3880 Yellow and Magenta Carts Drain

I had two Inkmall 3880 carts (M & Y) drain completely when switching over from Piezoflush back to Pro inks.

I have two 3880’s. One had Pro inks, one was inactive with Piezoflush installed - I checked the nozzles periodically on the inactive printer. Everything had been working well on both printers.

Two weeks ago I took the Pro Ink-filled carts out of the 3880 and converted it back to OEM inks. Yesterday I set out to replace the Piezoflush carts in the second printer. Before installing the ink, I did a black in change from Matte to Photo and ran a nozzle check. The printer had been set for Matte ink for many months and I wanted to check out the Photo channel - the nozzle check was good. Then I ran a second black ink change back to Matte for the ink I was intending to use when the inks were installed.

After installing the ink-filled carts I ran a first power cleaning. All seemed fine. I started a second and walked away to let it run. On my return I noticed ink dripping out of the bottom of the printer and a 1404 error code showing on the LCD. Doing a little research I learned that 1404 is a pressure problem which could be the pump, or the carts, or some combination. I cleaned up and shut down for the day as it was getting late.

This AM, to test if this was a printer or cartridge problem, I reinstalled the flush carts which were working yesterday and the printer started right up, no error code. While taking out the ink-filled carts I noticed that both the Magenta and Yellow positions were completely drained of ink, only a few drops of fluid left in each cart.

To test if the power clean was the problem, I ran one cleaning with the PiezoFlush, which went fine - no draining, no error codes.

I’ve bought numerous sets of carts and individual carts for these two printers over the years, so I can’t say with any certainty when I got them, though they are the newer version which shows both the channel position in the printer and which shades of Piezo inks to put in the cart given three inkset possibilities.

I’m thinking to repurpose a couple of unused carts by putting in the OEM and control chips for the two positions that I need to fill. The cart bodies are interchangeable, aren’t they? Just the chips need to match a particular channel?

And, is there anything else I should be aware of as I proceed?

Thanks!

Most of the time this is caused by shipping (dropping of boxes that cause the thin film inside the cart to leak).

We will send Warm Dark Grey and Warm Light Grey ink (110mL bottles) + too 3880 M and Y carts ASAP!!

I’m cc’ing @Wells on this.

best
Walker