R 2880 cleaning issues

InkjetMall Customer Support Printer Maintenance & Cartridges
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Hi Dana,
I have installed one of the three sets of carts I bought, from my 1st order with you, SO30732664, and filled them with the Piezoflush solution. they were shown on the order as RCS-2880-WT-NS, but what I received was a set of RCS-2880-NS carts. I’ve noticed these carts only have a fill hole plug, not both fill and vent holes as the other 2 sets of carts I bought on order SO30733505. Did I get the wrong carts in the first order? I have had them installed in the printer for a couple of days, but do not seem to be getting any fluid through the head. Should I remove the fill plugs on each cart so the fluid will flow, or did I get the wrong carts?

I’ve also done a couple of cleaning cycles, and find the landing staion foam pads are putting out a foam. Thoughts?

Thanks in advance for your kind help.

Gerry Rovner

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Hi Gerry~ The refillable cartridges you received may look slightly different (the ones from the “WT” SKU# should have a ribbed side and are injection filled with ink, and the others have an exit chamber and must be vacuum filled for the fist time). The two style carts both work well, and can be used together in your printer, though to make things easier, you may want to use one set for ink and the other set for PiezoFlush.

I have had the capping station of one of our 1400’s in the past overflow with foam during/after cleaning cycles (I have only ever seen this happen with one out of several dozen printers that I have worked with over the years). Since it happened with a brand new printer (though it had been sitting in the box for about a year since we bought it- so no longer under warranty), we had several 1400’s set up at the time, and no time to investigate, I just assumed the waste tubes had been connected backwards or something wasn’t connected right, and stopped using that printer… Sorry- I know that’s not a helpful answer.

Best regards~ Dana :slight_smile:

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Hi Dana,

Thanks for the quick response. I’ve got the first set of carts filled with Piezoflush, shown in the attached photo. (As the filling of these carts used up what i had, I ordered another bottle just yesterday.)
To give you a bit of background, I have a set of drain tubes installed in the output of the capping station, going to a collection bottle. I had drained the overflow bottle a while ago, and the system has been sitting for a few months.

Since I restarted the printer late last week, I removed the Epson OEM carts and replaced them with the Piezoflush filled ones on Saturday. I have gone through the desktop printer cleaning procedure, including the cleaning of the capping station, as you show on the video. From the picture, I must assume the vent is the small circle in front of the fill port, but wonder if the vent is working, as I filled these carts with the vacuum procedure you recommend.

So far, I’ve run the auto nozzle and head cleaning process once, and got some print out showing the Piezoflush color, but not much. After that, I’ve run the head cleaning and nozzle checks a couple of times, with none of the head checks showing any image. When I printed a test page yesterday, I get a faint result, in what looks like residual black, but no result showing the color of the Piezoflush.

So, the only conclusion I can come to is that nothing is getting through the heads. As I see it, I have 2 options: 1. remove the fill plugs in the carts and try it again, or 2. wait till the new bottle of Piezoflush shows up and manually clean each color station with the head cleaning kit i bought.

I’m also thinking the capping station drain may be clogged, and think if i use the Piezoflush in it and let it sit for a day or two, it might clear. If you do have any guidance, or thoughts, I can use all the help I can get.:slight_smile: Thanks!

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Hi Gerry~ I don’t see any photo attached… Did you print a good nozzle check with the Epson carts after the printer had sat for months, before installing the set of refillable carts- or did you just turn the printer on after not being used for months and installed the set of refill carts without printing a nozzle check with the Epson carts first? You should have received two slightly different instructions for the two slightly different cartridge designs you got. On both types of carts, the air vent hole is located in the same place (top/rear corner), and fill hole is on the top before the air vent hole (towards the chip end of the cart). The air vent holes MUST be open and fill holes must be plugged closed for proper ink flow and function of the refill carts.

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Hi Dana, I’ll try the photo again. Did not get a good nozzle check print due to Epson carts being low, with one showing out. Just went to installing the cleaner carts,
and hoped it would clear the heads. BTW, I did vacuum fill these carts with Piezoflush.
Per the foaming issue, I’ve begun discussions with Epson re warrantee. Don’t know where that is going yet…

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Gerry- This photo shows all the air vent plugs still in the carts, which will not allow ink flow from the carts. As per our instructions, the air vent plugs MUST be removed for proper ink flow. Please remove the air vent plugs from the set of refill carts, and do 1-2 cleaning cycles, then print a nozzle check. I expect you will notice a great improvement in your nozzle check after opening the air vent holes.

