Pro 3800 Purge Pad Flooding

[18%grey]

I have a problem with the purge pad on my Epson Stylus Pro 3800.

The left hand side pad does not drain away and floods on a clean cycle.

Is there a fix I can do for this or do I have to strip down the printer?

I'm not sure how the system works, does the ink drain away through tubes?

I'm aware of the pad cleaning but not possible with fluid not draining away

Any help would be much appreciated.

Kelvin

 

[Smile]

Did you try ammonia window cleaner type of fluid, perhaps it will break the clog, other wise you have to disassemble the printer and clean the pads and tubes.

 

[jtoolman]

The tube that leads waste ink out is probably clogged.
If you do not know how to disassemble printers, it' s job best left to a technician.

Can you elaborate as to what led to this problem? Such as whether the printer was not used frequently, or not. The age, what inks system, OEM of 3rd Party!

Joe

 

[18%grey]

Thank you for your replies.

I had already started to strip down the printer. When I got the capping station out I could immediately see all the gunked up ink.

I spent a couple of hours cleaning the pads and tubing. Flushing out the gunge with a syringe and water etc.

I have now a perfect test print. I've not tried a cleaning cycle yet but the pads look nice and clean with no flooding of ink.

As to answer the history...

Can't remember how long I've had the printer, maybe 5 years. Only used Genuine Epson Ink then Image Specialists and now OCP.

Thank you for your help, it is very much appreciated.

 

[jtoolman]

If you flood them and they drain freely then you are good to go.
Form now on you know what you need to do to prevent this.

 

[18%grey]

Something I am confused by is that on looking at the capping station the drain tubing

is pinched half way down so when not in operation the ink cannot flow freely to the waste tank.

Waste ink only flows down when it is pumped down. This is why when I clean the purge pad

I flood it with fluid then soak it up with kitchen paper towel... Am I Correct So Far?

This brings me to the Youtube video by Jose Rodriguez. When he puts fluid on the purge pads

it immediately drains away and the pads look clean as he's doing it.

How should I been cleaning mine, soak up with paper towel or should it drain like Jose's?

 

[jtoolman]

The PRO 3800 is different. Than other Rxxxx series. Those require the purge pump to operate before any ink or Cleaning Fluid can be sucked out of it.

On my R2000 cleaning video you clearly see that it floods and then you have to blot.

On the PRO 3800 or 3880 your pad should drain freely if you add fluid to it.
As you mentioned earlier, one side of your pad drains and one side does not? They are both supposed to drain as I show on my video.
A kinked tub would block that from occurring.
Joe

 

[18%grey]

Joe

Thank you so much for your advice.

I have just checked the purge pad to see if liquid flows freely as in your video.

At first it looked like I still had a blockage, the right hand side drained virtually straight away.

The left hand started to drain after about 45-60 seconds and then away it went. Great result.

As you mentioned earlier I will make sure I do this more often.

Kelvin

 

[websnail]

I don't have direct experience with the 3800 model but given the age of the printer and the fact it's a pigment type, it's pretty normal for ink to slowly coat and build up in the tubes until a prolonged period of non-use allows a decent clog (if you can call a clog "decent") to build up.

Your printer has a maintenance cartridge so the old problems associated with desktop models with static pads shouldn't apply. For completeness the issue there was the pads became blocked with dried ink at the point where the tube dumped the ink. This stopped the ink being absorbed so waste was forced back up the tube into the purge/cleaning/resting pad thus soiling the printhead.


Edit: Oh and btw... Jose and jtoolman are one and the same... Just so's you know...

 

[18%grey]

websnail

Thank you for your input.

I have worked out what caused the clogging up of the drain tubing and purge pads.

I only leave my printer on standby, I do not switch on and off, so the printer is not going through the usual routine where

spent ink would go down the waste.

The other thing is I very seldom do any head cleaning, I don't need to, so again no ink going down waste tubing.

This is why the ink that is in the waste system is clogging, it's old ink.

So the regular purge pad cleaning with fluid to flush the system is essential maintenance.

I have a second Pro 3800 and today I stripped it down to find it was suffering the same clogging problem.

I had to spend a couple of hours cleaning the purge pads and tubing.