R2880 - can't maintain a good nozzle check

InkjetMall Customer Support Printer Maintenance & Cartridges
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61

Brian,
How’s your 2880 behaving? I’ve been following this thread because I picked up a used R2880 like you did, and have been having similar issues.

I can also see that Dana, Kelly, and Jon have different slants in their responses. Kelly has suggested that, based on your nozzle check, your head is toast. Based on the same nozzle check, Jon thinks you have build up on the head due to an ineffective capping station.

On my work on my 2880, I have noticed a couple of things that may be relevant in your case. It seems that piezoflush was not designed to be super strong because one of it’s purposes is for storage in a printer. When cleaning my wiper, it took a lot of physical effort to get it clean. If any ink on the head is dried just as bad, it will take a lot of soaking to get it clean. I noticed that the standard IJM methods with the paper towel under the head, or the head cleaning kit did little. However, leaving the head sitting on a paper towel soaked in Piezoflush overnight cleared up some of my problems. The head cleaning kit did nothing until I left the syringe sitting on the cleaning adapter to let the channel soak overnight. Installing piezoflush carts may achieve the same, but the head cleaning kit allows me to push piezoflush into the head instead of using the head to draw it through.

A second thing I noticed relates to cleaning the capping station. Note of caution: I did the procedure below and the right side of my capping station is no longer sucking dry during cleaning/ink charge cycles. I saw this method used and thought I’d try it. I got this 2880 to have some fun with. I knew I wouldn’t be upset if I wrecked it. I may have just wrecked the capping station, I’m not sure. If you see the following method I’m about to describe, you may not wish to do this unless you know more than me. Also, the fact that the right side only is not draining during cleaning cycles, AND it seemed to be poorly performing during backflushing could mean that it was in bad shape anyway and perhaps the cause of my other problems.

I installed a syringe to suck out remaining ink from the pump and lines, then injected a ml of fresh piezoflush to backflush the capping station and pump. The left side sponge takes on piezoflush immediately, and looks evenly moistened. The right side sponge doesn’t respond this way. Only the front portion of the sponge moistens, the rear only gets moistened once the Piezoflush floods the sponge. The cleaning cycles did seem to empty the capping just fine, but now I suspect I have a problem with the capping station.

After repeated backflushings, the sponge seems to take piezoflush better now. However, it is no longer draining during cleaning cycles.

The one thing no one has answered for me is the possibility of a paper jam under the head causing permanent damage to the head.

Larry

62

Brian,

I left my capping station to soak overnight with syringes attached to the drain lines filled with piezoflush. I’m sure Dana would have an opinion on what I did (probably to not recommend it!). However, the right side of my capping station did drain this morning. However, it does not drain as quickly as the left side. My left side drained almost instantly when the clean cycle pump ran, the right side took about 3-4 seconds. I know you’ve kept your capping station really clean, but I don’t recall you saying how fast your capping station drained, or it they drained at the same time.

I’m still at a crossroads with mine. I now know for sure I’ve got 2 leaky carts, and probably a leaky capping station, so I know my printer is in worse shape than yours.

By the way, did you jump for an R3000 after all?

Larry

63

Larry

I hope this makes sense, as my head and body are still in quite different time zones.

Since the last update, I decided to give up on refillables for the time being and I put OEM carts in - first ones I’d bought in over a decade! The printer was well behaved with them. As you will have read, I’m not a high volume colour printer, and this seemed an easier and cheaper option than more of the same, or a newer printer.

Then I had a moderate volume print job for short-term use that didn’t justify the cost of OEM, so I put the refillables back in and all was well for a while. But sooner or later the problems reemerged, and so I put the OEM carts back in. Then I put flush carts in for my recent absence, and they’ll be staying there for a while, like until the next time I need to print colour.

So my current approach is to put refillables in when I need to print more than just one or two things, i.e. a bit of volume and enough to justify head cleanings, and then reinsert OEM as soon as the problems re-emerge. This works because my problems don’t emerge immediately. If they did then I’d be using OEM entirely and probably using a larger printer for lower ink cost.

No I didn’t get an R3000. I gave serious thought to an R3880. Having read Lula a bit, there was a prevailing view that this is the most trouble free printer that Epson ever made. People there claim that it almost never clogs and you can leave it alone for some time with OEM and it still prints and you don’t need to shake the OEM carts to prevent sedimentation. Now Lula seems populated with people who love OEM and hate 3rd party inks, so perhaps I should take this with a grain of salt, but there were many reports along these lines and almost none to the contrary. With the 3880, the ink cost is roughly four times ConeColor rather than ten times, so that may be below my pain threshold. However when I went away, there were still some 3880s to be bought new, but now I’m back it seems they’ve all gone, so unless I manage to find one then that’s not an option. It’s not clear yet whether the P800 will be the same, and in any case it effectively costs more than the 3880 as it only comes with starter carts not full ones.

You’re right that there have been a range of opinions from IJM about my printer. I think the problem they have in diagnosing it and the other R2880s is that all they have to go on are their own well-maintained printers plus that old, poorly-maintained one. Plus all the reports here, but that isn’t first-hand experience. I don’t think they have first-hand experience with a wide range of printer conditions and maintenance. I’m sure Dana will correct me if I’m wrong, but printer servicing is not their core business, just something they do in order to be able to print, i.e. like the rest of us, but on a larger scale and more frequently.

Re thoroughness of cleaning, I don’t think mine was as bad as yours, and am pretty confident that it was 110% clean at various points. Once you’ve cleaned the head thoroughly and put flush carts in and left them in for a while and had a good nozzle check, I don’t think there’s anything more that you can do to the head.

As to capping station draining speed, I’m not sure. I’ll have to wait until I fire it up to check this, but I hadn’t noticed anything. I recall some variation in when and how fast the pump drains the capping station in my near-identical and well behaved R1900 (used for piezo), so it’s not clear to me whether what your seeing reflects normal pump behaviour or a problem with the pump or a partially blocked drain tube. I will keep an eye out for this. I have seen your technique described, but it’s not something that I’ve felt the need to try, so far.

That said, nearly all my problems have been on channels that use the right (K-C-M-Y) side of the capping station, but it’s not clear what that proves. Could be the capping station or perhaps that’s where the head is wearing first (odd, as the lighter inks are normally used more), or perhaps that’s where there are issues with manufacturing tolerances. You may have read my view that some printers are just sufficiently out of spec to make refillables problematic.

Not sure what else to say. This is where I stand, as of today. Best of luck.

64

Larry,

To diagnose your Pump Assembly in the Capping Station (this is an entire unit made up of the Wiper Blade, the Capping Station and the Pump) you can inject Flush into the caps until they are full, taking care not to over fill, doing this with the print head moved off to the side with the printer OFF. Move the head back into position and plug the printer back in, take a flash light and watch for the pump to suck the flush out of the capping station, if it’s very clogged it won’t budge. If it’s semi clogged it will suck it out, just slowly. If it’s free and clear it will suck the flush away immediately, leaving nothing behind. If it’s still plugged up, you can inject more flush into the capping station while the head moves off to the left during the suction of the capping station by the pump. You need to do this rather quickly to avoid the head slamming into your syringe, I recommend only putting a few mls of flush in your syringe to avoid overflowing the capping station when you do this procedure.

This isn’t a procedure we have documented, this is something I personally have come up with to unclog a stubborn blockage in a capping station to avoid replacement. If you can get your head firing 100% and your Wiper blade cleaning effectively and your capping station sucking ink away/out of the head then you “should” have a workable printer. Good luck, let us know if it helped at all.

Kelly