Converting Epson 9880 to K7, piezo flush or not?

InkjetMall Customer Support Printer Maintenance & Cartridges
1

I’ve an Epson 9880 here I’m looking to convert to either neutral or warm neutral k7 inkset (matte only).

I think I’m pretty straight on what I need to order, but I’m looking for any feedback on whether I have to use piezo flush or if I can clean/charge with the new k7 ink? The current instructions OK both approaches and sort of leave it open ended. Does anyone here have any info/suggestions beyond that? What most people do? What you did? Etc.

This is an expensive conversion, so I’m trying to approach it as economically and intelligently as possible.

Thank you for any help you can offer.

2

We recommend flushing color inks before installing Piezography inks, especially when using a pro model printer (with internal ink lines and dampers), to help avoid color staining in your BW prints. The reason is that it’s difficult to get every last trace of color ink out of the dampers (yellow is often the worst for some reason), and if not completely flushed, will mix with the Piezography inks, causing color staining in your prints. Flushing color ink from your printer is an extra expense for the set of carts and PiezoFlush, and an extra step in the process of converting your printer to Piezography inks, but will save you time and headache of dealing with color staining, and you can reuse the flush carts many times (if you ever want/need to flush your printer to change inks or safely store it if you go away and won’t use the printer for a while).

Flushing color inks prior to installing Piezography isn’t required, and you can simply install Piezography inks after color without flushing in between, but you will experience some amount of color staining (worse with older dampers that have more particle build up inside), and need to do several more cleaning cycles to purge the stubborn color. Some people don’t mind or notice the color staining, but other people are very sensitive to the color staining and would prefer flushing their printer than wasting precious Piezography inks by having to do multiple cleaning cycles.

Another option (for those who are willing/comfortable to work on their own printers), would be to install the set of Piezography inks and do an initial fill to purge the color and get Piezography to the print head, then replace the set of dampers with new ones and do a few more cleaning cycles to get ink flowing thru the new dampers. This would avoid getting the flush carts and be a sure way to prevent color staining from the dampers (a set of dampers costs about $200 and take about an hour to replace).

No matter which option you choose, we always suggest cleaning the printer’s capping station, flushing box, wiper blade and bottom of the print head to remove color ink from those areas. These procedures are great for keeping your printer in top working condition and lasting a long time. You can follow our cleaning procedures (and see a video of several procedures preformed on a desktop model printer) here: http://www.inkjetmall.com/tech/content.php?133-Printer-Cleaning-and-Preventative-Maintenance

I hope this clarifies your options and details the pros/cons of each.
Please let me know if you have questions or there’s anything further I can help you with.
Best regards and happy printing~ Dana :slight_smile:

3

Dana, thanks for the info, sounds like flushing is the way to go.

I’ll admit though, all the maintenance suggestions on that page you linked are overwhelming and, well, more than I bargained for. The 9880 I’ve is used. I just picked it up from another photographer, but it’s in very good shape. Where would I be able to find replacement parts for it, namely the capping station and wiper blade and flushing box? Any further resources as to changing those parts.

I’m less inclined to make this conversion the more I hear about all of this stuff I have to do to make it work.

[QUOTE=Dana-IJM;1400]We recommend flushing color inks before installing Piezography inks, especially when using a pro model printer (with internal ink lines and dampers), to help avoid color staining in your BW prints. The reason is that it’s difficult to get every last trace of color ink out of the dampers (yellow is often the worst for some reason), and if not completely flushed, will mix with the Piezography inks, causing color staining in your prints. Flushing color ink from your printer is an extra expense for the set of carts and PiezoFlush, and an extra step in the process of converting your printer to Piezography inks, but will save you time and headache of dealing with color staining, and you can reuse the flush carts many times (if you ever want/need to flush your printer to change inks or safely store it if you go away and won’t use the printer for a while).

Flushing color inks prior to installing Piezography isn’t required, and you can simply install Piezography inks after color without flushing in between, but you will experience some amount of color staining (worse with older dampers that have more particle build up inside), and need to do several more cleaning cycles to purge the stubborn color. Some people don’t mind or notice the color staining, but other people are very sensitive to the color staining and would prefer flushing their printer than wasting precious Piezography inks by having to do multiple cleaning cycles.

Another option (for those who are willing/comfortable to work on their own printers), would be to install the set of Piezography inks and do an initial fill to purge the color and get Piezography to the print head, then replace the set of dampers with new ones and do a few more cleaning cycles to get ink flowing thru the new dampers. This would avoid getting the flush carts and be a sure way to prevent color staining from the dampers (a set of dampers costs about $200 and take about an hour to replace).

No matter which option you choose, we always suggest cleaning the printer’s capping station, flushing box, wiper blade and bottom of the print head to remove color ink from those areas. These procedures are great for keeping your printer in top working condition and lasting a long time. You can follow our cleaning procedures (and see a video of several procedures preformed on a desktop model printer) here: http://www.inkjetmall.com/tech/content.php?133-Printer-Cleaning-and-Preventative-Maintenance

I hope this clarifies your options and details the pros/cons of each.
Please let me know if you have questions or there’s anything further I can help you with.
Best regards and happy printing~ Dana :)[/QUOTE]

4

I didn’t mean to scare you, it’s really quite easy to maintain your printer and make incredible quality Piezography prints! We supply TONS of helpful information to keep your printer clean, producing top quality prints and lasting a long time (as well as how to get the best quality print, etc…)- Epson doesn’t provide this kind of helpful information, because they want you to keep buying new printers instead of maintaining one for many years (like we do, and advise our customers how to do).
The written cleaning procedures are lengthy, because they’re all conveniently included in the one document- watching the procedures demonstrated in our video makes it much easier to understand and follow, where as the written procedures provide detailed step by step instructions with printer model specific notes. The cleaning/maintenance procedures we provide are not specific to any ink, but are general printer maintenance routines, which should be done no matter what ink you’re using. We have many people who have only ever used Epson inks, and come to us for help cleaning or unclogging their printers, and most of the time we are able to help them get back to happily printing. We have a lot of experience and knowledge that we pass onto our customers, and are always here to help!

Please let me know if there’s anything else I can help you with.
Best regards~ Dana :slight_smile:

5

Dana, just emailed you, but it might be easier to just keep the conversation here.

First, do you have suggestions where to source the epson parts. I’m happy to switch out the capping station and wiper blades and etc, but it’s not obvious where to buy those pieces?

Second, as per my email, for the initial piezo flush, to get the color out, how much of the piezo flush solution do I need?

6

We have dampers and wiper blades for some Pro model Epson printers (though are not currently listed on our site, so you can call or email Wells to order), and www.CompassMicro.com has a wide selection of replacement parts.
Whenever working on your printer, you should get the Epson repair guide specific to your printer model from www.2manuals.com, which provided detailed step by step instructions with photos, and are very easy to follow.

To flush your 9880 to purge the color ink, you will need to fill the carts about 1/2 full with PiezoFlush, which would be a total of about one liter (it takes about 125ml to 1/2 fill a cart, times eight carts= 1,000ml or 1 liter). We have PiezoFlush available in various size bottles, which you can find here: http://shopping.netsuite.com/s.nl/c.362672/sc.18/category.31348/.f

You can read our instructions for the 7880/9880 model refillable cartridges here: http://www.inkjetmall.com/tech/content.php?121-Refillable-Cartridge-instruction-manuals

Please let me know if you have further questions.
Best regards~ Dana :slight_smile: