Leak in 9900 cartridge

InkjetMall Customer Support Printer Maintenance & Cartridges
1

This morning when I was doing basic maintenance on our 9900 I removed the VLM cartridge (to do the every 2 week level check and shake). There was ink dripping out of the VLM cartridge, and I saw that there was a pool of ink on the interior of the cart, but outside of the refillable bag.

All the other 4 cartridges in the right-side printer bay (VM, LK, G, and LLK) have a pool of light magenta in their interior outside the refillable bag as well. There is VLM on the air inlet port of each of these cartridges.

In reading a similar situation on the Forum a few minutes ago it seems like “one cartridge has a leaking internal ink bag, and that caused ink to leak out of the air inlet point, which traveled thru the pressure lines and into the air inlet points of the other cartridges, getting ink in the cartridge body of the other carts.”

My questions are:

  1. Can we get a VLM replacement cartridge? How quickly?

  2. I see instructions on clearing out the pooled light magenta ink from the other right bay cartridges “you can tilt the carts forward to force ink forward, which will drip out of the air inlet point- drain as much of the ink out of the air inlet point as possible.” Is this adequate or do we need to replace all of these carts as well?

  3. How does the ink traveling through the pressure lines impact the overall health of my 9900? Are there special instructions for getting the magenta ink out of the pressure lines?

  4. Do I need to send pictures. If so what specifically would be the most helpful to see?

Thank you - Robyn @ SolasGallery

2

Hi Robyn~

Yikes, I’m sorry to hear about your leaking cartridge experience, and will get this fixed for you right away!

After reviewing your order history, I see you purchased the 350ml internal bag cartridges a year ago.
Yes, it sounds like the VLM ink bag leaked, causing ink to flow out the air inlet point, and thru the air pressure tubes, which is how VLM ink got on the air inlet points of other carts on that side. Don’t worry- it didn’t contaminate ink in the other carts, and since there’s just a small amount of ink on the other cartridge air inlet points (based on what you wrote, it sounds like there’s magenta coloring on the air point, but not ink inside the body of the other carts- correct?), it sounds like it wasn’t a large volume of ink, so won’t cause problems with your printer or other carts.

We will send you a replacement VLM cartridge right away, and can offer you a discount if you would like to upgrade to our latest cartridge model, which is also 350ml size, but doesn’t have an internal ink bag. Although we haven’t had many issues with the old internal bag carts leaking (especially not with carts that have been working well for a while), we prefer the new cartridge design and feel they work very well. I will talk with Wells in the morning, and discuss the discount I offered, so he’s aware if you decide to upgrade the whole set of carts.

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

3

Hi Dana, Thank you for the info.

There is quite a bit of ink pooled inside the other cartridges - not just at their air inlet ports. I believe I read on the Forum how to drain this ink from the carts, but is there a protocol for getting the light magenta ink out of the pressure lines of the 9900?

We appreciate and are eager to receive the replacement cartridge, and we will plan to upgrade to the latest model soon.

Thank you,
Robyn