Carts empty by themselves

InkjetMall Customer Support Printer Maintenance & Cartridges
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Hi
5 days ago I installed a waste ink bottle on my 2880, topped off my carts, ran 2 cleaning cycles and then printed a 8x10 photo. 3 days ago I wanted to print again but the magenta and black carts were empty. I do not know if there is something wrong with the printer or if I need new carts. The carts are a year and a half old(I did order them yesterday anyways). Also don’t think the waste bottle has anything to do with it but felt it should be mentioned. By the way the bottle is already close to half full which seems excessive. I have a cleaning kit on the shelf I ordered the beginning of the month but have not used it yet so I can try cleaning if that might help. Help will be appreciated.

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Hi millturn~

Did you have good nozzle checks and print quality five days ago?
Have you cleaned your printer’s capping station, wiper blade and/ot bottom of the print head? If not, I recommend cleaning your printer following our instructions here: http://www.inkjetmall.com/tech/content.php?133-Printer-Cleaning-and-Preventative-Maintenance

If the cartridges have been working well for over a year, and just recently two emptied before they should have (unless the print you made was all black and magenta), then it may be the capping station touching the bottom of the print head, which can cause ink to drain thru the head (and may be the cause of your quickly 1/2 full waste ink bottle). It may also be that the carts aren’t providing good ink flow due to old age, and new carts would resolve that.
What are the levels of your other carts?
I don’t believe the waste ink bottle could cause ink to drain from your carts (unless there was suction from the bottle- which there isn’t).

I hope this helps, please keep me posted and let me know if you have further questions or there’s anything else I can help you with.
Best regards~ Dana :slight_smile:

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Dana
Thanx for the reply,the levels seem to be where they should be except for black,cyan, magenta and yellow which are all empty now. Why would the capping station be touching the print head and can that be fixed? The print quality 5 days ago was just as good as usual, I did a nozzle check first and had to run a cleaning cycle then it was fine and the second nozzle check obviously was not good as the carts were empty.I will be cleaning and installing new carts this week and hopefully that will correct the problem.
Millturn

NEW post from 1/26/14 (merged to this thread):
I started a thread about carts emptying by themselves and was advised to do a manual cleaning of printer which i did today. The printer prints good nozzle checks and prints pictures(printed one 10x7) good as usual but in three hours the Cyan, Magenta, Photo Black and Yellow carts had emptied themselves. Dana said the print head could be touching the capping station so i wrote to see what caused that and if it could be fixed but received no answer. I have new carts but did not use them do not know if that is the problem as the old ones still seemingly work well.Need help ,Thanx

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Hi Millturn~

I merged your latest post to this thread, as it’s a continuance of this thread, and is best to keep details of the same issue together.

The capping station touching the bottom of the head was just one possibility/suggestion, but there are other things that could cause carts to empty faster than they should (including a combination of the following things: dirty or worn out printer parts, worn out cartridges no longer providing good ink flow, very low or high humidity and/or temperatures, or faulty carts- which is unlikely in your situation, since they’ve been working well for over a year). Since your carts are over 1.5 years old, and you have new cartridges- I recommend trying your new carts to see if they correct the issue you’re experiencing with the old carts.

The fact that your nozzle checks and prints are coming out good is a good sign (more severe flow issues could give you trouble printing a good nozzle check, and/or ink dripping on the paper during printing). Keeping your printer clean/maintained is important to get the best print quality and longest life from your printer, so regular manual cleaning of the capping station and wiper blade are good for your printer health.
Please clarify- exactly what manual cleaning did you do (which parts did you clean, and what procedures did you follow)?

I hope this helps. Please let me know your results with the new carts, and let me know if you have further questions or there’s anything else I can help you with.
Best regards~ Dana :slight_smile:

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Hi Dana,
I watched your video add followed it step by step.
I will try the new carts but find it odd that four together would go bad at the same time.
Millturn

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Hi Dana again
I just reread your last post and am bothered by the first line of the second paragraph, my carts are not running out of ink to soon, they drain out when the printer is shut off. When i cleaned the printere and put the carts in and ran a nozzle check which was good i shut it off and 3 hours latter the carts were empty.
Millturn

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Yes, I understand what’s happening, and I’m trying to help you resolve this problem. I’m not at your printer and don’t know exactly why three of your carts recently started draining, and have offered suggestions based on my experience of what could be causing your problem. There are many things that could be possibly causing your problem, and I have given you suggestions to try fixing it. I hope it works :slight_smile:

Best regards~ Dana :slight_smile: