Digital BW, The Print

For those of you using the 3800 and aftermarket refillable cartridges/inks...
I have had a problem for over a year that I believe I may have finally solved. (I am using a B&W ink set.) You may wish to know about this.

I either forgot about or missed the message from Leslie Otterbein posted last year and quoted below in response to my desperation. (Heads kept getting clogged, or so it seemed, without rhyme or reason.) I found it yesterday when doing a search for a solution to my current repeat of the problem. (I let the printer sit for over a year due to illness and exasperation, but then got it going again a week or so ago.)

To cut to the chase: I filled all the cartridges to the max line (they were only at about the 80% full level so there should not have been a problem, but..!)

Then I replaced all of the O-rings in the Cone cartridges with #8 rings (larger and fatter, and yes it was a struggle to get them in; do not try to force in the bigger O rings without removing the cartridges from the printer first). This morning I ran three quick cleaning cycles and after two days of frustration am ready to print again.

It remains to be seen if inks will start 'disappearing' from nozzle checks when levels get lower again, which would indicate that the fatter O rings don't help, but it appears this problem is solved. I will post any updates.


>I don't have the Cone system and inks, but I use the inkrepublic
>system. Other than the ink, it is the identical system.

>Judging from my experience with the inkrepublic system I am willing to
>wager the problem is not clogs per se but rather pressure.

>_some_of these cartridges cannot maintain enough pressure to keep the
>ink flowing. The 3800 pressurizes the cartridges and that pushes the
>ink through. However, the aftermarket cartridges are a different size.
>Perhaps that is a contributing factor.

>To cut to the chase, try putting more ink in the cartridge and do some
>cleaning cycles. The ink should come back. I was sitting with only
>half my nozzle colours for a week before I stumbled upon this
>solution. Even though there may still be ink in your cartridge, it
>will be too low to get to the printhead because the pressure is too
>low. Some cartridges are good though.