Colours Wrong? Inconsistend colour balance? Refillable tank/cartridge?

[guymark]

Post moved to "Everything else Inkjet related".

Moderator, please remove this thread as I placed it in the wrong section in error and cannot delete it! Thank you.


We got it covered...Moderator..

 

[Ink stained Fingers]

Air filters - ar you talking about the dampers in the printhead carriage ?

 

[guymark]

No, the little tiny plug in air filters that go into the breather holes on the ink tanks for a refillable tank as opposed to the regular ones. Sorry, I should have made that clearer as the system is always CISS to begin with. I will correct to make it clear I mean refillable cartridges using the printers own CISS system.

 

[guymark]

This might just be of interest to folks who are using CISS OR refillable cartridges with the little air-filters that sit on top of the ink tanks.

This is mostly for people using pigment ink and are experiencing printouts where the colour can vary from one print to another - or even (in the case of a large print), can suffer a colour shift midway through the print - only to work properly (for a short time) the next day before doing the same thing.

I have been using an Epson Stylus 9600 pro for a while now (over a year) and by and large really like it, however recently my colour balance was going wrong, it was as if a certain ink would run out mid print (loads left) and I knew the heads were not blocked.

The answer FINALLY came when, while pausing for thought, decided to top up some of the tanks as they were down to around 1/3rd full. As I pulled out the filling plug, it seemed VERY stiff and I could have sworn I head a little "sucky pop" when it finally yielded.

Three of the seven air filters (the little ones that plug into the top of the ink tanks / cartridges) had partly blocked and one almost totally blocked. rinsed them all through with cleaning solution and then sucked air though to "dry them out".

Periodically, I remove the cartridges and gently shake them to make sure the pigment stays in suspension, BUT of course it does mean that eventually enough ink can dry out in the breathers to block them.

If you use dye ink, no need to shake the tank so you should not have this issue - but IF you are a pigment ink user AND you shake the tank / refillable carteridge AND you can see that the little air filters seems a bit "inky", then you might just want to check them for being blocked if you start getting colour shift (as the tank/cartridge starts to pull a vacuum which reduces ink flow to the heads).

Unless the block is total, then over time (eg: overnight), the tank GRADUALLY equalises pressure (so works again) until you start using a lot of that particular colour!

Silly mistake and super simple fix - but it had me baffled for long enough!

Printer now working again properly bless it.

 

[The Hat]

Nice find, and well done @guymark...

 

[Ink stained Fingers]

Is there anything visible on the filter membranes of these little filters ? Dust or are they getting wet with something ? I'm just refilling original cartridges and use a resetter, I cannot remember encountering such an effect. Why would make it a difference for the filters if you use pigment or dye inks ?

 

[The Hat]

I reckon @guymark was referring to these little guys..

 

[guymark]

Is there anything visible on the filter membranes of these little filters ? Dust or are they getting wet with something ? I'm just refilling original cartridges and use a resetter, I cannot remember encountering such an effect. Why would make it a difference for the filters if you use pigment or dye inks ?

The reason is that with the dye inks, you can just carefully top up the tank and leave it be - there will be no "settling" even if you don't print for months. With pigment ink though as you know, it VERY slowly settles out - so it is not a bad idea to give the cartridges / tanks a gentle shake from time to time - I even seem to recall it suggested doing that in the Epson manual but I *might* be wrong there.

So while dye tanks are left alone, the pigment ones (in my case) are taken out and gently shaken end to end, side to side and tilted etc so that any pigment starting to "settle out" is mixed back in. Alas at the same time, sometimes ink will splash into the breathers shown above (Thanks The Hat) - and then when it dries out, it can block.

The answer I guess, is to remove the filter and put a finger over the hole - and THEN shake - but until I learned the ink could block the filter, I just used to pop my finger on the end of the filter to stop it falling out while I shook the cartridge.

 

[The Hat]

A bottom feeding pigment CISS will always cause problems, especially the one you have just described, a top feed system is a better option but still needs periodical maintenance.

Here’s an example of a homemade pigment CISS, does it work any better,
I use pigment ink sealed cartridges that are shaken regularly.. (Canon Pro Series)

 

[Ink stained Fingers]

o.k., so it's not a genuine property of pigment inks but your handling which causes the filter membranes to clog.
Epson cartridges have a bag and tap the bag at middle height. Agitating ink is recommended once in a while for ink in storage, not so much in a printer which is moving/shaking slightly and vibrating. I cannot confirm such clogging effects with my 7600, I'm probably not keeping the printer in idle mode for a period long enough to observe such effects. It might be different with refill cartridges which feed the ink from the bottom to the ink outlet.