Epson 7900 -- Missing LM and ink line in printer is empty after initial fills

InkjetMall Customer Support
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I’ve had this printer since March of 2011. Aside from frequent nozzle plugging, I’ve never really done anything to it. As an amateur photographer, I don’t print as often as I should, I know. But permanent plugging has never been an issue.

About a year ago, I switched to ConeColor Ink. Things have been fine. Not to long ago, my light magenta channel started to be sporadic. Always before, when running nozzle checks, I would let them go for a bit before doing a cleaning. Admittedly, I don’t print as often as I should, but always in the past cleanings have opened up nozzles again and I’ve been able to print complete nozzle checks. Cleanings have always brought them back. However, this time cleanings have not helped and the entire LM channel is now missing. All other channels are fine. I purchased your PiezoFlush exterior head cleaning kit in the hopes it was something exterior (I had never cleaned the items outlined in your video before). This didn’t help. I have replaced the wiper assembly. This didn’t help. I have since purchased a complete set of empty cartridges and a gallon of Piezoflush solution. I understand that I could have just flushed the one channel, but as I had never flushed the lines before, thought it would be a good thing to do for all channels (and would save ink as well). I did an initial fill. I let it sit for 48 hours. I did a second initial fill. A nozzle check showed no change. I performed a normal cleaning. Another nozzle check showed no change. At this point with the printer off, I opened up the lid and started nosing around and noticed that one of the outside ink lines from the right bay of the machine is actually empty – all others have the red PiezoFlush fluid in them. Interestingly, I had filled all cartridges completely full. The LM cartridge still has its prime, and its level has gone down (plus the original ink that was in this line is gone). So at some point, Piezoflush has gone through the line, at least to the maintenance tank. Its reduced level of fluid is similar to the neighboring cartridge’s drop in level. However . . . it looks to me as if the PIezoflush fluid doesn’t stay in the line. I would guess this was true with the ink as well, only the ink made the line look full. Do you know what the problem might be here?

On another note – interestingly, while all of the cartridges on the right side of the printer started at the same fluid level, they are all different now. The LLK cartridge is nearly half empty after two initial fills – much lower than the others. Is this normal? That after initial fills the cartridge levels could vary so much?

And one final question . . . having learned the hard way the other night that the answer likely isn’t very many . . . how many initial fills can a single maintenance tank hold? I’ve discovered what happens when it can’t hold everything. Fortunately it was PiezoFlush fluid.

Thanks for the help!

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This is actually not an ink line but an air pressure line. If you look close you’ll notice it’s slightly fatter.

Not normal. This indicates that you have pigment that settled in your dampers (due to low use) and this caused the problem with your LM channel blowing out (not clog).

2x but I always take out the pads and reset the cart between InitFill just to be safe.

//

Long story short, your original problem was not a clog. A look through this forum and just about any other forum online will show a slew of issues with the x9xx heads losing entire channels. This is due to a few factors but generally it comes down to a miss-alignment of the cleaning assembly to the print-head + pigment in the dampers + possible air blocks in the dampers leading to a de-lamination of the head nozzles. It appears as a clog but the surface of the print-head has de-laminated like old paint on the roof of a car. It is non-recoverable.

The SureColors have the same head but epson has re-engineered the dampers, cleaning assembly, and ink pressure to be “easier” on this head. The incidence of this happening on the SCPs have been cut in half (not eliminated but it’s better).

-Walker

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Walker,

Thanks much for the feedback. It is truly appreciated.

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