Ink wasted on power on

[costadinos]

Is there any way we can stop Epson printers from wasting ink when powered on?

I've recently noticed that in about a month's time, even though not running any cleaning cycles on 3 of my printers, R2000, R2880 and 1400, I got around 70 to 100ml of ink in each waste tank.
I'm not really sure when the ink is wasted, I'd guess it's on startup or when resuming from sleep mode.

Does anybody know the amount of ink these small printers waste on startup and/or when running cleaning cycles, or a way to stop them from doing that?
100ml of ink down the drain, without even running a single nozzle clean is just too much, even for those of us refilling

 

[jtoolman]

Are you saying that you have external bottles installed on these printers? As this would be the onkly way to come up with an actual volume.

I have all the printers you mentioned and If I do not use them and then power them on there is no waste generated.
Are you running them on OEM carts or Refillables?

DO you actually hear them running a cleaning or purge cycle upon startup?
The only think I can come up with is that there is ink being syphoned out of the carts during the time the head is parked.
But even that is rare.

Joe

 

[costadinos]

I have external waste tanks installed on all of them and all are running on CIS systems.
I use all of them daily, so each one is turned on and off twice every day. But as I said, during the last month I never had to run a cleaning cycle (maybe once or twice on the 1400 running pigment) and at the end there was a lot of wasted ink in the tanks.

As for the startup, I'm not sure what they are doing exactly, but they do take some time to get ready for printing (the R2000 takes about a minute, the 1400 over two, and the 1400 even takes over a minute to come back from sleep).

I can't see if there's any ink flowing in the tubes (those I'm using are opaque), what I can tell is that the cartridges spend some time on the left parking place, during which the pads that sit underneath the cartridges on the right (not sure how they are called), move up and down and I can hear the vacuum pump sucking ink as well.
All that ink in the tanks does have to come from somewhere though...

 

[jtoolman]

That is weird. I do not have anything even close to that taking place when I restart any of those printers. I know that if you leaved them off or sleeping for many days they will tend to run a short cycle upon start up but nothing like what you are describing.

What if you just don't power them off or allow them to go into sleep mode?

Try leaving them on and see if you get the same behaviour.
I may be wrong but I think your CISS may be the culprit. I may be causing ink to be dumped onto your purge pads and so on start up it has to suction off the excess ink that has collected on the purge pad. Let that happen twice a day and there goes you ink. Also If you park the head and there is ink being syphoned on to it due to a ciss tank set that is maybe a bit to high, it will create a syphon.

I once put a few ml of Windex onto my purge pads and parked the heads all night. I woke up to all the refillable carts emptied and half full waste bottles!!!

Check the foam pad on the far left of the platen and blot it with a folded paper towel. If it comes up soaked with Black then you know!

Joe

 

[costadinos]

Thanks for all the info!
I guess the only reason I noticed it is because I use the printers a lot and there wasn't any cleaning required for a period of time, if I had run a dozen or so cleaning cycles I probably wouldn't have noticed the extra ink...

I'll try leaving them on and see if that happens again.
I'm not sure how to prevent them for going to sleep though, how do you do that?

And the pads on the left are indeed soaked, what does that mean exactly? Aren't those also connected to the vacuum pump and used for cleaning as well?

I doubt there's something wrong with the CISS, as all three (different) printers exhibit the same behavior, and the reservoirs are well below the cartridges anyway. I'll try leaving them parked over a clean towel in the middle of the platen, if there's any leak I'll see it that way...

 

[jtoolman]

Thanks for all the info!
I guess the only reason I noticed it is because I use the printers a lot and there wasn't any cleaning required for a period of time, if I had run a dozen or so cleaning cycles I probably wouldn't have noticed the extra ink...

I'll try leaving them on and see if that happens again.
I'm not sure how to prevent them for going to sleep though, how do you do that?

That I am not sure how to control. Other than to tell you not to actually switch off the printer.

And the pads on the left are indeed soaked, what does that mean exactly? Aren't those also connected to the vacuum pump and used for cleaning as well?

If you take a look at the head while it is printing and you probably have to have the top lid open due to the CISS anyway, it does about 5-8 passes and then it makes one longer pass toward the far left when it stops mommenteraly over that far left sponge. It sort of wipes the underside of the head there. This area needs to be blotted at least once as month. I apply windex and blot over and over until it is relatively clean. It allows inks to sak through the sponge and is more of a pasive system.
Have you ever cleaned that area on any of the printers? I hope so.

I do not believe that there is a way for the ink to get power purged away like on the main purge pad on the far right side.

I doubt there's something wrong with the CISS, as all three (different) printers exhibit the same behavior, and the reservoirs are well below the cartridges anyway. I'll try leaving them parked over a clean towel in the middle of the platen, if there's any leak I'll see it that way...

The CISS base is suppoded to be LEVEL with the carts. Not under the carts level. One was to balance is if you have a little air bubble on the ink lines you can raise or lower it gradually until the blubble no longer move toward or away from the head.

 

[websnail]

Important point noted... the waste tank needs to be on the same level as your printer.. If they are on a lower level they will promote a syphon.

 

[jtoolman]

Important point noted... the waste tank needs to be on the same level as your printer.. If they are on a lower level they will promote a syphon.

Absolutely correct! I can personally attest to that!
Thanks for reminding me Martin.

Joe

 

[websnail]

Important point noted... the waste tank needs to be on the same level as your printer.. If they are on a lower level they will promote a syphon.

Absolutely correct! I can personally attest to that!

Bet you didn't redecorate a wall with 200ml of ink after overflowing a 500ml waste tank though... Now that was "impressive"...

 

[costadinos]

The CISS base is suppoded to be LEVEL with the carts. Not under the carts level. One was to balance is if you have a little air bubble on the ink lines you can raise or lower it gradually until the blubble no longer move toward or away from the head.

Are you sure about that? I have never seen a CISS placed higher than the printer base (the base of the CISS is on the same level with the printer base, therefore the cartridges are actually higher). You'll get an overflow when the base of the CISS (the point of maximum pressure in the reservoir tanks) is HIGHER than the lowest point in the cartridges...

Important point noted... the waste tank needs to be on the same level as your printer.. If they are on a lower level they will promote a syphon.

Since the waste tank is an open system (has nothing to do with pressure differential like the CISS does), it shouldn't matter where it's placed, the original tubing ends on the pads that are placed in the bottom of the printer anyway.
And there are several different designs that all work well. The one I got from your store is a rectangular box that sits on the same level as the printer does (or am I mistaken?), therefore at a lower position than the cartridges inside the printer. The one sold by IR is a bottle installed vertically, the top of it is higher than the cartridge level.