Epson carts on a 9900 at 1% for ages and ages and ages.

[Garry Sarre]

I constantly have at least 5 or 6 carts at less than 1 %. The 9900 needs nozzle cleaning once a day...at least. The Epson will not do a clean without removal of all those carts it thinks is low. This involves taking several carts out, putting in new ones, cleaning and re checking nozzles, then replacing the low ones back in again. If I'm printing canvas, this may be 3 or 4 times a day.. Some of the colours remain in the 1% level for 8 mths. Firmware is up to date, the Epson rep just shrugs his shoulders and says 'Que sera sera'. Advice anyone?

[DeanChriss]

Depending on the color involved my 7900 ink carts can be at 1% for quite a while, but not 8 months. Of course all of this depends on your print volume during the time involved. It also depends on the colors involved. Colors like orange and green are used extremely slowly while LLK and LK go much faster than anything else. Everything else is somewhere in between, at least in my experience. Cleanings really are a hassle when several cartridges are simultaneously at 1%. There's nothing to do about that except replacing cartridges if/when the hassle makes it worthwhile.

[Garry Sarre]

Dean, so it's not just me. It's puzzling because during the first few years of operation, and I assume different firmware/chip programming, it was okay.

[Geraldo Garcia]

I have noticed that all large format printers are imprecise about remaining ink. Sure, they do not know the amount of ink on the cart and estimates are based on the amount of ink fired by the nozzles and it may be hard to get a accurate approximation sometimes. The only solution I found to get a more precise estimate was to manually weight the carts from time to time. When you know the weights of a full and an empty carts the rest of the math is quite simple.
About the printer not performing the cleaning with (what it thinks are) almost empty carts, I guess that makes sense and I would do as you are doing. Unfortunately the companies know that their real profit is on the ink market, so they want us to discard the cart as soon as possible, even with lots of unused ink on it.

[Peter Mellis]

My memory is not perfect these days so someone please correct me if I am wrong. Wasn't there a class action lawsuit against Epson some years back that involved the low readings relative to their ink cartridges? I remember them settling a suit (I got a credit, as a class member, for use at the online store) that I believe had to do with that issue. I was using a 2200 at the time, so it's a while ago.

Modified to add link: http://www.luminous-landscape.com/forum/index.php?topic=10621.0;wap2

[Garry Sarre]

Geraldo, yes, weighing the carts would tell me how much in is left. Unfortunately, that wont prevent the infernal, eternal 1% from enforcing multiple cart swaps to do nozzle cleans. My guess is that 1% equates to about 15%. The answer would be to chuck the carts when they get to 1% and just save the time. I guess I would be chucking $30 of ink though on. 700ml cart.

[Garry Sarre]

Peter. Hmm, that's interesting. I wasn't aware that Epson got a dusting on that one. I think the Big Epsons with the 700ml carts are hugely cheaper to run than the old 2200s.... So I don't bemoan the fact that Epson and Canon recoup there costs of R&D and actual manufacturing from ink and paper sales. The true cost of the printer being lower than their wholesale price. The only issue I have is the wastage of time with the unnecessary cart swapping in and out.

[Wayne Fox]

Yes, certainly a waste of time.  Maybe the time to switch them out isn’t worth the value of the ink left. I suppose there is even a possibility that the constant swapping back and forth could even contribute to the ink problem ... (I really doubt this to be the case, but then again maybe it’s letting a little air in the lines and the dampers aren’t handling it well).

Just wondering if you’ve taken any steps to see why your printer needs cleaned daily.  While Epsons will always require some effort to keep nozzles working correctly, daily cleaning on that particular model is far from normal.  my 9900 only requires a cleaning every few weeks ( or longer on some occasions).

I think the two biggest contributors to problems are humidity and how clean the environment.  Paper dust built up on the head (especially if you use matt papers) or other environmental factors can easily cause problems, and dry environments will guarantee more cleanings needed on Epsons and shorter head life on canons and HP’s.

[Garry Sarre]

Probably good advice Wayne. I only ever print onto cotton papers. The use of cotton canvas is the biggest culprit where I am lucky to get through a couple of biggies before something clogs. I have had 2 head replacements as well as capping station kits installed in it's life. We have just come through winter here and the humidity in the room with air conditioning on is 30-50%.

In the 'old days', When I had the 9600, I was fanatical about keeping humidity high enough... even to the point of draping wet towels over the machine when not in use. The room smelt like a Laundromat and all I succeeded in was rusting the thing. Turned out that all I needed was a capping station seal replacement. I chucked the towel and everything was dandy again.

[Ernst Dinkla]

Probably good advice Wayne. I only ever print onto cotton papers. The use of cotton canvas is the biggest culprit where I am lucky to get through a couple of biggies before something clogs. I have had 2 head replacements as well as capping station kits installed in it's life. We have just come through winter here and the humidity in the room with air conditioning on is 30-50%.

In the 'old days', When I had the 9600, I was fanatical about keeping humidity high enough... even to the point of draping wet towels over the machine when not in use. The room smelt like a Laundromat and all I succeeded in was rusting the thing. Turned out that all I needed was a capping station seal replacement. I chucked the towel and everything was dandy again.

Low humidity as a cause for clogged nozzles has been far too exaggerated in my opinion. Bad sealing at the capping station due to dirty seals etc is far more likely a cause next to dirty and weared out wipers. When sealed well there, water, glycols and glycerine in the ink/air should take care of the nozzle condition. An environment you can not recreate in the workspace. That said, a consistent 55% humidity in the shop is recommended for paper and canvas, stored and printed on. Which is difficult enough to achieve in larger studios.


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Met vriendelijke groet, Ernst

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