Help with Epson Stylus photo 1500W issue, clogged nozzles? It came suddenly out of nowhere.

[olynx]

I'm new to this whole printing thing, but I have been reading different fora and such for 2 days now and I'm quite desperate at this point..
This came really out of nowhere. There are several issues going on at the same time but I want to figure out the most important one: clogged nozzles?

A couple of days ago I was printing out a swatch image from Photoshop to see what colors come out right. In the middle of the printing, it stopped and the printer gave a message "out of ink". All of the ink lights were lit up. I am using CISS with pigment inks from CityinkExpress. So I pressed the reset button as was instructed. This is where this problem started...

I wanted to continue printing out the images I was printing, but they came out faded and striped!
I did the nozzle check. Came out as clogged. So I followed the instruction of cleaning the heads.. I tried this several times but it seemed to get worse. Then I found the "solution" to this problem which is to put a damped paper towel with window cleaner under the print heads. For first tries it seemed to help the clogged problem, but the test pages still came out incomplete. I tried this several times. I let it sit overnight. It got completely clogged again.

This morning I tried the soaking again and it started getting better. But for some reason my Cyan is not showing up at all.

The very top "attempt" was after taking the cartridges out and trying to suck out the air of the Cyan cartridge with a syringe but it didn't make any difference plus the nozzle check came out even worse..

I ordered an unclogging kit from ebay, it should arrive in a couple of days and I hope that will help my problem. But maybe I'm wrong and there's something else going on here? I really hope someone can help me out.

The printer was bought begin this year, it was printing fine before until now.

Thank you for reading.

 

[Ink stained Fingers]

clogged nozzles, different reasons are possible in this case, you did already some of the necessary actions.
I have an assumption here in your case - it's not the nozzles but the inkflow which is somehow restricted.
your nozzle checks show that the missing nozzles change which is an indication for me that there is no solid clog in the nozzles. I experienced some problems in a R265 which is a kind of prepredecessor to the 1500W running with pigment inks. The CISS uses some cartridgelike inserts in the printhead, and these cartridges contain a small and fine wire mesh filter at the outlet. And I have seen that these filters were clogged, with a film of creamy ink smear, probably some residue from the pigment inks impeding the ink flow.
Do you have a separate set of cartridges - refill or 3rd party, with dye inks, which you could insert into the printer and do a cleaning and nozzle check and some printouts? Do you get the same as your prints above ?
Running a cleaner with a separate refill cartridge set is def. a recommended action as well, but this would not necessarily clean the filters. So plese let us know whether you get any progress.

 

[olynx]

clogged nozzles, different reasons are possible in this case, you did already some of the necessary actions.
I have an assumption here in your case - it's not the nozzles but the inkflow which is somehow restricted.
your nozzle checks show that the missing nozzles change which is an indication for me that there is no solid clog in the nozzles. I experienced some problems in a R265 which is a kind of prepredecessor to the 1500W running with pigment inks. The CISS uses some cartridgelike inserts in the printhead, and these cartridges contain a small and fine wire mesh filter at the outlet. And I have seen that these filters were clogged, with a film of creamy ink smear, probably some residue from the pigment inks impeding the ink flow.
Do you have a separate set of cartridges - refill or 3rd party, with dye inks, which you could insert into the printer and do a cleaning and nozzle check and some printouts? Do you get the same as your prints above ?
Running a cleaner with a separate refill cartridge set is def. a recommended action as well, but this would not necessarily clean the filters. So plese let us know whether you get any progress.

I just did a test print with another set of cartridges (that came with the printer, original Epson dye inks) as you suggested and the nozzle check came out same as the very top one on the picture above, BUT Cyan color is finally showing up! Only 2 little stripes. Which means that in my CISS there's a problem with the Cyan cartridge. Should I try another window cleaner paper towel soak? Or should I best wait for the unclogging kit to arrive?

 

[mikling]

Please show us a pic of the whole setup? CISS relative to printer and some details of the kinks and bends on the install. There could be some physical issues. CISS it's great until it isn't. We've all seen this story before.

 

[Ink stained Fingers]

remote diagnosis is not easy in all cases when completely different causes are possible, so we need to either identify the reason or exclude the others by some tests. If the missing nozzles change in the nozzle check then it is most likely not a blockage in the nozzles itself but but somewhere before in the ink flow to the piezo actuators - everywhere from the ink reservoir to the printhead itself. One specific cleaning method may help here once you get your cleaner
https://www.printerknowledge.com/th...n-nozzle-check-a-cure-maybe.11743/#post-99527

 

[olynx]

Here are a couple of pictures. Except imagine the ink cartridges being inserted and without the plastic wrap. It's just a pain in the rear end to remove them and put them back, at this point I'm just afraid to do more damage. The thing is, that it happened out of nowhere, in the middle of a printing job. I didn't make any changes to the set up before that or after. The bends in the tubes are normal without any "breaking" (If you'd like more pictures, really detailed in depth, I can take some, but at this point I'm starting to think the problem lies inside the printer itself).

Yesterday's nozzle checks: after changing it to the genuine epson dye ink cartridges, it looked like it was getting better the longer I waited. The nozzle checks that were printed right after each other are identical. I'm not sure if that makes any difference, like you said that if the pattern changes it means it's most likely not a clog, but the pattern doesn't change when they are done right after each other. It does get slightly better after I wait for example 10 minutes, then there's an extra stripe in the Cyan for example. (I'm not sure if I make myself clear)

Today's nozzle check:

Looks slightly better than yesterday! (still trying it with the original epson cartridges).
But then after when I was taking pictures of the set up ( I pressed the ink changing button so I could move the printhead over to the left side so I could position the CISS as it normally is to take the picture of it) the nozzle checks gotten worse. ( I pressed the ink change button again, to bring the printhead back in place, and every time this happens, the printer does it's own "mini auto printhead cleaning" (correct me if I'm wrong?)). The ink sponge is saturated with ink and foamy? Is this because of the window cleaner? Can this be the problem?

