R3000, installed refillable cartridge set 1 week ago, all worked fine after install. Printer sat idle for 4-6 days and upon startup to print LK (light black) nozzle clogged. Did repeated head cleanings and now add’l nozzles are seeming clogging, not flowing ink. All cartridges have 50%+ ink levels. Please advise, I’m out of business on ability to print!
Thanks / Bill
Hi Bill~
Please check your refillable carts to make sure the air vent plugs are all REMOVED and vent holes OPEN, as per the instructions. If the air vent holes are plugged closed, then no ink can flow from the carts.
If you discover this is the cause to your problem, you will need to remove the air vent plugs from all carts, check to make sure the exit chamber of all carts is at least 1/2 filled with ink (If not, refill using the vacuum method to get ink in the exit chamber), then reinstall the set of carts and do a few cleaning cycles, then print a nozzle check to see how things look.
Please let me know if you have questions or if there’s anything further I can help you with.
Best regards~ Dana 
Hi Dana,
ALL vent plugs were removed at initial install about 10 days ago, the system initially performed just fine, the only hiccup was one cartridge was not recognized and that was fixed by removal/reinstallation. Printer was not used for several days, upon printing color was not correct and I ran nozzle ck and found LK absent. Tried head cleaning and nozzle check w/o result, then gravity refilled cartridge (it required little ink) and reinstalled and performed head cleanings…this is when I began to notice other colors not printing correctly on the test pattern.
Any further suggestions before I pull cartridges and vacuum refill? I am obviously now wondering if I will get reliable/repeatible printing.
Thanks/Bill
Dana,
I refilled ALL 9 cartridges using VAC method and after head cleaning a couple of times the nozzle check looks pretty decent, #4 slot /VIV MAGENTA is not solid on the nozzle check. I ran one small test photo print and appears to be ok, now to run a large printed image.
My concern is will this ink feed/lack thereof may happen again if my printer sits idle for a few days? Or more to the point, do you think my initial filling was at issue? (I did not vac fill, I used gravity). Any input is welcome as I certainly like the quality of the inks but if I am facing having to pull cartridges on a regular basis to fill them just to keep things going that will prove problematic.
Thanks for your help, do reply if you have some relevant info/ideas for me.
Thanks/Bill
[QUOTE=Dana-IJM;496]Hi Bill~
Please check your refillable carts to make sure the air vent plugs are all REMOVED and vent holes OPEN, as per the instructions. If the air vent holes are plugged closed, then no ink can flow from the carts.
If you discover this is the cause to your problem, you will need to remove the air vent plugs from all carts, check to make sure the exit chamber of all carts is at least 1/2 filled with ink (If not, refill using the vacuum method to get ink in the exit chamber), then reinstall the set of carts and do a few cleaning cycles, then print a nozzle check to see how things look.
Please let me know if you have questions or if there’s anything further I can help you with.
Best regards~ Dana :)[/QUOTE]
Thanks for the additional information Bill. If all vent plugs were removed after the carts were filled with ink, before installing into your printer, then you should not be having any flow issues. If you installed the refillable carts and continued printing as normal, then you may have been seeing some air that traveled thru the ink lines, and just made it to the print head after the printing you’ve done (?) You can open the top cover of the printer and examine as much of the ink lines as you can see (I know it’s tight), which are hidden behind the front plastic wall, but you can gently pull out slightly to check if they’re filled with ink or if there’s any air inside.
Providing your carts are filled correctly with exit channels at least 1/2 full of ink, air vent holes open, filled carts tapped exit valve down on a folded paper towel a few times before installing into the printer, and carts are installed tightly in the printer (they snap/lock into place) for a good connection, you should not get any air in the ink system. With regular use and maintenance of the printer, and proper printing conditions (temp and humidity are very important), you should experience a long and happy relationship with your R3000 and refillable cartridge system.
Please let me know if there’s anything else I can help you with.
Best regards and happy printing~ Dana
Dana, could you expand on your temp and humidity comment? Obviously, extreme temperature— low or high— could be a problem, but is there a specific range outside of which we can expect problems? Likewise humidity? And what kinds of problems?
Inkjet technology is amazing, but can be finicky as we all know who work with it (still easier than color darkroom work as I know from experience!) so the more we understand it, the better chance we have of using it with consistent success. Thanks!
Hi Don~
We follow the industry standard guidelines to maintain the best environment for printers, inks and papers: 60-77〫F and 40-60% humidity. Both low and high temps and humidity can cause issues with the printers, inks and papers- including drying/clogging/flow and how the paper takes the ink can look very different depending on the temp and humidity levels. We use hygrometers to monitor temp and humidity limits in different locations in our studio and testing area to be able to control the environments for ideal conditions. We use air conditioners in the humid Summer months to lower temp and humidity, and humidifiers in the dry Winter months to increase humidity levels to maintain the recommended limits.
