Epson Artisan 810 Print head problem.

[freqz]

Well, let me say I never went that far into tearing it down.

Basically what I did, And what I would tell anyone trying to do a good cleaning, is:
On the back on the printer there is one screw, Just under and to the right of the EXT. I took that screw out. Tilting the printer up I pryed right under that screw and the entire Waste holding pad container should come down. ( Looking on my 810 it also has a metal cover on the under side ) I gently pulled the hose going to the pad container out and stuffed a screw in there incase it decided to leak.

I pulled the pads out and rinsed and dryed them, but when done, they were very skinny so I roughly cut up some on that shamwow material just to hold everything in place.

I took a small piece or air hose ( the kind for air lines on fish tanks ) and I think it was a 13/64 drill bit size. I places the waste container back up in the printer and I drilled a hold ( On mine there was a white label to the right of the screw ) through the back and into the waste tank.

I them pulled the waste contained out and took a small saw and cut from the top down to my hole.

I fed the hose from the outside of the printer and hooked it to the other end of the printers waste hose. ( I had a little hose adapter from my fish tanks to join the 2 together ) I then positioned the hose through the slice I sawed, and pushed the whole container back in and put my 1 phillips screw back in.

Ran the other end of the hose into a little tupperware container.

Done.

Again, I would highly suggest this to anyone before attempting to flush out their printhead. While I had good success. IT TOOK A LONG TIME !!!

 

[freqz]

 

[shpitz461]

Awesome pics and explanation, thanks m8!

So what do you plan on doing with the waste? feed it back as 'black'?

Can you take a picture of the tubes connecting the cartridges to the printhead? are they also full of ink with no air trapped inside them?

Should I remove both the main plugs of the CISS tanks and the top-plug in each cartridge? How do I relieve the pressure that is built-up in my tubes?

My mistake was to have a trucking company move my printer when I moved to a different state, all the problems started after we moved, it was working awesome for about two years. I'm sure they put the printer upside-down and standing on its side while moving it the 1000 miles.

I really appreciate everyone's help!

 

[freqz]

This printer is very picky, and any waste ink I'll just pour down the drain. As touchy as it seems I don't even want to take any chances.

As for the tubes connecting to the printed They now look full of ink. When I was doing my cleaning I did use that as a visual to see if my fluid was pushing through. ( I used Windex and Ammonia )

Not sure how right this is but if your concerned that your not getting ink into your cart's to pop the plug off the cart, and suck up with a syringe and see what happens. Then just dump back into the holding tank.

I'm no expert and what works for me might not work for you, but Right now if I keep everything plugged and caped, I get crap results on a nozzle check. Right now I have to keep my big plug's on the ciss tank off , and after 1 cleaning I get good prints again.

 

[shpitz461]

Gotcha. I think my problem is that the tubes from the carts to the printhead are full of air, and I can't see to remove it. I think maybe 3 out of 6 of these tubes appears to be clean of air. I'll try your suggestion with the syringe on the cart.

What did you do with the Windex/ammonia? I flooded the cap under the head where it parks with Windex and let it sit for a day, tried that for several days, yet the tubes are still full of air.

I saw that all the liquid was sucked out of the cap so I figure I have good a good seal there.

 

[freqz]

If I were in your shoes, The first thing I would do is take the waste collection tank off and extend the tube. At least this way you will be able to visually see if the waste ink is coming out. if it's coming out, it has to be going in.

 

[shpitz461]

Turned out I have a major flood somewhere, ink was all over the place. I opened it up as follows:








It looks like the tubes to the printhead are nicely primed, but black still doesn't print. Maybe the clog is in the head after all, I'll try to follow mikling's suggestion and see if it clears it.

freqz, should i run the printer under the sink and see if waste comes out of the hose? just run a cleaning cycle? print? what's the best way to get it do dump waste.

I noticed there's a black 'ring' inside the white drainage tube, is this what you have as well or is it a layer of dried ink?

Thanks everyone!

 

[websnail]

Just to note the Artisan 700 on up is documented in a couple of places and there are commercial kits available too (yep, including my own) but DIY works too

http://www.wasteink.co.uk/waste-ink-mods/epson-artisan-800-mod/

http://www.octoink.co.uk/kb/questions/108

Those cover a lot more of the process of installation in detail... Oh and there's an overflow in these printers as well, one that is particularly tricky to fit an extension to, so you still want to be putting the printer on a lipped tray to catch any output if the overflow should kick in. It's pretty rare but you don't want to be the exception that creates the ink puddle.

 

[shpitz461]

Alright, I don't know what else I can do.
I had the printer blink reporting a major error upon startup. I played with the gears that control the head placement near the motor and was able to get the printer to work again.
All colors are perfect except black. It is a little faded, as if 80% of black prints fine, the other 20% are faded. The tubes all look primed, no air that I can see.
I soaked the head in a Windex solution for hours, and it is much better than it used to be.
Not sure what else I can do. Any ideas?

Another odd thing that happened: After removing the top cover the stud near the cabling got stuck in the up position and will not move. It is firmly locked in place and will not move.
I removed the screw that holds the stud and completely removed it.

Thanks guys!

 

[jfcarbel]

I have same issue (Artisan 710 but very similar to 810) with black failing the nozzle check. At first I would do 2-3 cleaning cycles when I needed to use printer and that would work. The printer never sat more then 2 weeks without having something printed from it.

So I ran across this video and it explained that on these printers that only way to force cleaning solution thru the inkjet cart nozzles is to remove the printhead outlet nozzles (white item) that is withing the print head.

So I removed it and flushed it with Piezo clean. I also soaked the print head in the solution for about an hour. After reassembling it, I ran 2 cleanings and did a nozzle check and everything was perfect with black now. But, then cyan was missing just one small area so I ran another cleaning and then black started missing parts in nozzle check. I checked the tubes leading from the inkjets to the print head and none show air bubbles and look all good and primed.

I also tried instead of cleanings to just print color test patterns and every color is great except black.

I also re-primed the black CISS carts when I had them out of the system.

Could it be the black ink I have is just gone bad and clogging up this head? I have had this Piano Deluxe CISS for 3 years now and always used same high quality brand of dye based ink without any issues. Is it perhaps end of life?

Not sure what else to try. I did put cleaner on that pad that the print head sits on (damper, capping station - not sure what its called) and parked the head there with power off overnight. Will be running a nozzle check later today.

Not sure if its the print head or the CISS at this point. Wish I could run the printer with just a black regular EPSON cart in it to determine if its the CISS or not. Hate to toss the printer as it prints great, except for the darn black. Perhaps, I could try replacing just the black CISS cart but not sure if Leonard sells these separate or if that is even worth trying or the expense and time. Might just bite the bullet and get a new CISS and printer.

So anyone have a CISS they have had running without issue for more then 3 or 4 years?

Any more suggestions before I throw in the towel and go with a new printer and CISS? Looking perhaps at the Epson 1400 but it's a beast (size, wide). But I wanted Epson for its CD printing feature and a durable Epson that will last. I hear the AIO Epson are not that durable. I also plan to do a ink waste potty this time at the get go.