Suspected Leakage of Vivid magenta (VM) cartridge on Epson 7890

InkjetMall Customer Support Printer Maintenance & Cartridges
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Hi: i have a wide format Epson 7890 running with cone color inks. i was trying to refill one of the carts and noted that the Vivid Magenta (VM) on port#5 seemed to have suffered some leakage from the ink bag as the bottom of the cart (below the bag) was filled with ink up to a level of about 3mm. All other carts showed a clear space between the bottom of the cart and the bag. Also the air inlet point was magenta stained. Additionally ALL other carts on the right panel (namely LK, LLK, and VLM) also showed magenta stained air inlet points. The carts on the left panel (CY,Y, LCY, MK and PK) are all OK and do not show air inlet staining.
Wish to add that so far no problems have been observed in my prints or other printer functioning. A year ago a similar problem was reported by me concerning the VLM cartridge which you kindly replaced and seems to function fine now (except for the air inlet stain). Could this be a manufacturers defect that is confined to magenta carts alone?
Called Wells Smith today and in a short while will send him a photograph of the VM cart. He also appraised me about the new technique of refilling cartridge with priming tips and promised to send me some as this is now the recommended method. Thanks for your cooperation and help in advance…
Natraj Sitaram

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Hi Natraj~

I am sorry to hear you have experienced a leaking cartridge, and have received the photos you sent to Wells showing the small amount of ink in the plastic body of the cart (as you pointed out, there should only be ink in the ink bag, and not in the plastic shel of the cartridge).

After reviewing your order history, I see the 7890 refillable cartridges were purchased between Jan and Feb 2012. About when did you originally fill and start using the VM cart? Is this the first time this cartridge has been refilled, or has it been refilled in the past? I see the VLM cart you had that previous leaked, the leak was noticed when the cart was filled for the first time and replaced right away. I am curious about the use history of your current VM cart, as I have not heard of any cartridge be good and work well for a year, then suddenly begin leaking.

Please let me know so we can help you get back to happily printing.
Thanks- Dana

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Hi: Thanks for the reply. Yes ALL the cartridges were first filled sometime in Jan/Feb of 2012 together. I know I refilled a couple of carts a few month The leak was observed by me very recently as I was trying to “inspect and shake” the carts (as part of preventive maintenance recommended by you) as well as possibly refill as some of them were showing about 25% full. So my admittedly inexpert observations leads me to believe the problem arose recently after working well for a while. Remember these are 350ml carts that you had just released for sale when I purchased them in early 2012. I am of course worried about the rest of the carts and whether they will also fail…

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Hi: In the previous reply I meant to say I did remember refilling a couple of carts but forget whether the VM was one of them.

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Thanks for the additional information, this is very helpful.

We have hundreds of customers happily printing with these refillable carts, so know they work very well and the problem you experienced is not very common (so I wouldn’t worry about your other carts, though it would be a good idea to check them all to make sure there are no other minor issues like this tiny leak in any other carts). I am glad to hear the leak you experienced is minor, and I am confident it didn’t cause any damage to your printer or other carts (the dot of magenta ink on the air inlet points won’t effect the printer or ink flow at all). To remedy this situation, I recommend you get a new VM cartridge, along with priming tips to use from now on for removing air from the ink bag and priming cartridge exit channels with ink before installing. You can get the VM cart here: http://shopping.netsuite.com/s.nl/c.362672/it.A/id.4805/.f?sc=11&category=46901 and priming tips here: http://shopping.netsuite.com/s.nl/c.362672/it.A/id.6793/.f?sc=11&category=27717

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

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Thanks for your response. I have ordered the items you recommended. By way of constructive (I hope!) feedback I might point out that failure of 2 cartridges out of 9 within 18 months is not a high standard of excellence. I hope you are correct in your optimistic forecast re: the rest of the carts. The pink stain on the air inlet noticed in the VM cart is also present in ALL of the right side carts (LK, LLK and VLM). Should I be concerned? Thanks

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Hi Natraj~

We appreciate your feedback and are always looking for ways to increase the manufacturer’s and our quality control to reduce issues and improve quality of our products. Having the highest quality products is very important to us, so we spend a great deal of time and energy researching manufacturers, testing a wide range of products, and working with manufacturers to modify/improve products as we feel needed. Since you originally bought the set of refillable carts in early 2012, we have implemented a series of pressure tests, and provided strict quality guidelines to the cartridge manufacturer, so feel the quality of these carts is improved from last year, and expect you will have good results with the new carts.

The pink stain on the air inlet point of all the carts in the right bay is not concerning and I don’t expect will cause any issues.

Please let me know if you have questions or if there’s anything further I can help you with.
Best regards~ Dana :slight_smile: