EPSON 9900. Need to clean-out very clumped ink

InkjetMall Customer Support Printer Maintenance & Cartridges
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Is there a way to flush or drain the ink out of an Epson 9900 without pushing the old ink through the print head?

I have the full set of 11 Epson drain cartridges that apparently just allow air into the system which then push’s all of the old ink out through the print head. Who came up with that idea?!

Using PiezoFlush I have manually cleaned out the *printhead (*for the head I inserted 10-inch lengths of fish tank air hose on each printhead port and then put PiezoFlush in them. I allowed this to stand for several weeks with a paper towel soaked in PiezoFlush in front of the printhead. As the paper towel dried it would very gently suck the PiezoFlush out of the tubes and through the printhead. Overtime this cleaned-out the head). I also replaced the Ink Selector/Dampers and cleaned-out the long ink tube‘s. That only leaves the ink passages that are right behind the ink cartridge bays.

I cannot for the life of me figure out a way to flush out the ink passages behind the cartridge bays. Any thoughts? I’m 99% certain that if I start the machine as it is and then run a standard Epson 9900 ink drain process that it will push very old ink, which has a lot of clumps in it, right into the brand new Ink Selector/Dampers and Printhead.

There has to be away to disconnect or release the mechanism (vacuum tube? pump?) that is preventing me from manually flushing the ink passages behind the cartridge bays so that I can gently push some PiezoFlush or distilled water through it. I just lack enough understanding of how that system works.

I am so close to getting this Epson 9900, which has very little mileage on the printhead, running again . This printer just has some very old clumped ink in it that needs to be removed without running it through the printhead.

Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thank you all.

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I think there is a valve in the ink bay itself that closes that does not allow manually sucking ink from the lines when the printer is off and the cartridges are connected (fill plugs open for that procedure!) I could be wrong, others please chime in.

You may have to take each ink bay out entirely and manually clean them and also suck ink from the tubes with the ink bay out.

best,
Walker

1 Like
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Thank you Walker! Your knowledgeable reputation precedes you. I very much appreciate your help/advice.

If anyone else on this forum knows how I could manually release this valve without taking the ink bay apart, that would be great. Otherwise…

…Thank you again Walker!