Epson 3880 Black Ink leakage

[pflower]

It suddenly occurred to me that I had been using my 3880 exclusively for Matte prints for the past 6 months.  So I thought it a good idea (if possibly a bit belated) to change to Photo Black ink and run a couple of prints through it.

The Photo Black cartridge had been sitting idle in the machine for the past 6 month and was nearly empty.  A nozzle check came back with the PK box completely missing.  I put a new cartridge in and ran a power clean.  After that a nozzle check showed all lines properly printed across all inks.  However a print looks OK but there is a large amount of black ink - still wet - along the long borders running down.

Any ideas on what the problem is and how to resolve it?  In case it makes any difference the maintenance cartridge is showing 72% capacity.

Thanks

[Alan Goldhammer]

Seems to me that the switch valve is failing or has failed.  From what you describe, it is the same problem that consigned my 3880 to the junk yard last year.  If you switch back to MK, the ink blobs should go away at least this is what I saw.  However, I needed to be able to print from both inksets.

[Jeffrey Saldinger]

Recommendations about frequency of switching for the P800 are addressed here:

https://forum.luminous-landscape.com/index.php?topic=114096.0

I don't know whether the switching technology for the P800 is the the same as for the 3880. I do a MK to PK back to MK switch once a week  (I'm printing mostly on matte papers right now).

[pflower]

Yes, looking round youtube etc. it does seem that the switch valve has failed.  I have 2 of these - one used only for PK and this one for MK. Both of which have been working perfectly.   I shouldn't have tinkered with the MK machine and won't try switching inks on the PK machine which is still working fine.  However I can't complain - I think this machine was one of the first 3880s on the market - so it could well be 10 years old or so.  It has done over 1,700 sheets according to its status - most of which were A3+, lots of A4 and lots of A2.  So I've had my money's worth.  Now I have a larger work space I think I'll go with a P5000 and I'll make sure I switch regularly.  The P800 was tempting but I have some rolls of 17' Photo Rag and am fed up with manually cutting these to feed.  Since I have the space I suspect that the larger cartridges for the P5000 with cheaper per mil cost will work out in the long run.  But the 3880 was a great printer - probably only ran a cleaning cycle 1 or 2 times a year and the prints are great.  RIP? - perhaps but I have switched back to MK and possibly it might recover.

[BobShaw]

This happened to me a few years ago. The changeover switch has failed. All PK ink will just be dumped in the printer.
I had it fixed. they had to replace the ink delivery system and then found that the capping system needed to be replaced also. It cost $600AU which is about the same as the value of the printer second hand. The other thing was that it used about half of the ink, or about $300AU, as the system then needs to be reprimed like a new printer. In my opinion therefore it is not worth fixing. Unless you can fix it yourself you would be better to sell it as parts with some ink.

What you could try is to change the ink back to MK. If that works then use it for MK only.

[pflower]

I tried switching back to MK - lots of broken lines.  So I thought I'd try the soak the print head in isopropyl alcohol trick.  That seemed to have an effect - basically it appeared to have destroyed the print head - nothing but seriously broken lines.

So the 3880 is headed towards the recycling dump (here we have to book 7 days in advance for a slot).  But after nearly 10 years I can't complain.  Plus I have found an SC P5000 with 3 year warranty for just slightly 20% more than the (as yet unobtainable) P900.  The 20% being represented by VAT.  It arrives tomorrow.