I have had my 3880 since April of 2011. This machine has worked great for my company over the past couple of years. I have had very few issues. Yesterday I printed 20 8.5 x 11" prints with Auto Expand feature. When I went to print 20 more my LLK dropped some lines (top half of the nozzle check pattern was missing). I have had this happen before plenty of times, nothing a couple head cleans couldn’t clear up. After about 5 normal head cleans I had no luck in clearing it up. I used the paper towel method with setting the head on top of a damp paper towel with a cleaning solution (I use Simple Green, it has worked great in this past for clear something like this up). After I had it sit there for a little, I removed the paper towel, plugged the 3880 back in and did a nozzle check, same result. I have never done a power clean with this printer, I have never needed to. Do you think I should give this method a try? Only reason I haven’t is I never had a clog that stayed and the fact is uses 30ml to clean it out.
Just wanted to give you some insight of where I am with it.
Currently I have a CIS from Inkrepublic, but have been using Cone color inks in it (bought this before I found out about your company and what you offered). I haven’t had any problems with this system, it has worked as it was intended to. What I’m looking into with this is to purchase the Epson SP 3880 refillable carts from you, to replace this current system I have. I have been happy with your customer support and the products you offer. What I wanted to know, since I now have a stubborn clog, I want to purchase the Piezoflush system for this printer, I naturally want to flush the system but would I be able to to clean the Piezoflush from the cart and load it up with Cone color pigment ink?, Or do I have to buy two sets of refillable carts, one for flush and on for inks. My other question about the flush system, can you load one cart with the flush, flush that channel and keep the other inks in or do you have to load all 9 carts with the flush and flush the whole system?
I would think maybe you should drain the CIS and allow the inks to drain back to the bottle. Then examine the damper inside the CIS cart. The damper may need replacement. We do not recommend the use of CIS systems with ConeColor inks because ConeColor is an encapsulated pigment formula (like Epson) and uses much more aggressive chemistry than does regular pigment ink. The only ink line suitable for CIS and ConeColor would be Tygon. My understanding is the InkRepublic CIS uses PVC tubing and that will allow evaporation of the ConeColor chemistry as well as create new chemical compounds. China does not make CIS system with Tygon tubing. They use very flexible cheap PVC plastic. And PVC is ok for regular pigment formula and dye formula. So it is very typical.
I would use cartridges with ConeColor inks as we recommend.
You can flush one channel but all the other ink channels will also be flushed. The most effective is three POWER CLEANS and you will waste about 30-45ml ink all together. So - maybe the thing to do is flush the entire printer. Allow it to sit overnight. Then re-run the THREE POWER CLEANS with freshly filled carts of ink. Do the nozzle check in between.
Thank you for getting back to me on this.
This would explain a couple things over the years with the very few problems I said I had. Because once I found out about your inks and ink system I was using your inks with this system since 2011. These carts from Inkrepublic go directly into the cart slot, as far as I know there isn’t any tubing unless it is inside the actual cart.
Well regardless what I will do is just ordered your Refillable carts later this month and clean out the the existing ink. I have been eyeing up the refillable carts you offer since I have moved last year and in general I would just feel better and know that your carts work great.
As always I appreciate the information you give out, it’s a big help!
Due to the age of your printer, the cause of your problem may be old dampers restricting ink flow. You can certainly try flushing/cleaning your printer, but if the damper screens are blocked due to particle build up over the years, then you won’t have good/consistent ink flow again until the dampers are replaced (which should be done about every 3 years).
Thank you for getting back to me.
I ended up following through with just ordering a new printer. You will see I bought the refillable carts from inkjet mall for the 3880. I could have went about trying to fix it but it would have ate up a little to much of my time, since I have quiet a few jobs that need to be printed off of the 3880 (I print a lot of business cards on sheets off 200lb paper and above, this 3880 has worked great for it, I could have used my 9890 but it is just simple on the 3880).
In the future tho if something like this comes up again I will get the flush system and clean the system out, I’m sure that will help.
I did clean the capping station, and wiper blade and set the head on top of a paper towel with cleaning solution (which in the past worked great but not this time). I didn’t know about the basic maintenance of this machine for about the first year and a half of having it and it printed a lot of work before that, so I’m thinking it was to little to late when I actually started keeping up with the cleaning. I was at about 9000 prints by the time I actually started cleaning the capping station and wiper blade.’
I actually have some questions about the Epson 9890.
How do I go about cleaning the flush box? http://www.inkjetmall.com/tech/showthread.php?318-Epson-9890-Light-Cyan-problem
I see what to clean in this description you wrote up. I cleaned around the flush box and the wiper blade, but is there a way to clean the flush box out? If so do you have the steps or pictures?
Also I just bought the Piezoflush so I can clean the capping station.
Well, it’s never too late to learn something new- and the printer maintenance you’ve learned will be useful with any printer you use from now on.
To clean the flushing box, I recommend using PiezoFlush or warm distilled water, and Bounty white paper towels. Moisten the flushing box sponge, then blot the surface with a folded paper towel. If the surface is super gunky to the point where you can’t see the wire mesh covering, then you can gently wipe the surface, and repeat the process of moistening, letting the cleaning fluid sit to break up gunk, then blot and/or wipe off. I haven’t attempted taking the flushing box out of this model (which I have done with other models and successfully cleaned or replaced), and I’m not even sure it’s possible, because I believe the capping station, pump and flushing box are all one “cleaning unit”.
Thank you! I thought thats how you went about it, just wanted to make sure. I picked up the Piezoflush a couple days ago and it should be here tomorrow. Its the main reason I picked it up to clean that 9890. I will let you know how it goes.
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