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Suppliers of New & Remanufactured Ink & Toner Cartridges
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If you have been following the discussion board you will realise that when refilling these cartridges you will need to reset the chips on the cartridges before the printer will accept them as full cartridges.
We use and recommend the chip resetters from www.qb7.com as these work on all current and previous chips found on the market. It appears that as chip resetters are developed, Epson change the chips on new cartridges. For this reason, hold on to old chips so that you can put them on the new cartridges if necessary for resetting purposes.
The first thing a person should do if they notice a reduction in print quality (white lines or gaps) is to do a nozzle check. This can be found under Printer Utilities. This will show you exactly how many nozzles are not firing, and give you a baseline to check for improvement. Next you should try several cleaning cycles, many times this will get things flowing again.
There are two reasons for a printhead to not give you a perfect nozzle check. The first being an actual clog, and the second being an air bubble, either in the cartridge or the printhead. An old cartridge can lead to ink "thickening" and also cause problems. Of course, an empty cartridge will also cause trouble! If you are refilling cartridges and putting less than 7cc's of ink in an empty chamber, you are not getting a "factory full" refill. This will cause the ink counter to say you still have ink when it's long gone.
OK.... Let's say you know you have ink, and you've done 4-5 cleaning cycles and still get a bad nozzle check pattern.
The first thing to do is try to get rid of an air bubble if there is one. To do this I like to inject 12 cc's of isopropyl alcohol into the colour chamber that is giving the bad nozzle check. To do this you will need a syringe and small needle (available at your local vet, or farm supply). Put the printhead into the "change cartridge" position and remove the cartridge. Draw 1-2 cc's of alcohol into the syringe and poke the needle into the rear hole on the top of the cartridge. Aim for the middle of the bottom of the cartridge, about 1-1/4" in. (GENTLY..... You don't want to pierce the internal filter screen.)
Now inject the alcohol above where the outlet port would be. Re-install the cartridge and let the printer do its "new cartridge boogie". Now LET IT SIT for 15-20 minutes! Then run a cleaning cycle and then another nozzle check. Sometimes this is all it takes. The alcohol will also help to thin ink that has become too viscous. I have run tests with ink diluted with as much as 50% alcohol and could hardly tell the difference (ink extender???:-) You may need to run a couple of cleaning cycles to get everything flowing again. If this doesn't work, roll up your sleeves and proceed to STEP 2.
Still clogged? Don't despair. Put the printhead back into "cartridge change" position and remove the offending cartridge. Remove the needle from the syringe and draw 1cc of alcohol. Do you see the little pointed nipple that is in the hole where you pulled the cartridge from? This is the thingie that breaks the seal of a fresh cartridge and feeds ink to the printhead. Place the plastic tip of the syringe firmly over the nipple. (GENTLY... if you break the nipple you're screwed.) Slowly inject the alcohol into the nipple and remove syringe. Hopefully you just injected the alcohol into the nipple and remove syringe. Hopefully you just injected the alcohol into the printhead, where it will displace any air bubbles and dissolve dried up ink deposits. (Kinda like fuel injector clearner on a car.)
Let the printer sit for a good couple of hours after this. The alcohol needs time to work it's magic. Then reinstall cartridge and test as above. If you STILL have a problem after several cleaning cycles...... It's time to get serious and remove the printhead completely (STEP 3) This is not for the faint of heart and is reserved for more "technically inclined" users. (It's really not that bad ...... I can have it out in 2-3 minutes). It may help to take a photo or video "before" shot to help you put it back together right!
1. Move printhead to "change cartridge" position and remove cartridges.
2. LEAVE POWER SWITCH ON AND UNPLUG PRINTER CORD. This will keep the printhead where we want it.
3. Remove top cover (4 screws.....2 in front, 2 in back)
4. Carefully remove ribbon cable going into top of printhead assembly.
5. Remove screw holding the metal arm at the bottom of the cartridge holder, remove metal arm.
6. There is a small plastic tab in front of where the ribbon cable plugs in, this is all that is left holding the printhead.
7. Lift the tab over the protrusion of the printhead and slide the printhead assembly forward and up to remove.
Scary, huh? It's easier than it sounds. Now that you have that bugger out, it's time for a serious alcohol soak. Put enough alcohol into a cup to cover the whole thing. (Don't worry...it won't hurt anything.) Now let it sit overnight. The alcohol will work its way in and do wonders while you sleep.
The next morning, rinse the assembly with clean alcohol, shake off excess and let dry. Now we're ready for the real "nozzle test"! Get a foot of small bore plastic tubing that will fit onto the plastic tip of the syringe. I use a 1/16" I.D. tube that I soften with a lighter and widen the opening with a Bic pen so that it will slip onto the syringe. Now draw in 5-6 cc's of alcohol through he tubing into the syringe. Place the open end of the tubing over the feed nipple of the clogged colour. Now firmly inject the alcohol.
If the head is clear, you will see 32 (colour) or 64 (black) very, very fine streams of alcohol spraying out of the nozzle plate on the bottom of the printhead. If some are crooked or not spraying, we need to backflush that colour. VERY GENTLY clamp the printhead (bottom side-nozzle plate up) into a small vise or holding fixture of some kind, you will need both hands free. Now take your alcohol-syringe-tube combo and hold the tubing firmly over the micro-sized nozzle holes on the nozzle plate. (A magnifying glass will help.) While holding the tube firmly in place, force some alcohol into the nozzle holes. (You know it's going in if it drips out the feed nipple.)
Keep moving and repeat until you go over ALL the nozzle holes. What this is doing is back flushing each jet in the printhead and dislodging any foreign objects (dust, etc..) out of the printhead. If a head has a rock in the pipes (dust, etc..) and you only flush from the top... you're just pushing it to the spray nozzle and it's still going to be clogged. A back flush like this is the only way to clear this type of clog, unless you replace the printhead. Now you can slap it back together, run a couple of cleaning cycles, and get back to printing
I have not met a clog that I couldn't clear with the above methods. I recently had a 500 in the shop that someone had let the black run bone dry in. $ WEEKS LATER, they installed a new cartridge and ............. "chaaaaaaa.......... know what???? Unh-unh!!!" Clog city. No amount of cleaning cycles or alcohol injection would clear that gooed up printhead. EVERY SINGLE NOZZLE WAS CLOGGED. This was a candidate for the old Epson "replace the printhead" routine. So I figured, What the hell! Let's pull the printhead and test the "procedure". After a "Step 3" full boogie removal and backflush, I ran ONE cleaning cycle and ........ PERFECT. Remember, this head was so clogged that I couldn't get even 1 nozzle to spray!
I know it's kind of involved, but for us etches out there or for printer out of warranty..... it's the only way to go. Good Luck!