Nozzle clog question

[Dale_Cotton2]

Please help me figure this out. My year-old 3880 ran an unasked for self-clean yesterday, and as has often happened with previous printers this created a gap pattern in the nozzle check printout. A second cleaning only shifted the pattern to a new colour. But now I'm out of that ink and can't easily replace the cartridge for a few days.

Complicating this is that the printer is apparently overestimating how much ink is left in a cartridge by at least 2%. That cost me an expensive print a week ago. The cartridge that the printer says is down to 2% feels absolutely empty to hand.

Question is whether leaving the machine in this state for a few days could lead to an unrecoverable clog? I have no idea whether I'm dealing with air in the lines or gunk being shifted about by the wiper blade or something else.

BTW: humidity should not a factor: never less than 50%.

Thanks!

[Some Guy]

My 3880 has never asked for a self-cleaning, but it has clogged.  I leave it on 24/7 but it gets a print every 3-4 days too and I keep a vinyl cover over it when not in use (Fwiw, I also have a Canon 9000 II (dye) and it has plugged as well.).  Usually the PK or MK if I don't switch between them enough.  I have had the dark magenta K3 plug too.  Usually a nozzle check to verify, let it sit, and check maybe in another hour or two to see if it is still missing the checkerboard (I do it from the printer menu and not the computer.).  If fail, then a full power cleaning and let it sit maybe overnight and try a nozzle check again the next day.  Seems if I soak the head with ink, it takes a while to soften up the clog part and get it back working again.

The worst I have for plugging is a small Epson Charm (portable for field use) with a battery.  Damn thing will plug badly in a week or two and then it takes 3-5 cleanings which leaves me with an empty $45 ink cart (Also dye ink I think?).  I've sent back a couple of unused paper packs to Epson who reimburses me in 8 weeks (Ink and paper are packaged together for $45).  Still, I wonder if Epson doesn't have their ink formula down pat at times if even their dye ink printers clog in short order?

I would guess letting it sit with a clog and no ink would be worse overall, but don't really know.  Good luck.

SG

[Dale_Cotton2]

Some_guy: thanks for the reply. Never even heard of the Epson Charm. The fact that your 3880 has never initiated a self-clean on its own is baffling/frustrating to me because this is the 2nd or 3rd time mine has in a year of ownership, and I've never had an idle period of more than 6 or 7 days. OK: now I think of it, the self-clean this time could be due to my not having invoked MK in a few months.

I notice I didn't mention in my first post that the cartridge with the missing nozzles in the nozzle check printout is the same one that's out or nearly out of ink -- LK. The self-clean resulted in an almost complete disappearance of PK; then the clean I initiated resulted in PK coming completely back but most of the bottom three slanting lines in the LK square being blank.

My best guess is that I'm dealing with a coincidence here: the outages in the LK pattern following the outages in PK suggests the classic wiper-moves-gunk-over problem, and there is still LK in the LK tube. Don't know how to check this or if it matters.

If I can wait for regular courier delivery, I can have the replacement cartridge by Monday. Have to make that decision in less than two hours, so i'd really appreciate any further input before then!

[BrianWJH]

Don't sweat, a couple of days won't be a problem.

Brian.

[Dale_Cotton2]

Brian: thanks! The die is cast in that direction so your words are very comforting!

[BrianWJH]

Just leave the old cart installed until you get the new one.

Brian.

[Dale_Cotton2]

Brian: thanks! The die is cast in that direction so your words are very comforting!

Comforting and accurate. A single cleaning after putting in new cartridge gave me a clean nozzle check printout. Still working fine several prints later.