9890 I started to directly moisten the cap station with distilled water and that has been a dream solution for me for the last three years. No clogs, and this printer has a k7 inkset of pure carbon and sometimes goes a month without use. And I only use cotton matte papers on it.

My procedure is:

While starting up the printer wait until the head comes out from the cap assembly area toward a the middle of the printer.

Quickly open the front cover.

Move the head to the far left side and put a flashlight inside the printer shining on the cap assembly at far right side.

Take some distilled water by sucking into a straw while holding your finger over the end of the straw.

Drip the distilled water over the ink absorption pads on the cap station. There is one for each nozzle.

I also clean any dried ink on wiper blade every week.  .

You could also just run a lint free clothe soaked with distilled water over those sponges.

I do that anyway to clean dried ink off of the cap area.

I usually place a lint free white cotton glove under the cap assembly while doing this to catch any excess drips.

When they are soaked quickly put the head back on the cap station and shut the front cover.

 At this point the printer will do a short startup cleaning.

Now turn off the printer.

 I do this about once a week whether the printer is being used or not.

By doing this once a week your capping pads never dry out and loose shape that fits the print head. That is one of the main reasons clogs occur , poor fit of the print nozzles on the cap station because  when the printer does a cleaning the contact is not tight. This is especially important if your printer doesn't get used every day or every week.  Once the pads get deformed with ink dried on them it can be impossible to reshape them. This is one of the main reasons people have to replace the whole head cap assembly which is half the cost of the printer or more . I wish I had known this 15 years ago. I could have had much less headache with several piezo printers and they would have lasted a lot longer.

The other thing I do with all my printers is keep a heavy cover over them when not in use. I use large muslin painters drop cloths from Home Depot. They cover the entire 44" printers down to the floor.

John

The basic difference between your cleaning/maintenance procedures and what was doing with the SP9900 is that I did them in Service Mode.  Otherwise I did almost all of the procedures you have mentioned here, except perhaps for the intervals.  As I mentioned, I am now using a P7000, which of course is basically the same machine as the SP7900/9900, except for a few differences in the menus.  On these "P" Series printers we do not have nearly as many alternatives in Service Mode as we had on the SP7900/9900 Printers.  We can still get into Service Mode, but the menus are bare bones in comparison.  As a matter of fact, I recently tried to get to the Cap Station/Wiper.  I found that I would have to exert a lot of pressure to pull down that assembly, as compared to the 9900, so I left it alone.  I have posted that question/issue here but with no replies, so I can only assume that no one has tried this maintenance procedure yet on a P7000/9000 Printer.  I'm very wary of applying a lot of pressure on a unit in order to move it, and I do not want to take a chance of possibly voiding the warranty.

Thanks for all of the suggestions John, much appreciated.  I think I will check Home Depot here in Canada for the drop cloths, sounds like a good idea and I doubt they would attract much dust etc, unlike some other alternatives such as plastic.               

Gary
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Wayne Fox

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Re: P7000-Possible Humidity Issues
« Reply #3 on: December 14, 2017, 11:01:43 am »

I kept a humidifier in the room so the room itself was maintained at around 45% humidity with my 9900.  When I moved, my new printing room was a little small and a water line wasn't very accessible, so for the past 20 months my p9000 has had no external humidity controls of any kind.

I haven't noticed any issues, missing nozzles are pretty rare.  My problem with using any humidity control is the likelihood that it will evaporate/dry out between printer uses so unless it has a source of water I'm not sure it will do me any good.

The capping station seems to seal better than the previous models, which certainly traps the head in a dampened state.  I'm not sure even if the sponge is close to that any of the humidity would have an affect on the environment inside the capping assembly.  If you try it I would be curious as to any measured results ... although I'm not sure how you could quantify it.
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deanwork

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Re: P7000-Possible Humidity Issues
« Reply #4 on: December 14, 2017, 11:15:25 am »

Did they redesign the head and capping assembly on the new Large format Epsons in general? I know the p10k and p20k have different heads than the p9000 which is closer to the 9900s. I've never seen any of the new ones.


I kept a humidifier in the room so the room itself was maintained at around 45% humidity with my 9900.  When I moved, my new printing room was a little small and a water line wasn't very accessible, so for the past 20 months my p9000 has had no external humidity controls of any kind.

I haven't noticed any issues, missing nozzles are pretty rare.  My problem with using any humidity control is the likelihood that it will evaporate/dry out between printer uses so unless it has a source of water I'm not sure it will do me any good.

The capping station seems to seal better than the previous models, which certainly traps the head in a dampened state.  I'm not sure even if the sponge is close to that any of the humidity would have an affect on the environment inside the capping assembly.  If you try it I would be curious as to any measured results ... although I'm not sure how you could quantify it.
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Garnick

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Re: P7000-Possible Humidity Issues
« Reply #5 on: December 14, 2017, 11:24:42 am »

I kept a humidifier in the room so the room itself was maintained at around 45% humidity with my 9900.  When I moved, my new printing room was a little small and a water line wasn't very accessible, so for the past 20 months my p9000 has had no external humidity controls of any kind.

I haven't noticed any issues, missing nozzles are pretty rare.  My problem with using any humidity control is the likelihood that it will evaporate/dry out between printer uses so unless it has a source of water I'm not sure it will do me any good.

The capping station seems to seal better than the previous models, which certainly traps the head in a dampened state.  I'm not sure even if the sponge is close to that any of the humidity would have an affect on the environment inside the capping assembly.  If you try it I would be curious as to any measured results ... although I'm not sure how you could quantify it.

As I was reading your last sentence I had the same question Wayne.  How does one prove/quantify a negative? 

Hey folks, I have a sponge in a tray inside the printer and I haven't had a clog for months.  Now that's a rather ridiculous statement, correct?  There's no way of knowing if there would have been clogs without the sponge in a tray.  However, perhaps it will make me feel better.  Or, if there are clogs I suppose that might prove that the sponge in a tray did nothing to help the situation.  In some ways that seems to be a positive negative. Go figure.   
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Gary N.
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Garnick

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Re: P7000-Possible Humidity Issues
« Reply #6 on: December 14, 2017, 11:28:32 am »

Did they redesign the head and capping assembly on the new Large format Epsons in general? I know the p10k and p20k have different heads than the p9000 which is closer to the 9900s. I've never seen any of the new ones.

I don't know about the Capping Assembly, but the print head is the same one used in the SP-Series, 7900/9900.
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Gary N.
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datro

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Re: P7000-Possible Humidity Issues
« Reply #7 on: December 15, 2017, 09:59:52 am »

Did they redesign the head and capping assembly on the new Large format Epsons in general? I know the p10k and p20k have different heads than the p9000 which is closer to the 9900s. I've never seen any of the new ones.

I believe the cap and pump assembly has definitely gone through some revisions, even before the PXXXX printers were introduced.  When I converted my 7900 to Piezography Pro ink about a year ago, I installed a new cap assembly that I had ordered from Compass Micro six months before that which had been sitting on my shelf.  I noticed that Compass had shipped me an assembly that had a newer Epson part number on it compared to what is in the 7900 Service Manual.  I couldn't see any obvious difference between the new and the old assembly, but Compass confirmed that it had been revised by Epson.  What I DID notice is that my old cap assembly was definitely in need of replacement...the white "cleaning strip" below the wiper had torn and was likely not functioning properly.

Dave
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