Epson R2880 air in cart/print head problem.

[FussyBob]

I'm having a big issue with with my fairly new R2880 printer with occasionally poor nozzle pattern skips.

I'm using 3rd party refillable cartridges from Precision Colors with IS ink, and Cone carts with Cone ink and have the same problem even though both carts are different designs.
I vacuum refill all carts.

The problem.....

1. Print nozzle pattern on startup, nozzle pattern 100% good, perform printing session, do a final nozzle pattern 100% good, turn off printer with power off button to park heads properly.

2. Don't use the printer for 7 days, 100% good nozzle check on startup, printing session ok, 100% good nozzle check on shutdown.

4. Use printer 4 days later, one color 100% gone at starup nozzle check, run cleaning cycle, that one color doesn't appear, and another color disappears 100%, 5 cleaning cycles later no improvements. Clean the printhead with windex and rolled up paper
towel, clean capping area sponges, more cleaning cycles back to 100% good nozzle pattern.

5. Will print ok for a few days in a row, let it sit 7 days ok, 7 more days ok, 2 days later another color 100% missing at startup, goes through the same routine above to resolve it and it does.

6. Yesterday, I ran the 100% good nozzle pattern at startup, just removed the VM cart to see how much ink was in it, 80% full, replaced with same cart, run a nozzle check VM 100% gone! Many cleaning cycles later just a few sgements show up.
Put in all used OEM carts, 1 cleaning cycle later, 100% good nozzle pattern.


This sounds like an air in cart/print head issue, but very annoying to try and resolve it, especially when you just remove a cart and replace it to find the ink won't flow (which it did one second prior) and not much to fix the issue.

I really like this printer and the 3rd party inks, but ready to dump it as all I do is run cleaning cycles. In less than 3 months of ownership, I have used up over $300 - 400 of 3rd party and OEM ink, and consumed over 50% of my ink waste pad with only about 100, 8x10 prints!


Any suggestions?


Thanks,


Bob P.

 

[mikling]

Bob, with the limited time I had with the R2880, it displayed a relative reliability that is superior to the prior R2400. I have found/suspected that sometimes the complete missing color channel might be software related. It is odd and I have experienced this before with both my two prior R1800s as well as my current R2400. When i see a color completely disappear after a clean or nozzle check. I will typically shut down the printer and power off. Then I switch it back on and many times it just reappears perfectly. What the cause of this is unknown. To me it seems like a software/chip firmware issue. No one really knows if Epson intentionally preprograms the machine to cause this odd behavior. I can't say for sure but is equally puzzling to me as well.

The other aspect is to try and keep the ink moving more frequently than once per week.

If I had to replace my R2400 I would likely get an R2880 despite my owning a Canon Pro95000 MKII and Epson R24000 currently. There is something to Epson's dithering patterns/output that I prefer over the Pro95000 MkII. It's hard to describe but it is subtle and subject to personal preference. Profiled output is near identical and there is no night and day difference. At the performance level of these printers, it is mainly nuances.

If you don't print on a more frequent basis, then the Canon Pro9500 is likely to be better suited to your needs. I suggest you check it out. This might indeed be your solution to Epson insanity. I was hoping that it would replace my R2400 and it doesn't need ink switching when printing from luster to matte.

Search the methods of refilling the PGI-9 Canon cartridges. The methods are very easy and have proven to be reliable. So an affordable solution exists.

according to Jtoolman, he has been getting 9500s for around $300, which is a very fine deal for such a great printer.

 

[FussyBob]

Bob, with the limited time I had with the R2880, it displayed a relative reliability that is superior to the prior R2400. I have found/suspected that sometimes the complete missing color channel might be software related. It is odd and I have experienced this before with both my two prior R1800s as well as my current R2400. When i see a color completely disappear after a clean or nozzle check. I will typically shut down the printer and power off. Then I switch it back on and many times it just reappears perfectly. What the cause of this is unknown. To me it seems like a software/chip firmware issue. No one really knows if Epson intentionally preprograms the machine to cause this odd behavior. I can't say for sure but is equally puzzling to me as well.

The other aspect is to try and keep the ink moving more frequently than once per week.

If I had to replace my R2400 I would likely get an R2880 despite my owning a Canon Pro95000 MKII and Epson R24000 currently. There is something to Epson's dithering patterns/output that I prefer over the Pro95000 MkII. It's hard to describe but it is subtle and subject to personal preference. Profiled output is near identical and there is no night and day difference. At the performance level of these printers, it is mainly nuances.

If you don't print on a more frequent basis, then the Canon Pro9500 is likely to be better suited to your needs. I suggest you check it out. This might indeed be your solution to Epson insanity. I was hoping that it would replace my R2400 and it doesn't need ink switching when printing from luster to matte.

Search the methods of refilling the PGI-9 Canon cartridges. The methods are very easy and have proven to be reliable. So an affordable solution exists.

according to Jtoolman, he has been getting 9500s for around $300, which is a very fine deal for such a great printer.

I'll try the power off/on a few times the next time I have the problem.

It's just strange though that all I did was remove a cart and replaced the same one right back and zero ink flow, even after a many cleaning cycles. It looks as if air is sucked into the head inlet port of air is sucked into the cartridge output port. I then just insert an OEM cartridge and 1 cleaning cycle later 100% good nozzle check. So what is so different about the Epson OEM cartridge?

I did replace what we will call the VM problem 3rd party cartridge with a new one, exact same brand, model, design. Hopefully that will shed some light on the issue. I'm going to let the printer sit in 7 day intervals between nozzle checks just to see if the new VM cartridge fixed anything. I'm going to doubt it though as I had the same issue with IS carts and another 3rd party cart.


I would jump at the Canon 9500 immediately but my concern is that the PRO9500 OEM ink and Image Specialists 3rd party ink is is not as glossy as Epson OEM K3 ink or Cone ink. The IS, K3 ink that I tried with the 2880 has what I would say has zero gloss compared to Epson OEM, Cone K3, and Ink Republic K4 nano, but it had a great color match to OEM. So I do have some concerns about switching over to the IS ink for the 9500.

I have been talking to jtoolman for over a week and tomorrow I'm going to send him some glossy test prints printed with Cone K3 ink, along with some blank sheets of Kodak Ultra glossy that I use for him to print with the PRO9000 and IS ink. If they look similar for gloss, gloss differential and color gamut I may just jump over to the PRO9500. I have a Canon PRO9000, IP4300, and IP4700 that I like for the dye prints with OCP refill ink, none of them every clog, skip, or even think about refill issues.


I like this R2880, it does everything that the new R3000 does, except for WiFi and, 2pl vs. 3pl (2880) droplet size, and a slight print speed advantage that I don't need. It has the same anti-clogging head technology, but a different cartridge feed system. The 2880 seems to work just fine with OEM carts.

I can also wait to see how the Pharmacist's R3000 refill tests go and if very successful I might change over to a R3000. I really do like the fact that the R3000 refillable carts can be manually reset all at the same time or individually by shorting the two chip contacts. You can't manually reset the 2880 carts, and once you replace one, it purges, then another cart is empty and you purge again, the domino effect, until in a day or two you replace all 8 carts and the first one has 25% of the ink gone before you print!


Bob P.