Epson WF-7515/WF-7525 maintenance tank: incredibly simple design

[pharmacist]

I just have partial dissection of my Epson WF-7525 in an attempt to see if it is possible to attach an external waste ink bottle for this printer. Just by pure coincidence I unscrewed two screws on the left back side panel near the bottom of the printer and I suddenly fell something falling down to the bottom of the printer. It was a simple rectangular box with sponge/felt material like my Epson Pro 3880 maintenance tank, no chips, just a plastic container holding the waste ink. I actually do not need a waste ink tank, as the tank is built-in by Epson .

When this will get full: replace the sponge material and reset the waste ink counter. It is even simpler to the removable maintenance tank of the 45xx workforce printers and the Epson Pro 38x0 printer.

This is the waste ink tank, having dropped to the bottom of my printer, when unscrewed the two screws holding the side back plate of the printer:

The hole of the printer body underneath the parking caps of the printhead, in which the waste ink tank is seated:

 

[pharmacist]

I just edited my post to include some pictures to show you this very simple desgin to hold the maintenance tank.

 

[bobjoek]

Very interesting post, thanks. I have an Epson Workforce 840 and wonder if this printer also has an easily replaceable maintenance tank. When I have some free time I'll take a look.

Bob

 

[jtoolman]

Do not have 1st hand knowledge about the WF line but I know I can easily replace waste pads on the Artisan line. I wish it was a box or at least a tray one could remove and replace with pharmacist's Workforce WF-7525.

Great discovery!

 

[pharmacist]

This printer is just fantastic and much better and incredibly much faster compared to my previous Canon MX850. Despite the 3-colour CMY photo printing (no photo black, composite black only), the print quality for photo's just fantastic, with proper profiles. Even the blackness of the composite black is incredibly good, both with the original Epson Durabrite as well using OCP/Octopus T0343 pigment ink combination. Actually I like the quality more than the ones from my Canon MX850. Minimum droplet size is 2 pl.

I have modifed a set of Epson T129x cartridges by replacing the small black T1291 refillable with the matte black cartridge for the Epson R3000. Now to make the printer think these cartridges are the larger T130x ones, I have replaced the original chips of the refillables with the ones of a set of cheap aftermarket dye-based T130x cartridges. These T130x chips can be reset with a T128x/T129x resetter.

See this link: http://www.nifty-stuff.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=8079

 

[websnail]

Yep... I can confirm that the newer Epson printers seem to have drop out pad holders but locating the replacements is like pulling teeth (although I did find a supplier after a lot of hair removal).

Epson are keeping schtum about this though and I suspect it's because they've made the change to head off any potential legal action in the future. Still no tools available generally to make it a free reset though.

 

[bobjoek]

Thanks to Pharmacist's discovery, I did locate a maintenance tank on my Workforce 840. A separate message thread was started with detailed removal instructions.

Bob