Epson 1400 Self Healing - do miracles happen?

InkjetMall Customer Support Piezography Inks & Printing
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About two months ago I set up a 1400 with ConeColor Pro inks as primarily a B&W dedicated unit. I’m using the QTRip with mainly the Claria 2880-EPGPP curves. I know, I should really look at the Piezography approach…later probably.

I tend to print intermittently (once a week at most) so the unit can sit for some days without use (turned off). I remind myself to run a clean and nozzle check every few days - however, recently missed one for a week. The 1400 apparently did not like that. Once cleaned and printing good nozzle checks, it printed B&W with faint stripping (using Epson UP Luster). The unit has had done roughly 30 B&W prints (13x19) since I set it up with the Cone System inks.

I went thru multiple head cleanings. Two cartridges were empty by the time I finished so eventually refilled all cartridges and was getting perfect nozzle checks but still no good prints. Stripping and magenta tones. The 1400 then decided one of the cartridges was no good (it was full of ink - Cyan) and would not run a clean/nozzle check. The Epson status software also showed it was empty, too. Then I:

  • Manually reset the “bad” cartridge (red to green light - twice)
  • Swapped the ‘bad’ cartridge position - the 1400 pointed to it’s new location as bad (i.e. same cartridge)
  • Power cycled the 1400 several times.
  • Refilled all cartridges and reset them. Same fault light, no way to run nozzle cleaning or print checks.

So I drank a glass of wine and went to bed. This morning the 1400 seemed to have forgotten about the “bad” cartridge and allowed me to run nozzle checks and cleanings. A miracle? No, it continued to produce slightly better but still poor results. Now I’m getting close to running out of ink so will discontinue cleaning and nozzle checks until I know more about what to do…besides drink more wine.

So two questions:

  • Is there some other trouble shooting step(s) I can try for the above problem?
  • I’d like to buy a couple backup cartridges but it appears I’d have the complete set. Could someone point me to where I can order just one or two?

Thanks for any insight
Dan (AKA omnivor)

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I’m slowly diving into a backlog of un-replied questions. Hopefully my reply will be useful for someone happening upon this thread in the future.

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Generally this is related to the (gravity fed) ink cartridge letting out too much ink.

The new custom designed cartridges solve this issue: https://shop.inkjetmall.com/Shop-By-Printer/1430-Neutral/Inkjetmall-ReUsable-cartridge-Epson-1400-1430-T79-only-version-Set-6-with-syringes.html

best,
Walker

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Thanks Walker. Good to know. In the meantime, a heavy cleaning with PiezoFlush does wonders, although it doesn’t so much fix it as it delays it.