Digital BW, The Print

This is uncannily similar to my experience.

I too bought 2 sets of the cartridges.  I put in the first set.  I had
a lot of problems with ink leaking.  A lot.  Not just on the paper,
but also around the printer.  Just when I thought that the problem had
slowed after many days and many many purge patterns, I discovered that
the LM & LC carts had emptied themselves.  The rest were still over
half full.  I.e. same thing.

I put this down to bad luck at the time.  When you get a lot of ink
loss, you do things to try and understand why, (removing and
reinserting the carts, under-head cleaning - which prompts a vigorous
head clean when the printer is plugged in and turned on again), and I
thought perhaps that I had done something to exacerbate the problem. 

I tried to prime the second LM & LC carts before I used them, by
drawing some ink out of the fill holes in order to draw air into the
vent holes.  This seemed to work as efillink says it should.  There
were a few drips on the paper, but not many, and by printing a few
purge patterns over several days and avoiding head cleans, I
eventually had a good nozzle check.  I profiled the new inks and made
a print.  All seemed well.  However a few days later I found that the
LM and LK carts are empty!  These two carts have drained themselves. 
The LM for the second time!  The rest are still around half full,
except for the LC, which having been replaced was still nearly full.

This time I can't see where the ink has gone.  Not in drips on the
page and not around the printer, as far as I can see.  I can only
guess that they were drained when sitting on the cleaning station.  I
had turned the printer off, leaving the fill plugs in and the vent
plugs out, which is how I thought you were supposed to leave them. 
For the two replacement carts, the only head clean was the one that
the printer insists on when a new cart is inserted.  Otherwise it was
just purge patterns and nozzle checks. 

So what is going on?  It does seem to me, and Ronnie agrees, that some
of the carts are faulty.  The second experience suggests that there is
a small air leak somewhere, so that capillary action when the head was
parked on the cleaning station drained the carts.  In the first case
there was clearly a larger air leak such that the ink just drained out
of the LM & LC cartridges.

So, what leak?  There could have been a problem with the cartridge
seals around the ink nipples (the spikes that puncture the ink
cartridges), or there could be an internal leak so that air was being
drawn in bypassing the air intake passage that these carts have.  If
the air intake passage is bypassed, then the negative pressure that
this passage creates to keep the air in won't be created.

I am more inclined to suspect the seals.  The LK cart did not
initially drain.  When I realised the initial problem of the LC and LM
  carts having drained, I of course had to remove all the carts to
check the others, and the half-full LK only drained via the cleaning
station once reinserted.  I do wonder if a little Windex that I used
on the ink nipples might have affected the seals, but it's not
supposed to.

This is my first post here, but reading past messages, I have noted
some negative comments about Ronnie, who also posts here.  This is not
my experience.  He has been very generous with his time, via Skype and
email, to help me work through these problems.  I have lost faith in
the carts, but I have accepted a good offer on a CIS.  Some people
will think I am throwing good money after bad, but there are some very
good reports around about his CIS, particularly on French sites. 
Reading the forums, the current batch of CIS do see to have a better
reputation than the carts.

From reading past messages, I can't see that efillink is all that
different to MIS.  Both have problems with a small proportion of
defective carts.  This seems to be an occupational hazard with
ordering a large batch from China.  The leaks, when they do occur,
seem worse with efillink carts, but I have to say, having read the
reports of unresponsiveness from MIS, my experience of service from
efillink is better.  I could not agree with the statement that "the
company apparently won't stand behind them".

There are enough posts on this forum, including from three recent
users that I could count, to suggest that when the carts work, they do
work as advertised. Most of mine did.

I'm sorry about such a long posting on a B&W group which is not
specifically B&W.  There is an Epson group I understand, but there did
seem to be a bit of momentum here on this issue.

Brian D


--- In DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com, "dbhull97459"
<d_hull@...> wrote:
>
> I ordered 2 sets of prefilled 2400 carts from the efillink internet 
> site - They did not work well at all.  I had ink drops of numerous 
> colors for most of the time I had them installed.  I followed the 
> directions provided, even corresponded with Ronnie. Out of one set of 
> carts, I got a total of one 11x14 and two 8x10s without ink blobs on 
> them. I probably printed well over 50 purge patterns (all with ink 
> blobs) trying to clear the problem. Then I noted that 4 carts were 
> completely empty while others like Light Magenta (that I usually use 
> most of) still had about 40-50% of the ink remaining. Much ink in the 
> printer also; in fact most probably in the printer - I tried to soak 
> up as much as I could with absorbant paper - thought maybe the leaks 
> would eventually stop, as advertised. 
> I liked the ink color; didn't like the carts.  Won't use the 2nd set 
> of carts and the company apparently won't stand behind them.
> 
> dan