7800 Nozzle check Yellow position & Piezoflush

InkjetMall Customer Support Printer Maintenance & Cartridges
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1

Aloha,

RE: Questions in regards to my Epson 7800 nozzle head pattern - condition of my printer head.

Equipment/Materials: Epson 7800, IJM 7800 Refillable carts, Piezoflush. 47% humidity, 72F degrees constant condition. Printer’s service life on all components/parts are 100-81% which shows as E*****F.

Piezoflush is in the printer and have a perfect nozzle pattern. No missing lines, All lines are consistent and full.
Ready to load Piezography K7 inks.

While in the process of loading K7 inks into the printer, I ran one final nozzle checking with Piezoflush installed.
I’ve only noticed now that the Yellow position nozzle is ever slightly ‘lighter’ than the rest of the nozzle patterns.
The ‘Init fill’ procedure with Piezoflush went smooth and got a perfect nozzle pattern the very first time.
I’ve never noticed this ‘lighter’ pattern when Epson’s OEM inks were installed.
The ‘lightness’ is noticeably under close inspection.
I have adjusted/darkened the photo I included because the nozzle check pattern in Piezoflush was difficult to scan to show accurately.


Question: Does anyone know if this is something to be concerned about? I have not had any problems with banding or clogged nozzles prior to noticing this with Epson OEM K3 inks installed.
Just wanted to make sure that this is not an issue before loading my K7 inks….

Any help is appreciated! :slight_smile:

Kind regards, Carl

2

Hi Carl~

I see you bought a gallon of PiezoFlush, so all carts were filled from the same bottle. How old is this printer? Have the dampers been replaced within the past three years? In my experience, when flushing all channels of a printer with PiezoFlush, all channels print the same color/density, so it is unusual that one channel is printing lighter than the others, and I wonder if it could be due to particle build up in the damper (?), as yellow and magenta are always the thickest pigment inks, and build up faster than other colors.

Best~ Dana

3

Good day Dana!

Printer is from 2006. I’ve had Epson OEM inks installed since now. I had all dampers changed by Epson service about 5 years ago. Just as I thought, all channels should appear the same Piezo-pink density…. All PiezoFlush came from the same gallon jug which I just purchased from IJM. I was thinking the dampers were suspect because of its age but never noticed any signs of clogging, etc… Since the yellow position nozzle check is quite hard to see with yellow inks installed, it seemed the cause of the ‘lightness’ has unnoticeably crept up. I was also thinking it could be particle build up in the damper… The only way to find out is to replace the dampers which actually are long over due anyway. Do you recommend replacing all dampers? Also, I’m glad that I had purchased a set of IJM refillable carts and Piezoflush the way IJM had recommended. I wouldn’t have wanted to find this out after having already installed the K7 inks.

Thanks for your reply! :smiley:

Kind regards, Carl

4

Thanks for the additional information Carl.

Yes, due to the printer’s age, I recommend replacing all 8 dampers at once.

Warmly~ Dana :slight_smile:

5

Good day Dana!

Ok, I’m placing an order with IJM for 8 new dampers.

Thanks for your replies! :rolleyes:

Kind regards, Carl

6

Good Day Dana!

Found problem
I seem to have found the ‘lightness’ problem I had during a Nozzle Check with my Epson 7800 printer.
The problem seems to be coming from a faulty one-way check valve in one of the carts I purchased.
The faulty check valve had leaked fluid through the valve and down through the air vent passage way preventing air to pressurize the cart.
Since the cart could not build pressure, the ink - or in this case PiezoFlush could not be pushed out of the cart with the correct amount of fluid to produce a full Nozzle Check pattern.
So, the lack of pressure caused the ‘lightness’.

Ink Cartridge position & Nozzle Check ink color position - Layout not the same
Correcting the ink color position on the Nozzle Check pattern… I’m having the ‘lightness’ problem with the LLK [Light Light Black] position not Y [Yellow].
Because I’m using PiezoFlush pink solution in all ink positions, I made an error in thinking the ink cartridge positions were in the same color order as the Nozzle Check pattern ink color order, I thought there was a direct correlation between Nozzle Check pattern ink placement with ink cartridge placement - sharing identical ink positions on paper and ink cartridge positions installed in the printer… But I was mistaken.
Epson 7800 printer cartridge placement: Left to right, LK, LM, LC, LK, PK(MK), C, M, Y.
Epson 7800 printer Nozzle Check pattern prints: Left to right, PK(MK), C, M, Y, LK, LC, LM, LLK
Indicated by the Epson Printer Utility….
oops! :rolleyes:


After realizing that it was the LLK position cart, I thought of running one Nozzle Check pattern to see if anything would change.
When I initially (first time) filled the cart with PiezoFlush, I was aware that PiezoFlush had leaked a little in the air vent but thought it would not affect the correct function of the cart as it looked to be a little amount.
This was the reason I had checked to see if that blockage in the air vent was the cause of the ‘lightness’ in the Nozzle Check pattern.
Still ‘lightness’ was occurring.
Photo below:


I ran three more tests (this post can only upload 5 photos so I didn’t include the other tests I ran in between).

I changed the LLK cart (Clogged air vent) with an MK cart (Clear air vent) by swapping chips.
Ran one Power Clean.
Problem went away!!!
Photo below:


Checked to see if problem was gone by printing another nozzle check pattern and checked for any signs of ‘lightness’.
No problems with ‘lightness’.
Photo below:


Reconfirmed the suspected cart - Reinstalled original LLK (Clogged air vent) and problem came back with one Power Clean cycle.
Signs of ‘lightness’ showing.
Photo below:


Although I rooted out the problem to a defective cart, I ordered dampers and will change them as preventative maintenance.

Kind regards, Carl :cool:

7

Very interesting, this is the first I’ve heard of this problem. Thanks for the information, and I’m glad you figured out the issue!

8

Good day Dana,

Thank you for your help.
It is always appreciated! :slight_smile:

Kind regards, Carl