Digital BW, The Print

With all the comments lately on 1280s with CIS / CFS or spongeless carts I
wanted to add an observation or two.

The Epson 1280 model is at least ~ 4 years old now!

I have a 1280 that has had a CIS (from InkjetArt) with MIS GP Color inks
(pigments) for over two-years and it worked well for a long period of time
(over a year with no hassles, just occasional cleanings).  

Eventually I developed a 'clog' in my M ink and wasn't getting ink out the
heads.  I tried various cleanings and eventually the tube line went empty.
I used gravity, and siphoning, to refill and charge the cartridge and tubes
and it would work for a little while.  Eventually I quit bothering since I
was mostly printing letters and the M went blank all together.  I wondered
if the pigments had settled and clogged the ink heads (Has anyone really had
that experience)?

I figured it was 'time for new carts' BUT before I did, I really looked at
the system and it turned out that one of tubes had developed a micro hole
from rubbing against the edge of the cart area!!!  All of the tubes were
showing signs of this developing under a small amount of black dirt
developing at the contact point.  I found this only because I was going to
try to force ink into the carts one more time before ordering new carts/ink
etc., and decided to examine if I wanted to get new tubes in case there had
developed a pigment / mildew chain in the tubes (something I've read about
but don't believe I have experienced).  

So the gist of it is, my 'clog' was a micro air leak that wasn't big enough
to leak on the print head itself and may have only exercised its ghostly
problem when the print head extended fully to the opposite side of the
carriage.  

It did not occur to me to, and I would not 'complain' to InkjetArt, or any
other CIS / CFS maker, about this problem because of the experimental /
developmental nature of inkjet printing with Alternative inks and because it
sort of falls under the concept of simply wearing out your parts!

I have switched to spongeless carts recently and the change went over well.
It's taken a bit of time for the Magenta ink to work its way fully into the
print head - something cleaning cycles weren't doing, but regular printing
use seems to have helped and probably a series of purge printings would do
it if I were 'in a hurry.'

On re-filling spongeless carts - I find it a (little) hard to get the little
rubber stoppers out with a pin, and I'm sure I would slice them up if I used
a Xacto blade - but I manage to do it easily enough.  The chip re-setter
worked easily enough and paying some attention to the Epson utility to
remind me about filling is working (I use black and yellow at greater speeds
than anything else).

FWIW.  Thanks all for contributions and questions over the years.

Best regards,
Cleavis