Digital BW, The Print

Paul W.,

I thought the first issue for the initial poster was to rinse the carts themselves. I would do that outside the printer with syringes and a bottom fill adapter. I'd first rinse the reservoir by putting clear fluid into the cart and pulling it out the same way -- through the fill hole. After the reservoir was clean, I'd put some clear fluid into the cart and pull it through the outlet until the clear fluid was clear coming out the outlet. If there is a saturated sponge in the flow, that may make this a difficult task.

Only when the carts are clean would I install them and run a cleaning cycle. And for the cleaning cycle I'd use a clear fluid that was about half distilled water and half my generic base c6b. One might also rinse the parking pad to remove the old color. I'd print a purge pattern after each cleaning cycle to see if the system is clear.

Note that the purge pattern that we typically use with the Epson driver does not show each ink separately. Only the QTR calibration mode print really shows the ink channels totally separately. As such, it is what one should use to see exactly where the color is coming from.

The problem with the clear fluid in the system is that you won't be able to see from a nozzle check if they are all functioning. Some use a dilute dye in the carts -- like mixed into the cleaning fluid -- to do this. If the nozzle check was good before the rinsing out of the color inks, it's almost certainly going to be clean after the rinse.

With old desktop printers and all this cleaning and rinsing, there is a distinct risk that the printer will reach it's "end of life" (bottom, built in waste tank full) point and the lights will be flashing. Epson has a utility that will reset this and extend the life of the printer a bit. Ultimately, even if the head is still OK, the bottom waste tank will be full and ink will start leaking out of foul something inside. My only experience with a desktop unit that was that old was that you don't want to use the reset utility more than once on a printer.

Some people install tubes that connect the pump under the head assembly to an external waste tank. I think if the machine or inkset is so troublesome that that amount of cleaning is needed, it's time to start over.

Paul

www.PaulRoark.com