I just received my brand new Epson 9900 printer, installed the Epson cartridges to make sure everything is working fine with the printer before installing the brand new Cone cartridges and ink.
Unfortunately one of the Cone ink cartridges split while in the printer, and over 1/4th of the full cartridges spilled over the printer, the paper basket and floor. I spend half a day trying to remove the ink from the brand new tiled floor and had to scrape out the grout, repaint two walls (since the ink spattered) and have resigned to a slightly pink floor. I also resigned to the fact that I will never get the ink out of the fabric of the paper basket, but do need to find a way to get the ink of from the inside of the ink cartridge compartment since I need to get Epson in to have a look at the printer for other, hopefully unrelated issues.
Does anyone know how to get the ink of the printer, from inside the ink cartridge compartment? The compartment has ridges and I’ve tried even a knife to get the ink to come lose from there but no success so far, I also can not get it of the plastic compartments. I’ve scrubbed and used cleaning cream to no avail.
The cartridge got replaced but still problems with it, such as that it reads as empty while there is still 3/4 to 1/2 ink left in it, it behaves more like a 125ml cartridge than a 350ml cartridge, same for the cartridge next to it, will post on another thread about this once I’ve gotten the ink of.
Also, could there be ink spilled in the rest of the printer?
I am very sorry to hear you experienced a cracked cartridge that caused ink to spill out everywhere. I understand how frustrating this can be, especially on your new tile floor… Windex and paper towels work great at cleaning ink off surfaces such as countertops, plastic, etc… and Mr. Clean Magic Erasers work great at cleaning tile and grout. Ink in the printer looks yucky, but likely won’t cause a problem. Was any ink pushed into the neighboring cartridge thru the air inlet hole? If the cart leaked from the bottom seam, then I don’t expect ink would have gone into the air inlet point of other carts, and probably just leaked downward. I recommend moistening a paper towel with Windex, or other glass cleaner, and gently cleaning the parts you can reach in and out of the printer. Luckily, there’s nothing important in the printer under the cartridge bay (other than your tile floor…), so I’m not concerned about long term damage to the printer.
My understanding is that all the 7900/9900 refill cartridge chips are programmed with 350ml volume, and in all my testing, the chips seem to track ink levels pretty accurately. Did the new VLM cartridge read full when you installed it into your printer, but is now reading empty even though the ink level in the cartridge is still over 1/2 full? Have you reset the chip and topped off the cartridge to match the chip read level?
Yes, the ink cartridge read full the first time i put it in, I reset it twice now, each time it reads as full when I install the cartridge and then it goes down after printing, I refilled it the first time when the cartridge said it was empty but was actually over half full, as per the instructions I filled it to the fill line and reset it and it again read as full and the same thing happened again after starting to print, but this time I filled and reset it when it showed as 3/4 empty. I do not get a green light on either of the ink cartridges after the reset though. I do not know if any ink was pushed through the air hole in the neighboring cartridge - not sure what you mean by this or how to check this, but that cartridge also read as empty while still half full. I had to reset the maintenance tank twice times already though because it was full, and the right one is filling up very fast.
I tried the windex for over an hour on the printer itself and this did not help, just a little. I am concerned that when Epson comes over and they see the ink and ask about this, I will need to tell them that the cartridge split from the bottom etc. I can imagine they will say that the warranty is not valid because of this?
Also, it is my landlords floor! This makes it much worse.
I’m checking in to see how things are going. I can send you a replacement chip for your VLM cart, if it seems the chip isn’t tracking the ink level correctly, and is going down faster than the actual ink level.
Please keep me posted, and let me know if you have questions or there’s anything else I can help you with.
I just stopped using the ink and switched to Epson inks after I had the print head replaced etc.
The ink level readings on the cone cartridges were still not working or correct for several of the cartridges. The ink also caused head clogs and I don’t have the same with the Epson ink. I’ve followed all instructions/guidelines re temperature and humidity… so any ideas what i’m not doing right?
Since the printer is still in warranty I had the print head/assembly etc replaced, but still same issues with Cone color inks. Only when I stopped using the Cone color inks and switched back to Epson inks the clogs stopped, may be coincident ofcourse.
I love the ink and still have over half of the ink left, and would like to give it another try, any ideas how to prevent the clogs and to get the correct ink level readings?
