Repeated Nozzle Checks on Epson 3800

InkjetMall Customer Support ConeColor Inks & Printing
1

Tuesday evening, I installed my first Epson 3800 refillable cart using CCPRO-MK. No problems. I have purchased all of the carts and have been purchasing the inks as needed. I intend to convert my printer over to your products. That same evening I printed 30 plain paper, letter size, small color photos, using the matte black. No problems. Today I was printing color photos, letter size, using photo black (not matte black). I noticed the shadow areas were very poor quality. I ran a nozzle check. All of the nozzles were in good shape except the matte black. It was blank. I ran the cleaning cycle and the matte black improved to about 60%, still some breaks in the lines. So I repeated the cleaning cycle and ran another nozzle check. It did not improve, it went to blank again. I ran two more cycles and two more nozzle checks and I am getting only a few specs of printing. All of the other colors have printed correctly on each of the nozzle checks. Your thoughts please?

2

So, you installed the first refillable cartridge into your MK position and successfully printed about 30 sheets, then after switching to PK mode, the black has dropped out and isn’t fully printing? Is the PK cartridge Epson or our refillable model cartridge? Did you prime the MK refill cartridge to fill the exit chamber at least 1/2 with ink before installing into your printer? If so, did you follow the priming procedure as described in our written instructions or video (they differ in the priming procedure, though both ways work)? Is the black channel not printing still when you change the printer back to MK mode (is this a problem with both black channels, or only the PK)?

Please let me know so I can try to help you get past this and back to happily printing.
Best regards~ Dana :slight_smile:

3

The MK cart was the first one that I installed on my printer. I have only used Epson carts in the past and at this point, all other carts in the printer are Epson. I used the printed instructions and it went very well. The only thing that was out of the ordinary is that to get to the “filled after priming” point, there was more than a few drops of ink in the syringe. As I have thought about this more, there was not an ink change this morning when I printed the two sheets of photo paper. I now believe that the 30 sheets were printed on the plain paper/photo black setting rather than matte. I have now printed a sheet of plain paper with text using the MK cart. The page is blank.

4

I wonder if you may be dealing with some air in the ink line or damper, or it may coincidentally be that your black damper has too much particle build up which is restricting ink flow (the two blacks use the same damper and print head channel, but have different ink lines). Have you tried manually cleaning the printer’s capping station, wiper blade and bottom of the print head?

Please remove the MK refill cart and check it to make sure it’s not leaking from anywhere, the air inlet point is open, cartridge body contains enough ink, and exit chambers are at lest 1/2 filled with ink for proper flow. If all looks good, reinsert it snugly into your printer. After the printer pressurizes the carts and says “READY” on the LCD panel, do 1-3 regular cleaning cycles with the printer in MK mode, then print a nozzle check to see how things look. If the black still isn’t printing, and you haven’t already cleaned your printer, I recommend you clean the capping station, wiper blade and bottom of the print head following our instructions, here: http://www.inkjetmall.com/tech/content.php?133-Printer-Cleaning-and-Preventative-Maintenance

Please keep me posted, and let me know your results, if you have questions, or there’s anything else I can help you with.
Best regards~ Dana :slight_smile:

5

I did the check that you requested on the Mk cart. Everything looked good. I ran two regular cleaning cycles and then printed a nozzle check. It looked great! I did read in your instructions that " if there are missing nozzles or positions at this tiem, let the printer sit for 1-3 hours". I had not done this since the MK cart had been installed for over 48 hours. I am wondering if letting it sit since yesterday when I started this thread helped my cause? In any case, thank you for the help and I will get bact to printing!

6

Excellent- thanks for the update, I’m glad to hear your black is working again!

Best regards and happy printing~ Dana :slight_smile: