I've been running an Epson 7900 for the last seven years and never needed to change cartridges (I print quite infrequently), this has inevitably led all inks to eventually expire (I should have bought smaller tanks), however I have never had any immediately visible problem with color accuracy (I don't own a spectrophotometer though...), or excessive clogs. Now, after not using the printer for almost a year, and the inks having been expired for a good six years (may be an "infamous” forum record!) I am starting to have visible problems - specifically dark photographs being washed out and some slight but discernible changes in more colorful prints. Fortunately nozzles are ok, with only Magenta seeming to be slightly more prone to clogging. Interestingly after quite a few prints black levels seem to have returned almost to normal, so I am guessing that most of the problems were brought about by ink settling in the inklines (I regularly shake ink tanks) and becoming slightly less dense (maybe?).
I now need to print a new set of prints which require as much color accuracy as possible and I cannot risk using expired inks. As far as I have understood, the 7900 inklines hold roughly 40ml of inks (please correct me if I'm wrong!) so changing the ink tanks would be of no use, at least not in the short run.
I was thinking about performing an "initial fill" in service mode with new ink tanks installed. What do you think about that?
That is usually a procedure done when all ink lines are empty and the printer is new, however I have seen it suggested by brands like Piezoflush alongside their solution, but I’m not sure if it’s safe to do with actual ink tanks rather than flushing solution.
The only other alternative I could think of would be printing purge files, however I just tried QTR (for the first time) using an ink separation file in calibration mode but when it started printing made such a weird and worrisome sound that I had to stop printing immediately, may be that’s normal but it sounded too strange… (I might make a more detailed post about that later tomorrow). I don’t think that there is a way to print actual cartridge colors, “pure” ink , without a rip software so unless I understand the issue with QTR that should not work.
If anyone on the forum has had any personal experience with the "initial fill" procedure in situations like this or has any better suggestion it would be a life saver!
Thanks
MariC