I hope this helps, best regards and happy printing~ Dana
Dana,
Problems persist. After vac refilling all 9 carts I get the printer operating and make qty 7 13x19 prints which look fine. The machine sits idle for 24 hours and before printing I run a nozzle check - LLK is shows no trace, I perform a head cleaning cycle once and another nozzle check - now LLK, LC & VM are not printing. I try an actual image printout, terrible results.
What now? Wave the magic wand or whatever you folks do and make my system reliable. Please advise some fix other than ‘pull the carts and vac refill all of them’…this is not the answer I want to hear. I love these inks when they print but honestly this is a disappoint experience almost right out of the gates. WHY does cleaning the heads seem to worsen the situation? Please Help!
BTW, attempting to ‘bend back’ the front cover in order to view the ink tubing did not work for me - I suppose I could flex the plastic more but at that point I’d probably be nearing the breaking point of the plastic - I don’t see how one can look in that small space w/flashlight to see much of anything.
Await you reply, thanks /Bill
[QUOTE=wgosma;500]Dana,
I refilled ALL 9 cartridges using VAC method and after head cleaning a couple of times the nozzle check looks pretty decent, #4 slot /VIV MAGENTA is not solid on the nozzle check. I ran one small test photo print and appears to be ok, now to run a large printed image.
My concern is will this ink feed/lack thereof may happen again if my printer sits idle for a few days? Or more to the point, do you think my initial filling was at issue? (I did not vac fill, I used gravity). Any input is welcome as I certainly like the quality of the inks but if I am facing having to pull cartridges on a regular basis to fill them just to keep things going that will prove problematic.
Thanks for your help, do reply if you have some relevant info/ideas for me.
Thanks/Bill[/QUOTE]
Dana,
Bit more info just so you’re aware. I am in Southern California and the climate here is MILD. The humidity in my home runs about 40 to 60 percent, the indoor temperature varies from a low of about 64F (at night) to low 70’s F during the day.
Thanks…look forward to hearing your input on my problems…I am baffled was to why head cleanings cycles seem to make the situation worse instead of better.
Hi Bill~
Thanks for the additional information. What you report is certainly not normal! You should be experience consistent ink flow from all channels after the initial vacuum filling of the carts, removing the air vent plugs, installing the carts and happily print until the printer indicates a cart is low or empty and needs to be replaced, at which time you should only need to injection re-fill the carts (provided the exit chamber is still at least 1/2 filled with ink).
After the one cleaning cycle and worse nozzle check, did you do a second cleaning cycle and another nozzle check or did you stop at that point? Do any cartridges physical ink level go down faster than the status monitor ink level displays?
Have you ever cleaned the printer’s capping station, wiper blade and/or bottom of the print head?
Please let me know so I can help you get back to happily printing~ Dana
Dana,
After this fell apart this past weekend I removed the 4 cartridges that were not flowing ink and vac refilled - and YES, upon refitting the carts into the printer all vent plugs removed, been this way since day 1 with these carts. Things seem to be working well since then. Today I just refiled 3 other carts due to relatively low ink levels - nozzle check looks good; will print this afternoon and see results.
I think what confounds me is the fact that when I ran into troubles w/poor (or no) ink flow the more I ‘cleaned’ the heads the worse things got - any idea why that may have occurred? It would not seem at all likely to me that this is ‘air’ entrapped in the carts or tube feeding the heads, recall, the printer had been fully operational for several days and numerous prints made, 13x19 prints at that.
This printer is 2 months old and not seen that much use, it is as of the installtion of Cone inks So I have not done any ‘maintenance’ (capping stations, wiper blade or underside of print heads). In reviewing Espon user manual the only recommended ‘maintenance’ item (in addition to print head cleaning cycle and possible ‘alignment’) is to clean the rollers, but that will not affect ink flow issues. Can you provide a reference (exploded view dwg or pics) that show how to address the capping station, wiper blade, etc. as you’ve mentioned? I’m all for keeping the machine in proper condition so that I can print reliably.
Thanks/Bill
Hi Bill~ Tanks for the update. I am glad to hear things have been working well recently, but please keep me posted if you experience issues again.
Often times when the nozzle check looks worse after doing a cleaning cycle, this can be caused by 1. air in the ink lines and/or dampers, 2. back pressure, 3. poor ink flow in the ink system- caused by the cartridge, damper or somewhere in the internal ink line. Poor nozzle checks can also be caused from waste ink and/or paper fibers on or in the print head- which is why we recommend regular maintenance to keep the printer in top working condition.
