Piezoflush not charging on one (left) side

InkjetMall Customer Support Printer Maintenance & Cartridges
1

Jon Cone asked me to post in this forum…

Seems that I am only getting Piezoflush to charge on the Right side, but not the Left side… :frowning:

I purchased an upgraded cleaning set for the Epson 4900 (refillable cartridges and upgraded the kit to 1 gallon of Piezoflush),
hoping a Flush Royale will unclog my blocked nozzles…!
Prior to the Piezoflush the Right side PK/MK/LK/C/VM had returned mostly to an unblocked state after a couple of Initial Charges with ink…,
Left side had big portions blocked of VLM, LC LLK (50 - 80% blocked) and smaller portions blocked of OR, GR and Y.

Filled the cleaning cartridges to fill line with Piezoflush, air caps off, and installed into printer.

Performed Initial Charge on both sides, let sit for 48 hrs,
performed Second Initial Charge, let sit for 12 hrs.

Nozzle check pattern came back approx. as before on the Left side, with Left side colors
being printed with the original colors (OR, GR, LLK, Y, VLM, LC).
The Right side is 100% unblocked, and prints with the faint pink cast of the piezoflush fluid.

A couple of additional Initial Charges and Cleanings of the left side (3 x CL2, 1 x CL3)
has improved the pattern of OR, GR, LLK, Y somewhat, but not at all VLM and LC.

Checking the ink cartridges, the right side cartridges are 1/2 - 3/4 inch below the initial fill level,
The left side cartridges are only 1/5 - 1/4 below the initial fill level.

Seems to me that the Left side has not sucked in the Piezoflush fluid at all,
but it seems to have gone into the Right side all fine.

Jon and team, what would you recommend as next steps?

The pump and suction during initial charge seems to have worked fine for the right side.
Is there a separate pump for the Left side or does Right & Left use the same pump / vacuum etc.?

Martin

2

This probably means that the head is out of alignment with the cleaning assembly. Most likely this is due to a loose or not-tightly screwed down head or damper (ink selector) unit. It could also indicate a slowly failing cleaning assembly but is most likely a miss-aligned (slanted) head.

-Walker

3

Walker,

The head seems pretty tightly screwed on, does not wiggle or move in any direction except up & down.
I will check the cleaning assembly tomorrow, not quite sure how to do this since it seems that the capping station can wiggle around a bit by design…

4

<edited out due to cross thread>

5

Walker,

The dampers in the printer are the original ones, haven’t been touched or replaced.
Do you suggest I loosen the screws / nuts connecting the hoses to the head / damper assembly?

I did read somewhere on this forum that someone replacing the dampers had screwed the nuts on too hard
and no ink was flowing.

What’s the best way to check the head / cleaning assembly alignment? Do you have some instructions / pictures?

Thanks

Martin

6

Register on the Epson wide format board and you can download the service manual for the 4900 there.

You will need a damper and cleaning assembly I think. (compass micro has these).

Sorry, this was a cross-thread. I was fielding another damper/printing questions by email that got into this thread.

best,
Walker