R3000 Black (PK) ink problem

InkjetMall Customer Support Printer Maintenance & Cartridges
1

I purchased a R3000 in November of 2011 and have not used it very much (only on 2nd Carts of Epson inks)! 99.9% of use was with PK, not MK. Problem started with Black, wet vertical & horizontal streaks on Epson Premium Photo Paper Glossy, which is the type of paper most photos were printed on. I removed and cleaned with Windex, the foam strip and square in the channel. I cleaned the docking station with a little 99% Isopropyl alcohol. I manually cleaned external Print Head with Windex and Bounty towels. Printed Nozzle checks and performed a number of front panel print head cleanings. Eventually got to point with clean nozzle checks except for a few missing lines in Black. There were no longer black wet streaks in nozzle check. Printed a photo and the black wet streaks immediately returned. Installed an external waste tank (not from ink jet mall) and then Cleaned Print Head and docking station, and wiper blade with Piezo Flush and bounty towels and foam sticks per the inkjet mall video. Installed a NEW Epson PK cart, because the previous one emptied after all the head cleanings! Noticed that all print head cleanings after these 3 steps, produced an ink foam coming from the external waste tank. Nozzle checks revealed a completely non-existent black channel - even after numerous print head cleanings and another manual external print head cleaning with Piezo Flush. Switched to Matte Black, still no black channel on nozzle check. Went back to PK black, still no black channel on nozzle check. Does this appear to be a clogged Damper, and if so, would loading a Cart of Piezo flush on the PK channel potentially fix it? Five of the other Epson inks are very low, so I am considering purchasing a new Epson P800 instead of dumping more $ into R3000. Does anyone have info on reliability (clogging issues) of P800? Thanks for any input or suggestions.

2

The appears to be a damper that is leaking. You need a new damper assembly (ink supply unit).

It’s 172.00 at compass micro. ink supply unit for Epson Stylus Photo R3000

If you or a friend have some maintenance chops, it wouldn’t be that hard to replace on this printer.

best,
Walker

3

Thanks for your input Walter. Before the black channel died, I did notice another color intermittently printing in the black nozzle pattern. So, this would also be an indication of damper failure. Why not replace All of the dampers instead of the entire Print Unit? This would save $ on parts, but increase my labor. Are there other parts besides the dampers within the print unit that are likely to fail for a lightly used printer?

4

The print unit is the entire ink bay + dampers + lines.

best,
Walker