Just installed the latest of our stable of Epson Printers today, a 3880. It replaces the 2200 which finally died a couple of weeks ago and can't be resurrected after more than 12,000 prints...
Here's what I observed about the process.
I put the inks into the slots according to the instructions. I did NOT take a look at the waste tank other than to see where it was placed.
It charged the printer with ink, all the colors except Pk and MK used about 20% of the cart, or about 16 ml of ink. The Pk was down 13%; Mk down 10%, 10.4 ml and 8 ml consumption respectively.
Altogether, the initial charging took 130.4 ml of ink.
I weighed my spare VLM cart and the VLM cart from the printer with 80% left and found a difference of 15 grams difference. For all practical purposes, the ink weighs about 1 g/ml.
I weighed my empty waste tank and the one in the printer now at 64% capacity left. There was about 72 g of weight difference, thus about 72 ml of ink was flushed through the system at the git-go. I would estimate that the in the links and head there is about 58 ml of ink or about 6.5 ml per color per line.
I did a head alignment then an auto nozzle check, two prints total. In checking the counters on the display, it tells me that both checks did not use enough ink to register. However, the page counter told me that three sheets have been printed though I know there were only two used during set-up.
My guess is that at least one page has been printed and perhaps the lines have been flushed to prepare for shipment and probably as a requirement for some obscure import or export regulation that dictates a specific tariff regarding ink, thus if used to test the head, it probably must be cleaned out for that regulation and also to prep the system for some kind of transit and shelf life where the head won't be clogged when it gets to you.
