3880 Photo Black nozzle spitting ink all over prints.

[Mark D Segal]

This is very good advice Al - the one thing I'm curious about regarding the priming process is how much ink is actually a "colossal waste", because the ink used for priming goes to two places: it fills the lines and some goes into the maintenance tank. The question is what's the split, and I haven't seen that answered for any of the printer models. Probably not the kind of information the manufacturers are inclined to divulge, but I think there is reason to believe "a fair bit" remains in the lines to be used for printing. Of course doing it twice over must be very wasteful.

[AFairley]

I have always just assumed that only a small amount went into the waste tank, just enough to make sure that all the lines actually were filled.  Since an initial prime takes about 1/4 of each cart, most of which (I assume) ends up in the lines, and the second prime just pushes all that ink into the waste tanks, it's an expensive mistake if the first prime was almost complete before it aborted.  I actually made the mistake I'm warning against, live and learn, as they say.....

[Rusty]

FWIIW I ordered a new 3880 to replace existing to take advantage of the rebate now on