Best regards~ Dana :slight_smile:

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Dana,
Thanks! Now after several purge prints, a thorough maintenance cleaning of the printer, and a few head cleaning cycles over 3 days, it appears that I’ve got all the nozzles working. I had to clear the clog from hell, using your methods, on a couple of the nozzles ( Black and Yellow), but now I’m printing the MIS 8 color purge pattern with all 8 color positions showing mostly consistent results, albeit still some banding.

I still am not getting a clear nozzle check pattern, but am continuing to use the piezoflush carts. Most likely this will take another few days, but my choice is to have a cleaned, working printer, before I attempt to use the K3 ink carts.

My question is, since the Piezoflush carts have a single refill opening, and the head connection barrier is now pierced, what is the best way to refill? As always, I thank you for your help and guidance.

Best Regards,

Gerry:)

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Hi Dana,

Got the refill answer on the youtube video…

Best Regards,

Gerry

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Keep me posted and let me know if you have questions or there’s anything else I can help you with!

Best regards~ Dana :slight_smile:

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Hi Dana,
I’ve given the printer a couple of days for the Piezoflush to soak into the heads, and just today tried out a head check. All but two nozzles seem to be printing OK. To get the others working, I ran a cleaning cycle. Again, I got foam from the capping station and the Piezoflush made a mess on my 2nd nozzle check sheet, instead of printing the pattern. So it appears I still have that problem. If I go into the printer and soak up the overflow with a bounty towel, I DO get a good photo print using the Piezoflush as ink, so that gives me hope.

My printer is out of warrantee, but since I had begun the dialog with Epson, I will call them again today, as this has been an issue for quite a while. The foaming issue is the reason I have not been using the printer. I had thought it was caused by someone else’s after market carts, but now i realize it was the printer. I will make the effort to open the printer and see / clear any possible waste ink flow issues. Am I right in assuming I can use either the Piezoflush solution or distilled water?

I do have an external waste ink reservoir installed on this printer, prior to coming to you for ink and carts. The only thing I can think of at this point is that somehow that drain is plugged, and that plug is causing the waste ink to back up in the capping station. The small pump in the capping station is then trying to remove the waste ink, but it has no place to go, so it pushes back into the capping station. Maybe my experience here will help you reclaim your R1900 that you had the foaming issue with, if you still have the printer.

Anyway, I’ve not committed real ink to any carts yet, in anticipation of taking the printer to the service center and getting it fixed. The good news is there is a service center only 80(Tucson, AZ) miles from me. At least I know the printer is purged of the old dried ink.

Please let me know if you have any other guidance for me, especially about the use of distilled water. As always, I thank you for your kind help.

Best Regards,

Gerry:rolleyes:

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Hi Gerry~

Thanks for the update. Your foaming capping station is certainly not normal, this is a problem with the printers it’s self and not related to the ink or carts used. Is any ink flowing into the external waste ink bottle when you do a cleaning cycle? Just considering how the capping station and waste ink system works, I suspect at least one of the tubes is blocked and flow is restricted. If this is the case, you should be able to flush out the lines to open flow again using PiezoFlush or warm water. I have never done this myself, but have worked with the waste ink system before as far as installing several external waste ink bottles and seeing how the tubing connects, etc… I would appreciate if you could keep me posted, as I’m certainly interested in hearing if you’re able to clean/fix the foaming capping station issue with your printer.

Best regards~ Dana :slight_smile:

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Hi Dana,
No, there is no flow to the external waste bottle during a cleaning cycle, which makes me think the tubes or something is clogged. ( and gives me hope for a fix.) I’ll open the printer and check the original tubes (internal) , as well as the extended tubes to the external waste ink bottle. As I want to preserve the PiezoFlush for the dedicated cartridges and head cleaning issues, I’ll use warm distilled water in the capping station.

I have read and watched your videos, and will take care to not overflow the capping station. Any other items I should be aware of? As always, I thank you for your kind help.

Best Regards,

Gerry

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Hi Gerry~

If there is NO flow to the external waste ink bottle, then I suspect the line is either clogged, pinched or disconnected and recommend you take the printer’s rear and side panels off ASAP to investigate/clean.
Just take your time and pay close attention to what you’re doing (and what our written or video instructions say to do).

Best regards~ Dana :slight_smile: