Ink changing on 7900 question

[natas]

Hey guys,

I have so far changed out my LK, and have bought all the other colors in 350ml. Anyway My PK has been blinking for about 2 weeks now and for the past week it has gone down very very low....you can barely see a sliver on the lcd screen. It has been at this exact setting for a good while and I have printed 6 16x24 with it at that same exact level.

When the 7900 is low on PK does it ever mix colors to make black? I am just concerned because I find it really odd that the PK has been at that status while doing these 16x24's (which had a ton of black in them). If not I will just wait it out until it says to change.

[KenLane]

I can't answer this with the accuracy you are looking for, but I would be surprised if epson drivers mixed ink to create photo black when they would be happier selling you another ink cartridge.   I'm happy that I can print until the cartridge is "empty" and replace cartridges in the middle of printing, if necessary, without any loss of image quality.

[Farmer]

Wait until the printer tells you it's actually empty.  It is definitely *not* making a composite black.  The cartridges can read 1% for quite a while since the introduction of the x900 series.

[Wayne Fox]

No the printer is not mixing blacks to offset low ink.  In fact, the system used to determine how much ink is left is quite conservative, and typically there is as much as 5-10% of the total ink remaining when the printer first reports it at 1%.  With a 350ml cartridge there could be as much as 35ml of ink.  The 1% is just an estimate and is not very accurate.   As has been mentioned, just print until the printer stops and tells you to change ink.  You'll be surprised how many prints you will probably be able to print until this happens.

On the 79/9900, the LK inks will always need to be replaced first for two reasons.  First in the initializing set up the printer first charges the MK/LK channel.  Then it switches to PK/LK, so the LK ink channel gets charged twice, using a about 30 to 40ml of extra LK ink, which is a large percentage of the 110ml starter cartridges.

Second, the printer consumes more LK ink than any other color - often more than twice as much.  LLK is probably next.  I recommend the use of the 700ml LK cartridge when using the 350ml cartridges ... it will last about as long as the 350ml of most of the other colors.