Epson Workforce 840 Maintenance Tank

[bobjoek]

Thanks to Pharmacist's discovery of a maintenance tank on a Workforce 7515, I took a close look at my Workforce 840 and discovered that it too has a maintenance tank. This procedure will probably work on Workforce models similar to the 840. Following are the easy steps to remove the tank:

Step 1: Remove the duplexer from the rear.

Step 2: Remove screw from lower right side, toward the rear. This screw retains the cover in the next step.

Step 3: Facing the rear of the printer, remove the cover on the lower left side. Carefully release the circled catches, otherwise they may break.

Step 4: Facing the rear of the printer, remove the circled screw on the left side. This screw retains the maintenance tank.

Step 5: Remove tank by releasing the two buttons near the maintenance tank screw. The picture shows the bottom of the maintenance tank in the printer.

Maintenance tank:

Now that you have the tank out, the question becomes what do you use to replace the absorbent felt, as replacements from Epson are difficult to acquire. Other materials could be cut up baby diapers, paper towels, etc. However, most of these materials may not absorb as much ink as the original felt. So you will need to check the tank more frequently.

Bob

 

[pharmacist]

Fantastic: it even looks the same as the one in my Epson WF-7525. Epson has made these absorption pad much easier compared to the Canon printers, for which the complete printing engine has to be removed to approach the absorption pads.

Now what about the new Canon printers like the Pro-10/Pro-100 and the Pro-1. I hope there is a modular maintenance tank as well.

Now we will need a reset utility.....if possible: free !!!

 

[The Hat]

Ill have a look at my Pro 1 tonight and see if there is any waste tank on the bottom of that.

 

[bobjoek]

I contacted a supplier of Epson printer parts, Compass Micro, about a replacement maintenance tank for my Workforce 840. Their response:
"This part would take 6-8 weeks to get from Epson. They have none in stock, and none on order. Below is the Epson part number, description, and the Epson list price:
1538790 tray, porous pad, ink eject assy. $6.72 special order."

The price is right, but you cannot get it without a long wait.

Bob

 

[pharmacist]

Why should you buy a new one ? replace the absorption material and you're done.

 

[The Hat]

Ill have a look at my Pro 1 tonight and see if there is any waste tank on the bottom of that.

Well as far as the waste ink is concerned Canon are still using the same old way to collect the dumped ink,
you guessed it the bottom tray, ink waste tank WHAT ink tank ?

As this is their first desktop CISS printer you might have taught that they would have come up with something better
and substantial but as far as I can see they havent as there is no opening on the underside of the printer except for the power supply.

I will just have to watch very carefully as to how much ink is going in there and how to get it out later
seeing as the ink monitoring has been disabled

I have an up-date correcting what I said above in post #10

 

[Fenrir Enterprises]

You want super-absorbent pads mostly used in automotive and industrial industries for emergency spill retention and cleanup. You will want to make sure you get the ones for water based and not oil based. Cut a stack of them to fit the waste container. Something like this:

http://www.newpig.com/pig/US/absorbents-503/pig-universal-absorbent-mats-504

We get their catalogs at work all the time so it was the first thing that came to mind. I've heard you can get them at some automotive supply stores too. Just remember to read what it's designed to absorb!

 

[mikling]

Well.... The average user will take the printer in for service to Epson. In the past, the technician would actually have to perform lots of disassembly and the service cost is high. With these newer modular parts, they can quote more reasonable costs and the customer would then proceed with the service rather than dump the printer.

The other aspect that has gone unnoticed is that printers are getting more compact and there is actually less room internally to put a fair sized waste absorber. The ramification is that it is entirely possible to have users use up the waste ink pad within the warranty period. This will reduce warranty cost to Epson.

If you've followed the design of the printers you'll see some evolution in the thought of the ink pad.

The R200 had an accessible waste tube. There was actually a door/hatch for it, reachable with the removal of a screw.
Its successor, the R260 appeared with a tank sizeable actually and not just a pad. This goes back perhaps 5 years. The design had the waste ink entering the tank from the bottom. As the years went by, long term users saw the error in this design. As the waste ink built up inside the tank, there was some restriction to the outlet and this caused problems to cleaning cycles.
The R280 did away with the tank idea and we saw the hatch door reappear just like the R200. The hatch remains today in the Artisan 50.
Then we started seeing even workforce Walmart special models with door hatches on the rear....surprising actually.
The Artisan 700 series and siblings have easily accessed waste ink pads ( 2 screws) with limited capacity, due to the compact size. Easily replaced or serviced.
Now here we have a properly designed waste ink tank that delivers ink from the top to fall to the bottom to accumulate....The buildup of ink inside the tank will not restrict any pump functions. Hmmm... just like external waste ink tanks..should be.

Let's not forget why attention has been paid by Epson to "waste" ink tanks. The design of their printhead just needs to waste more ink over time and there is no way around that as compared to a Canon printhead. That is why more attention is paid to this function in their printers as compared to a Canon.

These are my thoughts.

 

[websnail]

If I'm honest I think it has very little to do with warranty replacement as most service centres (the ones customers phone me and complain about) simply reset and ignore the pads (even in the PX700/Artisan/TX... etc... types). Theorising slightly I suspect some of this is simply down to the appalling lack of supply stock with 6 weeks very much the norm' for replacement parts, although there's plenty of plain taking the p*ss too.

My educated guess, based on what we've seen in the North America and IPR utilities, is that this is a shrewd move to pre-empt any class-action regarding the minimal pad capacity in the newer printers. If things get a bit too heated legally, they can pull out their pre-placed rabbit from the hat and release new IPR utilities. But until someone forces them to, they're going to keep the old game of "Buy a new one" going as the only game in town to make them money.


All of that aside though, it's worth noting that Epson are the only manufacturer to have any means of resetting at all. Every other manufacturer is a closed book, with Canon most definitely not designing for re-use or maintenance (warranty or otherwise). Granted though, Epson printers waste considerably more ink compared to the others anyway so it's somewhat moot, as you've said Mike.

Will be interesting to see what, if any, changes come about if/when someone turns up the heat...

 

[The Hat]

Ill have a look at my Pro 1 tonight and see if there is any waste tank on the bottom of that.

I was moving my Pro 1 to a better location yesterday and being curious
I decided to pop off the right side-cover and have a good look around inside it.

So I can now say that there is in fact a waste tank below the print head parking station.

Its tucked in and very well hidden so much so I couldnt get it to budge so I left for now,
but in time if there is any warning of impending disaster looming Ill know what needs to be done. (Hopefully)