This picture was taken before I pressed the ink change button to bring the printhead in it's good position (note: I gently pushed it back into it's position on the right before I pressed the button, I don't know if that makes any difference)

And this is how the nozzle check came out after this "fake cartridge change". This mini auto head cleaning is making it worse...

Hope it's specific enough. Thank you already for helping me out with this.

 

[Ink stained Fingers]

the first aim should be to get the head clean again with regular or refill cartridges to avoid any additional issues - potential issues - with the CISS I would propose.

 

[olynx]

An in between update:

Should I do the head cleaning that's in the "epson printer utility" or should I repeat the manual process with paper towel? Or should I wait for the kit to arrive?
It seems to be clearing up, but the top part of the nozzle check comes out "dirty" it's like all of the colors have been mixed.

 

[mikling]

The first thing I notice is that the isobaric compartment in the reservoir is higher than the reservoir. When did it get this way? Is this your first reset with the system?
Next question does this system sit inside a room that fluctuates in temperature? The isobaric compartment is a potential clue.
You are also having color issues because you are getting colors not quite what should be there. Did you obtain profiles for this mismatched "pigment" system for a printer that uses dye ink normally.
Your problem initiated when the printer demands a higher than normal printing delivery of ink. The problem may have initiated due to air that had been pulled into the printhead from no use for a long period, and in combination with an ink level in reservoir that is low and reservoir tanks maybe too low. Or it may have come from a too high resistance of ink delivery during the clean cycle. The high resistance can create a vacuum within the CISS at the time the purge unit is pulling and when the purge unit is removed from the printhead, the negative pressure within the CISS caused the ink to recede from the nozzle. It would also be helpful to understand when this foaming occurred exactly because the ink exit system is not supposed to do that. Typically this is indicative of a restricted exit for the purge pump...like Pigment buildup in the tubes. Did you perform a lot of head cleans on this setup or has this setup sat for a long time.
Finally, if a system has been working and suddenly does not work like in your case, this has nothing to do with clogged nozzles. Nothing. Careful what you read online. You would be practicing witch doctor medicine it worked for someone therefore it must be a cure. Same for the head cleaner kit. Stop the soaking with glass cleaner now!. Keep the carts in and perform head cleans and pray that the OEM ink and the prior pigment ink can mix safely and do this until a decent nozzle check returns. If and when it does reconsider the use of the CISS.
I'm not sure a CISS is well suited for your personal needs. When it does not work, you need to perform and understand the system. You may not want to read this but......

 

[olynx]

I only followed the instructions that said to put the reservoir at the same level as the printer. This was all working perfectly fine (well except the very small color difference, but I want to address that issue later as I'd rather solve this problem first). The printer is in my home office, a couple of days it's been very warm, about 34 degrees C. outside, I don't know how warm it was inside though (we don't have AC here.)

This was indeed the first reset with the system. It get this way right after the reset. I was printing out a swatch test page to see what colors are being produced correctly. Which you can see on this picture, it didn't finish printing, but (at this point I'm not sure if it was the case) then the message popped up with out of ink that's when I glanced at the printer and all the lights of the cartridges were on as in out of ink. I reseted the system and tried to print out another test. This is what you can see right under the swatches test. Printed on Epson archival mat paper.

I think this is when I run the cleaning heads cycle that's in the Epson Printer Utility. That didn't seem to help much. I read that it's best not to do more than 4 cleaning cycles after each other at once. So I didn't, they didn't help at all. And as you say, I read some solutions on the internet, on this forum as well. Tried the window cleaner solution because it seemed to be helping a lot of people. (I haven't done this anymore after I've created this thread, I'm just afraid to do more damage.) I noticed the foaming when I switched the printer on I think, I wanted to see what was going on and then I saw that mess of a sponge. Is there a way to clean it up?

The day before I printed this illustration which came out perfect for me. (this is a watercolor painting). But the printer has sat inactive for a couple of weeks prior to that! So how did this happen, shouldn't this print have come out really bad?

When I changed to genuine cartridges with dye ink, the nozzle checks came out the same as they came out with the CISS. There's just so much going on here that I myself don't understand.

What do you mean " a printer that uses dye ink normally" do you mean normally as in that it works fine now with the dye inks or do you mean that this printer is not meant to be used with pigment inks? I'm sorry if these are dumb questions but I'm new to this, I did some research before buying this equipment. A little bit more information might be helpful: I'm an illustrator and I wanted to sell prints of my work, this solution came out for me to be the most profitable. Instead of printing with a company because I can't print only 5 prints... This way I could do prints on demand and use the paper I like. I have more freedom with this. This combination of printer plus CISS seemed for me to be a good deal after doing some research.

This is a comparison of the inks I did. Printed on regular paper.

And another nozzle check:

I'm afraid to do another head cleaning through Epson Printer Utility as it only made things worse.
I'm not going to try the window clear method again. How do you suggest I should clean the head? Or should I just wait again some more and try another nozzle check with the epson cartridges?

EDIT: Forgot to mention, yes there was indeed some air in the tubes but I tried to suck it out with the syringe, like priming the cartridges in the very beginning. But I'm not sure that was a good idea? But as you say, it looks like the air is indeed being sucked into the tubes when I removed the CISS cartridge system from the print head.