Bit of a Warning!

[jtoolman]

I recently did a bit of maintenance on a few of my printers. Two R1900 one R2400 and one R2880

The reason is because about a month ago I experienced Purge Unit cloggs on both R1900 which required repeated back flushing through the drain tubes and aspiration while also adding fluif to the top of the pad. It was a P I the A!!!

So as a preventitive I basically pippetted about 2ml of Windex on top of each purge pad and turned the printers Off On and back Off.

This was two days ago. Tonight I went down to the print room to print a few things for a friend only to find all four printers had all their inks wicked from their refillable carts.

How did I know? The waste ink bottles told the story.

So for the rest of this evening I emptied waste ink and refilled and primed four sets of carts. I then ran cleaning cycles to get everthing firing and ran nozzle checks and test prints.

I then left the printers on for the rest of the night. No more wicking of ink has taken place.

So it appears this was a no no. Apparently there was enough fluid Windex of the pad surface to create a fierce wicking action once the head assumed the parked position while powering off.

 

[rodbam]

Bugger! Thanks for the warning mate.

 

[websnail]

Quick question Joe,

... where was the bottle located? Same level as the printer or was it lower?

 

[The Hat]

Quick question Joe,

... where was the bottle located? Same level as the printer or was it lower?

It had to be lower,
siphoning and gravity are great partners..

 

[jtoolman]

Yes they were all lower but only a bit lower. So now they are all at the same level as the surface the printer sit on.
Question though. The tubbing as I set them up are coming out at the base level on the right side of the printer. Just like if I had installed your system Websnail. If I set the bottles at table level the ink would have to travel up from table level,climbing about 3-4 inches in order to flow into the bottles. Before the tubings would lay flat on the table and directly into the bottle. The tubing in the bottles only extend about 1/2 inch past the bottle lid. They do not touch the bottom of the tank. So I did not think I could possibly be creating a syphon effect as the ink will always drip down into the bottle.
I've had the bottles hanging along the side of each shelf for over a year with zero problems, not until I added fluid and parked the heads and powered off.

 

[websnail]

Yes they were all lower but only a bit lower. So now they are all at the same level as the surface the printer sit on.
Question though. The tubbing as I set them up are coming out at the base level on the right side of the printer. Just like if I had installed your system Websnail. If I set the bottles at table level the ink would have to travel up from table level,climbing about 3-4 inches in order to flow into the bottles. Before the tubings would lay flat on the table and directly into the bottle. The tubing in the bottles only extend about 1/2 inch past the bottle lid. They do not touch the bottom of the tank. So I did not think I could possibly be creating a syphon effect as the ink will always drip down into the bottle.
I've had the bottles hanging along the side of each shelf for over a year with zero problems, not until I added fluid and parked the heads and powered off.

I thought I'd ask even though I was sure you wouldn't have done what I did all those years ago with two C84's, two shelves and 3 foot of tubing (yes, aimed at a tank 2.5 feet below)... Yes, yes... :/ I still shudder every time my wife mentions the "lovely ink stains" on that wall :/

I'm just wondering if the cartridge ink levels (were they full by any chance) plus the flooded cleaning/parking bay were enough to start a free flow... Certainly sounds like that might have been the case.

Given that, perhaps it future printhead cleaning might include some kind of lint free cloth/paper towel pad (soaked in the cleaning solution) placed in the parking bay, rather than flooding the parking bay as is? That should present enough of a brake to freeflow?

Either way... if it's any consolation... the C84 incident was two printers with FULL CIS systems (400ml ink in each) and a 500ml waste tank... Expensive, imported from MIS Associates to the UK (we're talking a LONG time ago) ink.




Edit: Actually thinking about it, you must have been seriously unlucky!... the peristaltic pump aspect of things would have required the tube to be more or less open or nearly so, to sort of a perfect storm of pump compression part location, fluid bridge and full(?) cartridges... Oh boy!

 

[jtoolman]

Hello Websnail,

The bottles were only about an inch bellow the bench surface and had been that way for over 2 years without a single problem. The cascade of events leading to the ink waste disaster has to have been caused by my parking the head smack over an already somewhat Windex flooded purge pad. Then I turned off the power. Instant Syphon!

The "Logic" for doing this had been because I had just experienced clogged purge systems on both of my R1900s
I spent over a hour each ( different weeks - not both at the same time ) Adding Windex to the pads, while at the same time gently applying vaccum with a syringe attached to each of the two tubings leading to the waste ink bottles till it finally did begin to bust the clogs. After some positive and negative pressure cycles with the syringes and the addition of fresh Windex to the top of the purge pads, I eventually ended up with pristine pads and a free flowing Purge system on both printers.

So I thought that as a preventative, I would add some Windex to the Pads on my RXXXX printers and just park the heads overnight.
Well, now I know that was WRONG!!!!!

Lesson learned. From now on I will make sure to blot off the excess or gently suck out the cleaning fluid from the waste tubes with a syringe.

A clogged Purge pad sneaking up on you can be quite a messy thing! Specially after installation of a new set of carts.

 

[The Hat]

Jose there is no safe level for your waste bottle to be at so long as the purge pads are full of Windex.

To be sure that the same thing couldnt happen again the end of outlet of pipe coming from the purge unit
where it sits inside the waste bottle would have to be at the same height as the top of your cartridges.

As this would make the waste bottle system unworkable I would suggest you put it back in the same position
you had it before your ink vanished, just dont leave the pads submerged again.

 

[jtoolman]

Makes sense Hat! Thanks. Submerging the nozzles in liquid abosuletly seems to be the culprit here as I've had the bottles hanging an inch over the edge of the tables for over two year with zero problems. Then again I never flooded the purge pads and then parked the heads over them!!!!

Thanks!

 

[websnail]

A clogged Purge pad sneaking up on you can be quite a messy thing! Specially after installation of a new set of carts.

You should try 750ml going into a 500ml tank and helping educate me on the laws of capacity...

Messy described my desk, my wall and my relationship for quite some time afterwards...

Lessons eh? Gotta love 'em