DBDigital
Printing Apprentice
- Joined
- Feb 14, 2020
- Messages
- 13
- Reaction score
- 2
- Points
- 10
- Printer Model
- Epson 1280
Ok the basic problem I have right now with my 1280 is this:
First thing in the morning if I run a nozzle check I have only 2 jets missing on black and 4 or 5 missing on light magenta, the rest are perfect. I can print test chart after test chart without problems. BUT if I run a cleaning cycle then do a nozzle check I lose everything but a few black jets (4 maybe 6 at most) and 4 from magenta. The rest are BLANK. Try another cleaning cycle no change, if anything it gets worse.
And here is the whole story:
I left my 1280 without printing for a few months (oops yeah I know big no-no), but I thought I will run cleaning cycles and be going again after using a lot of ink. But this time around it didn't work. The ink carts I had were old stock and the color (T009) I don't even know how old it was as there wasn't a expiration date on it (which I found odd), the black (T007) wasn't past expiration. As I am sure everyone here knows, Epson stopped making carts for the 1280 some time ago.
This was my last set of carts I had and finding OEM carts is getting hard (not to mention they are often older than I want to use). I decided on a refillable cart instead and got 2 sets along with a set of ink from Inkjetcarts.us which seemed better than trying to refill the OEM carts. I filled them (and made sure to prime them), installed them and I didn't get very good nozzle checks at all. Most of the colors were still blank. I had a hunch the old OEM carts went bad and plugged up my heads due to age. I tried pulling the power, putting a good amount of head cleaner on the capping station, and sliding the head back over (letting it sit even overnight). But that didn't do it either. I finally sucked the heads careful to not go over 5ml suction, but in this case I only had to use 2ml before I got air bubbles. Great I thought I had cleared the clogs or at least enough to have a chance at getting it going. Putting the carts back in, it wasn't much better after several cleaning cycles. At this point I thought I needed to really needed to work at the clogs so I put in a set of refillable carts with print head cleaner in them and ran a bunch of cleaning cycles thinking that would do it.
It did, but not enough. When I put the ink carts back in (and after several cleaning cycles), while I started getting some colors (black, yellow, magenta), cyan and light cyan were blank. I tried printing test charts and I got black ink drips on the printout similar to this guy: https://www.printerknowledge.com/threads/t007-t009-spongeless-refillable-ink-flow-problems.7791/
From what I heard this was air and I needed to flush it out by running cleaning cycles and power cycle the printer so it wipes the heads then run a nozzle check. I ran a bunch of cleaning cycles (even powerful ones via SSC utility and a initialization one at some point) but I still had the problem. Bad nozzle checks and ink drips if I tried to print anything. I tried priming the carts again thinking perhaps I didn't get them done properly the first time. But no change after a bunch of cleaning cycles.
At one point I did the paper-towel-soaked-with-printer-cleaner and running the head over it by hand trick but while I did get a lot of old ink off that way, I still didn't get good nozzle checks and problems with ink drips if I tried to print much of anything.
I had been battling this on and off for some time (try a little one day then wait until the next) and then one morning I ran a nozzle check first thing instead of any cleanings and it was almost prefect! Just 2 missing jets from black and a few from magenta! It was the best one I had seen since this whole mess started. So I thought I would do another cleaning or two and I would be all set. But right after I did the cleaning, the nozzle check showed all the colors gone except for 3 or 4 jets on black and 3 or so on magenta. Additional cleanings only seem to make things worse not better. If I let it sit with the power off, I know the next day it is printing with only a few nozzles missing. Perhaps a few hours later, I haven't tested (yet) to see when it is actually usable again.
Is this still air? Or something else? If it is air how do I get rid of it? I have ran a ton of cleaning cycles and if I haven't got rid of it by now, I can't imagine it ever will.
Any thoughts?
First thing in the morning if I run a nozzle check I have only 2 jets missing on black and 4 or 5 missing on light magenta, the rest are perfect. I can print test chart after test chart without problems. BUT if I run a cleaning cycle then do a nozzle check I lose everything but a few black jets (4 maybe 6 at most) and 4 from magenta. The rest are BLANK. Try another cleaning cycle no change, if anything it gets worse.
And here is the whole story:
I left my 1280 without printing for a few months (oops yeah I know big no-no), but I thought I will run cleaning cycles and be going again after using a lot of ink. But this time around it didn't work. The ink carts I had were old stock and the color (T009) I don't even know how old it was as there wasn't a expiration date on it (which I found odd), the black (T007) wasn't past expiration. As I am sure everyone here knows, Epson stopped making carts for the 1280 some time ago.
This was my last set of carts I had and finding OEM carts is getting hard (not to mention they are often older than I want to use). I decided on a refillable cart instead and got 2 sets along with a set of ink from Inkjetcarts.us which seemed better than trying to refill the OEM carts. I filled them (and made sure to prime them), installed them and I didn't get very good nozzle checks at all. Most of the colors were still blank. I had a hunch the old OEM carts went bad and plugged up my heads due to age. I tried pulling the power, putting a good amount of head cleaner on the capping station, and sliding the head back over (letting it sit even overnight). But that didn't do it either. I finally sucked the heads careful to not go over 5ml suction, but in this case I only had to use 2ml before I got air bubbles. Great I thought I had cleared the clogs or at least enough to have a chance at getting it going. Putting the carts back in, it wasn't much better after several cleaning cycles. At this point I thought I needed to really needed to work at the clogs so I put in a set of refillable carts with print head cleaner in them and ran a bunch of cleaning cycles thinking that would do it.
It did, but not enough. When I put the ink carts back in (and after several cleaning cycles), while I started getting some colors (black, yellow, magenta), cyan and light cyan were blank. I tried printing test charts and I got black ink drips on the printout similar to this guy: https://www.printerknowledge.com/threads/t007-t009-spongeless-refillable-ink-flow-problems.7791/
From what I heard this was air and I needed to flush it out by running cleaning cycles and power cycle the printer so it wipes the heads then run a nozzle check. I ran a bunch of cleaning cycles (even powerful ones via SSC utility and a initialization one at some point) but I still had the problem. Bad nozzle checks and ink drips if I tried to print anything. I tried priming the carts again thinking perhaps I didn't get them done properly the first time. But no change after a bunch of cleaning cycles.
At one point I did the paper-towel-soaked-with-printer-cleaner and running the head over it by hand trick but while I did get a lot of old ink off that way, I still didn't get good nozzle checks and problems with ink drips if I tried to print much of anything.
I had been battling this on and off for some time (try a little one day then wait until the next) and then one morning I ran a nozzle check first thing instead of any cleanings and it was almost prefect! Just 2 missing jets from black and a few from magenta! It was the best one I had seen since this whole mess started. So I thought I would do another cleaning or two and I would be all set. But right after I did the cleaning, the nozzle check showed all the colors gone except for 3 or 4 jets on black and 3 or so on magenta. Additional cleanings only seem to make things worse not better. If I let it sit with the power off, I know the next day it is printing with only a few nozzles missing. Perhaps a few hours later, I haven't tested (yet) to see when it is actually usable again.
Is this still air? Or something else? If it is air how do I get rid of it? I have ran a ton of cleaning cycles and if I haven't got rid of it by now, I can't imagine it ever will.
Any thoughts?