I understand your concerns after experiencing a leaky cartridge, but please understand we have been selling these carts (and using in our own printers) for years with excellent results, and very few issues. A leaking or cracked cartridge is very rare, so the chances of you having this experience again is very low.
Occasionally, chips can not accurately track ink levels, in which case the chip is replaced. Again, this is not a common problem, and I have experienced very good ink level tracking with dozens of sets of carts I’ve used in our printers, as long as I refill carts when I reset the chip.
What channel(s) were you experiencing clogging with? Was it an entire channel or a few individual nozzles that were missing? Did the missing nozzles come back after a few regular cleaning cycles? Did you prime the refill cartridges before installing into your printer?
“Occasionally, chips can not accurately track ink levels, in which case the chip is replaced. Again, this is not a common problem, and I have experienced very good ink level tracking with dozens of sets of carts I’ve used in our printers, as long as I refill carts when I reset the chip.”
I really look forward to using these again since I love your ink and what you guys are doing. I reset 8 cartridges using the reset chip provided., this then blinks red and turns red, and does not turn green with the exception of one cartridge (cyan). I did not try to reset # 3 and 4. What would you like me to do? Do I need to replace the chips?
“What channel(s) were you experiencing clogging with?”
Different nozzles, after cleaning pairs, and printing a nozzle check, sometimes the same, sometimes different color nozzles would be clogged up. Occasionally there would be no clogged nozzles for three prints or so, after which it clogged at least one nozzle again. This would repeat itself add-infinitum until a whole channel clogged up and never came back, at which point Epson came and replaced just about everything to do with print heads, assembly etc. After which this whole process started again, same issues until I switched to Epson inks, and no clogging at all since, which could be a coincident ofcourse!
For example: in the middle of printing a large job, 15 of 40’ long 30" wide rolls, every few prints or so a nozzle would be clogged. This with the correct temperature and rel. humidity of 40%. When asked the Epson tech remarked that this could not be due to dust since this was absolutely the cleanest ‘print shop’ he had ever visited. He also suggested Epson sent me some replacement ink since he said I had 6 full maintenance trays just from the nozzle checks and cleanings, Epson did not send replacement ink since I of-course had not used their ink while doing all this. He also switched of the auto-cleaning or repeat cleanings that the 9900 did when nozzle clogs were detected.
“Was it an entire channel or a few individual nozzles that were missing?” see above
“Did the missing nozzles come back after a few regular cleaning cycles?” see above
“Did you prime the refill cartridges before installing into your printer?” Yes. And, this initially was all setup by someone that worked closely with Jon, that trained at your workshops and that highly recommended your inks. They wrote to Jon/Wells as well, in private, after they started to have issues with the new cartridges etc.
Let me know, I would love to try and use your piezography inks as well, plus the over gloss, in fact really looking forward to this, I got over my initial disappointment and we just need to find out a way to make this work.
See above answers to your questions. Let me know, it may be easiest to resolve this by using new chips on the existing cartridges, if this is easy enough to do myself. Wells just send me a new VLM cartridge to see it that will work, but for the others I still need to get this working…
To follow up on this, I just did a nozzle check and the LC had a couple of squares missing. I then did a normal cleaning of color pairs, and after this the whole block of lc is missing. It has not come back after an additional print head clean. Any suggestions? Even though it seemed fine, I re-primed the cartridge in case this helps. I need to print out a very specialized smallish job and am on a deadline…
Chips go when running a pro printer with lots of draw. You always need a set of backup chips (especially when running as a lab with a printer like the 99.)
The resetter could be off/bent as well. Make sure it’s aligned perfectly. First get a set of backups from IJM though!
ok thanks, this happened after the first reset which did not work for over half of the cartridges, and on some the ink levels were nor reading correctly from the start… Just bad luck, so hope at least the LVM will be ok now, this is the third cartridge and the first two did not reset from the start and did not read levels accurately, and one actually split. I’ll see if IJM will send some replacement chips since there must have been something wrong with them or as you suggested the chip resetter that came with them.
I can not get hold of anyone there - could you guys please send out the replacement chips or cartridges today? I left messages on the voicemails as well early this morning to make sure this is all going through.
So sorry for continued issues. Rest assured, once these things are up and running, the IJM carts perform more consistently and with less air than OEM due to bottom fill outlets instead of the middle-outlet/bags.
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