Epson WF 2530 won't print black

Carol B

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Hi - Aftermarket ink carts, colors work, black doesn't.

Removed the black cartridge, thinking it might be a lemon. It felt full of ink, and the clear plastic membrane over its ink nozzle was still intact. The membranes on the color carts had all been pierced - by the printer, apparently, when I installed the cartridges. The original Epson cartridges I'd removed from the machine were all pierced, too, including the black.

I'm sure the aftermarket black cartridge was installed correctly - it was perfectly even with the color cartridges, and made the same definite click as the others when it went into place. I tried another of the aftermarket black carts in its place, in case the first one was defective somehow, and the same thing happened - unbroken nozzle membrane.

Finally I pierced the membrane on one of the black carts myself with a paper clip, installed it, ran a print head alignment and cleaning and nozzle check - still no black print. Did four more cleanings & nozzle checks in a row, hoping to dislodge something, but no go. The black cart that went through the multiple cleaning cycles still weighed 30gm, exactly the same as an identical unused one, although the printer said it was almost out of ink.

The aftermarket ink company had nothing to suggest. Before I noticed the membrane problem, I thought I'd clogged the printhead by continuing to print with the original Epson "demo" cartridge long after the printer gave the empty message for the black cart. Now who knows, and I can't find anything about this nozzle problem online. Help will be very much appreciated!
 

Alisa

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I bought a floor demo Epson WF 2530 from Staples on Friday (10/17). I set it up and ran a test page and it was ok, but seemed really pale. On Saturday, I tried to print a Word document. The printer went through all the motions of printing, but the page only had one yellow mark on it where I'd highlighted a sentence. It did not print any black. So... I tried cleaning heads, aligning heads, etc... today (10/19), but still no black. Went back to Staples and bought a new set of Epson inks, since I didn't know how low the current inks were or how old they were. I loaded the new inks in and still no black. Cleaned and aligned heads, created an excel file with a bunch of different colored cells. All the cells looked great, nice rich color, except still no black. I'm using Epson ink, so any ideas what's going on?
 

turbguy

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I bought a floor demo Epson WF 2530 from Staples on Friday (10/17). I set it up and ran a test page and it was ok, but seemed really pale. On Saturday, I tried to print a Word document. The printer went through all the motions of printing, but the page only had one yellow mark on it where I'd highlighted a sentence. It did not print any black. So... I tried cleaning heads, aligning heads, etc... today (10/19), but still no black. Went back to Staples and bought a new set of Epson inks, since I didn't know how low the current inks were or how old they were. I loaded the new inks in and still no black. Cleaned and aligned heads, created an excel file with a bunch of different colored cells. All the cells looked great, nice rich color, except still no black. I'm using Epson ink, so any ideas what's going on?

I purchased a Staples Demo (Epson WF1100) with similar problems. It was still under warantee by Epson (I just bought it). Call Epson, explain you just bought the printer (DO NOT MENTION IT WAS A DEMO) and say it won't print. Cooperate with them fully on troubleshooting. If it still won't work, they will send you a working refurb as a replacement with the remaining waratee. You may have to provide a credit card to get it to show you are honest. They will want the bad printer returned (at Epson's expense via a Fedex lable they supply) in the refurb's carton.

As long as they get the printer back in a reasonable time, they won't charge anything to your Credit Card.

Worked for me!
 

Alisa

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I still have the receipt and will call tomorrow morning and hopefully get this taken care of. Since I posted initially, I went through several cleaning cycles with new ink. All the sudden I started getting messages that the C and M cartridges were empty. I reseated all the cartridges several times and still kept getting that message. I finally took those out and put the old starter cartridges back in. Still no black, but at least the other colors are printing now. Weird thing is that the C and M cartridges now feel very light and when I gently shake them, don't hear ink sloshing around like I do with the Y and B cartridges.

I believe that since the printer probably set around for a while, the Black got blocked.
 

turbguy

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I still have the receipt and will call tomorrow morning and hopefully get this taken care of. Since I posted initially, I went through several cleaning cycles with new ink. All the sudden I started getting messages that the C and M cartridges were empty. I reseated all the cartridges several times and still kept getting that message. I finally took those out and put the old starter cartridges back in. Still no black, but at least the other colors are printing now. Weird thing is that the C and M cartridges now feel very light and when I gently shake them, don't hear ink sloshing around like I do with the Y and B cartridges.

I believe that since the printer probably set around for a while, the Black got blocked.
When a cleaning cycle is run, inkjet printers "spit" out ink in attempts to clean the nozzles. Epson printers use an OBSCENE amount of ink in a cleaning cycle. And worse yet, this wasted ink fills up the waste ink "diaper" in the printer. When the printers's firmware determines the diaper has been filled, your printer stops printing until it is "serviced" (the diaper is replaced) which is potentially more expensive that a new printer!
 

Alisa

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But, would 4 or 5 cleanings spit out an entire cartridge of ink for 2 cartridges (M, C), about half of the XL black, and about 3/4 of the third (Y)? I watched a youtube video on taking the print head out, soaking it in a cleaning solution, and forcing air through the nozzles to unblock everything. Is this what they would do if the printer was serviced?
 

turbguy

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Your eyebrows would rise is you saw the quantity of ink wasted during an Epson cleaning cycle. Yes, multiple cleaning CAN use up an entire cart of ink!

Interesting, your printer uses black ink during cleaning, but won't deposit it on paper when printing.

Removing an Epson Print head is a very demanding task. I would not recommend it. A Canon thermal print head is designed to be consumer-renewed so they are a snap to remove and then clean.

Epson service centers (heck, ALL service centers) replace parts. It's far cheaper than the labor time to clean things up.
 

Alisa

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I was out running errands and dropped into Staples and told the manager the problems I'd had. She told me to bring my receipts in and the printer. They they'd trouble shoot it and possibly refund the price of the ink and if they can't get the printer work, the printer as well.
 

turbguy

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Staples would not do anything you already have done. If you want your money back, and be out the printer, fine.

If you want a working printer, work through Epson (Customer Phone Number), as described above.
 

Alisa

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They took the printer back and refunded me for the ink I bought on Sunday.
 
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