Epson waste inks... error...

[websnail]

It doesn't matter at all. With the correct reset tool you will run the counter back down to zero.

It's up to you whether you want to risk having a complete disaster on your hands if you ever move the printer and it gets tilted. From the amount of waste ink my printer has made only printing 8% of the waste counter being triggered, I'd half expect the thing to overflow before I even hit the first reset.

Just on this bit... In my experience the reason the pads get overly saturated before they have reached the printers internal "Mama! Change me!!" point is down to one of two things:

1. Ink leakage be, it from a CIS, refillable cartridge or 3rd party consumable with poor pressure/vent control

...or...

2. The printer has been reset in the past without the pads being changed (usually in the mistaken belief that the Ink gets up and walks out like a sulky teenager)


QED: You can generally wait until the waste ink counter reaches it's service required before resetting it... especially if you've already installed a waste ink tank... Having some kind of safey net such as a lipped tray, etc... isn't something I'd necessarily leave out though... It's still ink and as I believe Douglas Adams once put it "I could be wrong"

 

[Fenrir Enterprises]

Hah, no I'm not going to reset early. I just don't understand why you wouldn't install a waste tank (though waiting a bit for warranty info is a good idea) sooner than later. Even if it doesn't overflow before the first reset, you've still got goo all over the inside of the printer. If you move it to another room and accidentally tip it while putting it down, you could have a nice mess all over. No reason not to do it after a few months of use.

My 1100 is all cut up for the CIS installation so I couldn't send it back anyway. I was unsuccessful in getting the cartridge cover off the 1400 without snapping it so I can't send that one back either.

 

[jnug]

I want to thank the respondents for their help and their information.

If I am not mistaken, the waste ink tube on the artisan 837 is not that hard to get to. I am hoping that there is an exit path for the tube that will run to the waste tank when the time comes.

Hopefully this is not a question that i am prohibited from asking at this forum. If so, please don't hesitate to tell me moderators.

Martin is your waste system for the 837 available here in the states from somebody. I have seen very very few from anywhere and yours looks like the best thought out that I have seen. Is there a way go get one here in the states?

Thanks again!

jnug

 

[Fenrir Enterprises]

You should just order it from him, the shipping rates on his website to the US are more than reasonable.

 

[jnug]

Thanks I did not look at his web site closely enough earlier and did not realize how reasonable it was until I saw his ebay storefront. My bad!

 

[websnail]

Sorry I was home and in bed by the time your query came through, and then had the little one all day so only just got back to work mode (albeit briefly).

It works out to be the same on either eBay or the main store because I haven't updated my prices/shipping on eBay yet but you get non-tax rates for outside EU customers if you go to the main store. It balances as a result..


Also just to tackle the question of the "second waste tube" on the PX/TX/Artisan 700 to 837 series of printers...

The other tube is actually secondary to the main waste tube and experience has indicated that it only comes into use if the primary tube is blocked or there's considerably restricted flow (as one copycat kit in particular has with it's 1/32" ID tubing!).. Some experimentation and reports from curious users, indicates it's likely to be an overflow.

The other reason I do not provide a double tube type kit is because the secondary tube is very difficult to get to and as a result, connecting anything to it is very tricky.

My standing advice to avoid any potential spills (and the frustration of trying to fit a secondary tube) is to fit the standard tube part and kit, then place the printer on a lipped tray (the sort you might use for TV dinners) with some newspaper or similar to absorb spills, if any. That way you have a belt and braces safety measure just in case.

To expand on this a little more than what I sent in my eBay message to jnug... My guess is that Epson have noted that waste pads can clog up where the waste tube ends and this can cause ink to back up into the tube and soil the underside of the printhead (happens quite a lot with some printers). So, to avoid that becoming an issue they've got this overflow that dumps the ink into the pads from another route if the primary becomes clogged.

It's slightly ironic that the 700/800 series of printers are reknowned for a number of other problems due to the CIS design they chose (yep they have an internal CIS with piddly reservoirs - ie: cartridges). That's another story though and one I'm going to be tackling in due course with a video guide on resolving the oft reported air clog from hell...

