HOW TO SELECT MATT BLK INK ON EPSON 3880 PRINTER FULL
Tell him to stop putting ink in it, because what happens is once that selector goes bad, the valve is now stuck in the open position for either matte black or photo black, wherever he had it set, you know?Īnd as soon as the system pressurizes, because that’s an ink-pressurized system, the pressure forces the ink out of the cartridge into the pump unit, into the waste tank.Īnd even though the cartridge is gonna say it’s full – the chip thinks it’s full, but in reality it’s empty. After replacing the PK ink a couple of times, I switched to MK and don’t seem to have the problem at all with that other than the obvious printing capabilities I haven’t found any evidence of leaking ink in or around the printer. When removing the ink cartridge, it’s obviously empty. Ron: I do not know anything about it at this point.Īnnouncer 2: Craig with asks, “I have an Epson 3880 that keeps running out of photo black ink, even though the ink monitor shows there should be more than one half to three-quarter of ink remaining. Justin: What about the new P800? Have you seen much about that?
Ron: So I would recommend he bought a 3880. Justin: Right, yeah, I think we’ve talked about that in an earlier episode. They do fail, and what the result is you end up with black ink all of your page and your cartridges empty themselves out by themselves. The only issues we’ve had with 3880s is the ink supply…the damper unit or the selector – whatever you want to call it – that allows the machine to switch from photo to matte that plugs into the printhead. Justin: Yeah, it seems like a lot of photographers use it, and maybe people that aren’t printing to it every day, and I rarely hear problems with it failing, any print head failure, clogging. Ron: Yeah it’s a great machine, you know, I have them in an application out in the real world where they use them, you know, over use them, and the machines hold up. I use this along with another brand for more or less very good proof photos.” Without getting into the expensive high-end business printers, what would you recommend for a printer? At present, I have the Epson Artisan 725 and I’m due for a replacement. But when you’re at the level of the 99 and the 79, this particular head – that’s not the issue.Īnnouncer 2: Leland asks, “I work for the Chilton Times Newspaper as a special assignment photographer. Justin: That’s interesting, I mean that seems like just a global misconception then, you know, the whole “ink clogging” versus like a print head actually failing.īecause you hear everybody talk about, “My Epson x900 is clogged.” Blah blah blah. I don’t know if there’s delamination occurring in there, but there’s some kind of interaction with the ink itself and the adhesives, Again this is my guess – the adhesives they use to hold it all together in the print head.
Ron: Yeah, because what happens is once you ink the head – whatever’s going wrong in there is going to go wrong with you using it or not using it. So it’s probably an age thing instead of a use thing.
What’s happened is it’s failed internally. The fact that he’s letting it sit two weeks, three weeks, on the 79 and the 99, isn’t really a factor. I don’t know what kind of usage he’s put it through. Ron: Well, I would need to know two things – the age of the machine, the printheads in these machines run less than about three years. My concern is that any large format printer will clog without regular use. My options are to spend a ton of money to replace the head, or to replace the printer itself. I travel frequently for two weeks at a time, so it’s impossible to run ink through it regularly. Today we’re gonna talk about ink clogging on an Epson 9900, printer recommendations for the low-volume user, and Epson’s auto-head cleaning option.Īnnouncer 2: Paul asks, “The head on my lightly used Epson 9900 irreversibly clogged. Justin: Hey guys, this is your host Justin, welcome to episode 25 of the AskBC podcast! Ron Ardito joins us again from answering some Epson printer-related questions. Announcer 1: You are listening to the AskBC podcast – your printmaking questions, answered by the experts!