Epson provides very limited information on printer cleaning/maintenance, because it’s in their best interest for the printer to not last as long as it can, and for you to buy a new printer every year… we believe any machine will work better and last longer with proper use and maintenance, so have developed several manual cleaning procedures that we recommend to keep your printer in good working condition and lasting a long time.
We provide some written instructions for cleaning the capping station and bottom of the print head, as well as a video showing these and several other helpful procedures demonstrated, which you can find here: http://www.inkjetmall.com/tech/content.php?133-Printer-Preventative-Maintenance
Please keep me posted and let me know if you have questions or there’s anything further I can help you with.
Best regards and happy printing~ Dana
Hi Dana,
Thanks for the information and link to Jon’s article, I will review this as you are correct, Epson provides scan details on equipment maintenance. The printer is getting a workout lately and since fixing the problem this past weekend along with doing the refill of a couple of other carts that were running low all looks to good.
Regards / Bill
I am glad to hear things are looking/working good now. Please keep me posted and let me know if there’s anything else I can help you with.
Best regards and happy printing~ Dana
Hi Dana,
I have the same problem - no LLK. I have vac filled the cartridge 3 times, removed the air vent plug, reset chip, installed and head cleaned 5 times and still no sign of LLK in the nozzle check. How many times should I head clean before the ink is restored? All carts are working except this one. What else can I do? Could the cartridge be faulty? I am very new to Cone inks and am happy with the results I am achieving so your help will be greatly appreciated. I think I may have voided my warranty as at some stage I got an error message saying the I am using non genuinine inks and the printer will not register ink levels any more.
Moe
Hi Moe~ From what you explain, it sounds like your LLK cartridge may not be working correctly, but I have a few questions to get a better understanding of your situation to help me quickly/efficiently resolve this issue.
Did you have Epson cartridges installed in this printer prior to installing the refillable carts and ConeColor inks? Were any of the cartridges totally empty when you removed them and installed the refill carts (esp. the LLK)? Did you print a good nozzle check with the prior carts/inks right before switching to the refill carts? When you filled the LLK cartridge, did you notice anything different compared to the other cartridges- for example, did the exit chamber not fill with ink as easily as the other carts, or did you have any difficulty drawing a vacuum in this cartridge?
Don’t worry about your printer warranty, this will help clarify: http://shopping.netsuite.com/s.nl/c.362672/it.I/id.227/.f
Please let me know so I can help you get back to happily printing~ Dana
Hi Dana,
Thank you for your reply. Yes, prior to ConeColor I have Epson cartridges installed. The Printer is 7 months old. I started using ConeColor last month. The cartridges are totally empty before I removed and installed refill carts - I wasn’t about to lose any drop of expensive Epson inks!!
Unfortunately I don’t nozzle check as often as I should. I produce a lot of bright prints with matt inks and the LLK is one colour that is least use or have to be replaced, and I didn’t notice any change until I changed to refill cart. Since posting, I have vac fill, including all the other cartridges but same thing – not LLK. The cartridge looks a little different as there is an ink stain between the wall and the chambers about 2x1 cm - I can’t explain other than that. I don’t have a spare cartridge to change to. I can get an epson cart if you think it can solve the problem?
I read the article about printer warranty but does that apply to Australia as well? I was worried as I might have to send the printer to Epson with ConeColor cartridges, if we can’t solve this.
Thanks!
Moe
Hi Dana,
Me again. Happy! Happy! Happy!. Apropos of my earlier post, I went and got an epson LLK, installed it and after two cleans was back to normal. It must be the cartridge afterall. Funny it all started with LLK as with Bill. Made me very worried especially when I couldn’t get it back to work after a lot of tries. Thank you so much for pointing me in the right direction. I love the ConePro inks and will continue with them when I get my replacement cart which I have ordered. And, will mend my ways and nozzle check at least once a week.
Best wishes,
Moe
Hi Moe~
Thanks for the update! I am glad to hear your LLK is working with the Epson cart installed, and based on what you mentioned about the ink spot under the plastic side of the cart, I believe there is a pinhole in the thin membrane under the plastic side of this cart, and that is causing your flow problem with this individual cartridge. Because the cartridge is defective- we will replace it for FREE (you don’t have to pay to replace a defective item, we stand by our products 100%), and include the replacement R3000 LLK cartridge with the order we’re holding for you.
Please let me know if you have questions or there’s anything else we can help you with.
Best regards and happy printing~ Dana
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