 

[jnug]

While I realize that epson like any other printer maker is trying to control cost to remain price competitive, I find the whole idea of dumping fairly large quantities of ink into nothing more than sponge pads and then calling the printer DOA when the pads are finally saturated pretty tough to swallow for us lowly consumers out here. Frankly if I have my way, I will not have more than one or two head cleaning ink dumps go into those pads before my waste tank is here and installed.

I do think that in the main, consumers have no idea that there is this bobby trap just waiting there to undo them. I am sure there are many that have their printers set up right near or over carpeting and or other surfaces that are going to respond pretty badly to an ink bath and yet all there is between them and said ink bath is these little sponge pads. How many people really come to sites like this to learn what is really going on inside their printers? I would guess very few. Further to the point I would guess very few people know how the darned things actually work. They point the curser at the OK button to print, the printer makes some whirring noises, gears gear and wheels turn and out comes the paper. That is for the most part what they know and what they want to know.

While I like the waste tank idea because I am just not comfortable with a tube that just aims the waste ink into sponge pads, looking at the pad assembly at least of the epson artisan series, it would be so easy for epson to just make the pad assembly available as a user repair item so that once the pads were dead, the user could just replace the pads on the assembly or better yet just replace the whole darned assembly which does not appear hard to do at all. Like I said I think the waste tank is still a much better idea. I actually think that even with the cost of ink if I had to choose between a waste tank and refill carts I would likely take the waste tank since the pad deal holds within it the capability of killing your printer and maybe taking some other things along with it. Clearly refill carts are so economical that you can do both easily and don't have to choose.

The only real thing you have to concede in the epson Claria ink thing appears to be the incredible longevity of actual Claria ink...something like 85 years is the spec I think and nobody can come close to that spec. Nobody seems to get closer than 25% or so of the Claria spec....an amazing accomplishment for Epson. To be honest though I cannot help but wonder how much of that spec is Epson using an actuarial table to figure out their risk for someone actually holding them to the 85 year spec and ending up with a class action suit on their hands. Wouldn't be the first time that a company based its marketing strategy on an actuarial table...heck it is the heart and soul of the insurance business though it might be a first for the printer business.

 

[3dogs]

I was looking at an Epson R3880 yesterday, the fella demonstrating it got all coy and on edge when I asked about waste ink handling.....seemed a tad confused, but pulled out a small drawer on the Right hand side front case and in it was a fairly large white sponge. He said it was replaceable for $20, but went all vague when I asked about resetting
Anyone have an answer on that for me please?

Cheers,

Andrew

 

[websnail]

I was looking at an Epson R3880 yesterday, the fella demonstrating it got all coy and on edge when I asked about waste ink handling.....seemed a tad confused, but pulled out a small drawer on the Right hand side front case and in it was a fairly large white sponge. He said it was replaceable for $20, but went all vague when I asked about resetting
Anyone have an answer on that for me please?

Hi Andrew,

The R3880 is one of the printers that falls into the "Maintenance cartridge" vein where there's a replaceable consumable part with a chip on it.. The chip tracks usage in the same way that the internal waste ink counter works on most Epson other desktop printers so when you replace the cartridge with a new one you get a new chip.

There are, I believe, chip resetters out there for some models of Epson Pro printers and it's something I'm looking into for the future but I don't have anything definitive as yet...

Ref: http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/read.asp?forum=1003&message=40501825

 

[jtoolman]

I recently bought a set of Refillable 80 ml carts for the 3800 with the new allways full chip ( Have yet to test them as I am still at 60% on my OEM carts ) The chip rides and contacts the original OEM chip. With it came a replacement Maintenance Tank chip that also supposedly stays at Empty all the time. Good and bad. You have to really be vigilant with your ink usage and the waste ink production. But, theoretically you can pop off the top of the waste ink tank and clean and dry the sponge and when dry, reuse the cart as the chip never goes to full.