Epson Stylus Pro 4900 Orange Not Printing

InkjetMall Customer Support Printer Maintenance & Cartridges
1

I have a Epson 4900 with Cone Inks. Everything worked well for a while. Now the orange color completely dropped out. I do a level 2 clean, and it does not come back. If I do a level 3 (powerful clean) then I get all the nozzles back. The next day all the nozzles drop out. If I do a powerful clean on the Or/Gn then they are all back again and so on. What could this be. This has been a consistent pattern for weeks.

2

Hi George~

I’m sorry to hear of the struggles you’re dealing with your orange channel. Thanks for providing detailed information, it’s a big help.

After reviewing your order history, I see you purchased the set of refill carts and ConeColor inks in Feb 2014.
How often do you normally print vs. how long does the printer sit unused?
What is the current ink level of the orange cartridge?
Have you recently refilled the cartridge?
Does the orange work consistently while printing, and drop out overnight when the printer sits unused, or does it also drop out during printing?
Is the green working consistently well?
Please remove and look at the orange cartridge- is there ink in the thin channel leading down from the air vent hole?
Have you replaced any parts in this printer, such as the wiper blade, capping station/pump assembly, ink selector unit (dampers), and/or print head?

Please let me know so I can help resolve this issue and get you back to happily printing.
Best regards~ Dana :slight_smile:

3

How often do you normally print vs. how long does the printer sit unused?
I print 3 pages of 10 colors daily to keep head fresh.

What is the current ink level of the orange cartridge?
It is half full.

Have you recently refilled the cartridge?
No

Does the orange work consistently while printing, and drop out overnight when the printer sits unused, or does it also drop out during printing?
It is not consistant during printing. It sometimes prints more yellow and other times more of a darker mustard color

Is the green working consistently well?
The green works perfect.

Please remove and look at the orange cartridge- is there ink in the thin channel leading down from the air vent hole?
It has about 1" of ink on the thin zig zag channel and about 1/2" on the thin straight channel

Have you replaced any parts in this printer, such as the wiper blade, capping station/pump assembly, ink selector unit (dampers), and/or print head?
No parts have been replaced.

4

I have spent nearly $1000 on ink and supplies with your company. It’s been a week since my original post and I still Haven’t gotten a single suggestion on what I could try to solve this problem Dana. Are you guys serious about offering tech support? I’m still down and can’t print my jobs. Please advise…

5

Hi George~

Thanks for the additional information. I apologize for not responding sooner.

Based on what you report, ink has flowed into your air channel, which may effect pressurization and therefore ink flow. Although I haven’t had a problem with ink in the air channel, or received reports from other users, it’s a possibility since cartridge pressurization effects ink flow. To get ink out of the air channel, tilt your cart exit valve down at an angle so the top of the air channel is facing down so ink flows from the channel into the main cartridge body.

How often have you been agitating your ink cartridges? The colors shouldn’t shift, unless the ink hasn’t been agitated to maintain in-suspension pigment, which would cause variation in the amount of pigment printed and effect the output color/density, as well as build up and clog the dampers faster than normal, leading to restricted ink flow.
Have you cleaned the printer’s capping stations, wiper blade and/or bottom of the print head? If not, I suggest cleaning your printer following our instructions, here: http://www.inkjetmall.com/tech/content.php?133-Printer-Cleaning-and-Preventative-Maintenance

There are known print head issues with the x900 and x890 printer models, so this could also be mechanical with the printer.

Please let me know if you have further questions or there’s anything else I can help you with.
Best regards~ Dana