Hi, I have an Epson R1400 and I recently purchased your ConeColor Pro ink kit. I mainly use the printer with your Carbon inks, but occasionally need to print color. I’ve switched between the Carbon inks and the Epson brand inks several times before without any problems, only needing 2-3 cleanings at most.
I filled the new cartridges with the ConeColor inks per the instruction sheet, made sure the vent plug was out in each, tapped each cart as noted, and made sure each cart was seated properly. I ran two cleaning cycles and the heads seemed to be close to printing properly except for a few blank spots (see 2nd cleaning in attached jpg file). Upon running one more cleaning cycle it got worse. I ran several more cleaning cycles (around 8 total now) and things got progressively worse (see 8th cleaning).
I’m not sure where to go from here since I haven’t had these problems with the Carbon inks, or switching back to the Epson inks. I need to get more prints made for an upcoming art festival, so I look forward to hearing from you soon.
From what you describe, it sounds like something is restricting flow from the set of newly filled/installed ConeColor refill carts, since you have been successfully using refill carts with Carbon ink, and the nozzle checks are getting progressively worse after cleaning cycles. Are all channels acting this way, or are some printing well, but others are getting worse after cleaning cycles? After filling and installing the new set of carts, about how long did you wait before printing nozzle checks and doing cleaning cycles? When did this printer last printed a good/full nozzle check? Have you manually cleaned the printer, such as the capping station, wiper blade, and/or bottom of the print head?
Please let me know so I can help you resolve this issue and get back to happily printing.
Thanks and best regards~ Dana
I think I waited about 5 minutes before cleaning. And then I let it set a day and tried it again. The second cleaning I did after putting the new carts in showed a test pattern that only had a few gaps in the cyan space, and yellow, light magenta, and magenta showed a little bit of black from the previous carbon inks. The cleaning test went down hill from that point. The last test I did had gaps in each position except black, plus black ink in started showing up in yellow and light cyan.
I did wipe the wiper blade with a q-tip, and also wiped the capping station, but not the bottom of the print head. (I’ve never pulled the print head on this unit). The last previous full nozzle check was about a week ago, and my carbon prints were looking great.
The only other variable is that the warning for the waste ink pad came on as I was running cleanings with the new color ink. I hooked up one of my old 110ml Carbon ink bottles like your waste bottle kit shows, and bought a reset app/key. The waste ink is flowing fine (and a lot, yikes!)
Ugh… the forum login timed out and I lost my last post. The short of it is that I did a manual cleaning per your video (minus the piezo flush kit), and the first test was pretty good, with only a few black spots on light magenta, magenta, and cyan. Running the cleaning utility again resulted in even worse test patterns, and a third cleaning made things worse. Actually, the third cleaning ended up draining magenta & cyan. Bummer I’ve yet to even get a print from the new inks and have already used most of the first refill I did.
What is my next option? Purchasing the head cleaning kit, or is there another solution? I’m sure it is just a coincidence, but it is odd that it was printing perfectly with the Carbon inks, and even when I had previously switched back to the Epson color inks.
Based on what you’re describing, it sounds to me that the issue isn’t your print head, but something is restricting ink flow from the new set of carts…
It would be very helpful if you could please send me a photo showing the top, and non-labeled side of one of these 1400 refill carts that you’re using with ConeColor ink.
I’m still having the same issues with the new cartridges you sent, yet I’m still having no problems with my Carbon inks & carts which I’ve been using for a year and a half.
With these new carts, I ended up running around 10 cleaning cycles and still wasn’t able to get a clean test pattern. Some tests were close, and then running one more cleaning would make things worse. I tried making a test print, and am only seeing some fine banding but am getting fairly large drops of magenta ink near the edge of the print, and some in the image area. I had previously manually cleaned the printhead, wiper, etc.
I’m kind of at a loss with these ConeColor inks & cartridges. I finally had to go out and spend $150 on Epson color inks so I could fulfill a print order for a customer. I loaded the Epson inks, the printer ran the one cleaning it does after installing new carts, I ran a test pattern and it was almost perfect, and then I ran a test print and it looked very good.
Also, when I pulled your carts out I noticed that they were all empty, and I’m quite certain there was still ink in them after having had run the 10 cleaning cycles I mentioned in my previous post.
Considering the Carbon inks and carts from you work fine, and Epson’s inks work fine, I have to imagine there is an issues with these carts you are using from the color inks (or the inks?). The carts for my carbon inks are of a different design than these color carts.
Sorry for not responding sooner, we’ve had a lot going on here recently that has taken me away from my normal duties. I received and tested the set of carts you returned after not being able to get a good nozzle check with them. I added some more ink, since they were nearly empty, and installed them into our 1400- after just one cleaning cycle, the nozzle check was perfect. I did several other cleaning cycles to simulate your report of nozzle checks getting worse after cleaning, and the nozzle checks continued to be perfect every time. I also made some test prints, and still have a perfect nozzle check…
After testing and determining your carts work perfectly in our printer, and considering you’re having the same results with two sets of carts and inks, I have to rule out the carts as the cause of your problem. That leaves the inks and printer as possible culprits, but 1. the printer is working fine with other carts/inks, and 2. we would have an overwhelming amount of problem reports from other customers using ConeColor inks (which we don’t have), so we are confident the inks are good. Due to the strangeness of your issue, I am stumped as to why you’re unable to get good results with the ConeColor refill carts in your printer, and don’t have any other ideas/suggestions.
I will discuss your situation with Wells, and have him issue a refund upon receipt of your second set of carts and all remaining ConeColor ink in bottles. Please send the bottles and carts to me at the same address you sent the first set of carts.
Please let me know if you have questions, or there’s anything further I can help you with.
Best regards~ Dana
Thanks for getting back to me. It is definitely a mystery why the carbon inks and the Epson color inks work perfectly fine for me, but the ConeColor inks are giving me troubles. I’ll pack these up and ship them back Monday.
I received your return, have an email from our accountant saying your refund was processed on October 15th. I will check with her again to see how it was processed, and will let you know.
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