how to diagnose true clogs vs air bubbles using nozzle check

[mikling]

Here's a real world example of nozzle check after 2 weeks of use in 20-25% relative humidity in a P600.
View attachment 4937

#1, it the first nozzle check after two weeks. Throughout 2016, I never had to a bad nozzle check off the P600 even with 4-6 weeks of no use. This winter the 20-25% humidity is causing some issues. Notice the pattern and the type of distortion that dried ink is causing.....deflected and crooked steps. Non alignment of steps.
#2. One head cleaning, and it is good. Printed off at least 20 pages.
#3. Two days later. A small missing gap in Cyan. Forward,
#4. Cyan is cleared but the Magenta now has a gap.
#5. Look carefully and this is where you need to look PRECISELY the position of the gap verus #4. It is not the same nozzle. Measure it.
#6. Good again.

With Epsons, you need to have faith that your printhead is not a goner. You need to read the EXACT positions of gaps. Just looking at it casually is not good enough.

My other brother/sister/LGBT ( for equality) to this machine the R3000. Was worse in this low humidity.....in a totally different color. The R3000 is a lot more work relative to the P600 which is substantially more stable. OTOH, my R2880 performed perfectly needing only one head cleaning. Which is not bad for an Epson. The Pro3880 was perfect not one head cleaning was required. - The 3880 and 3800 have always been good performers because of their pressurized ink system. The R3000 needs a lot of babying compared to a P600...I saw this throughout the year.

The Canon Pro9500, Pro-10, Pro-1, and Pro-100 nozzle checks were all perfect requiring no head cleaning whatsoever. A reminder that if you print sporadically and if you've lost Epsons due to clogging from no use, the Canon alternative should be given serious thought. Night and day in terms of turning the machine on and being able to confidently finish a print.

 

[mikling]

Here is the R3000. To fit onto the scanner I eliminated 2 nozzle checks just after #2. So here's where you know that it is air and you just do not give up. 7 head cleanings to remove and restore the MK channel in this case. On the previous P600, it is using the identical MK ink and it was perfect. So there are random events which can cause air to develop over time. However, Cyan and Magenta are generally at the top of the list because of their high solid loading in the pigment ink. Lighter colors are more stable in this respect.

 

[ice-t]

Hi, Ink stained Fingers,

what size of tube do i need to flush the printhead? i got several sizes from a friend, but they are or too wide or not wide enough..
since changing cartridges in my Epson 1500w 3 weeks ago, my cyan doenst print anymore, had a very weird looking photo.. did in the last 2 weeks several head cleanings
started with a nozzle test, next a head cleaning , and all the nozzles were perfect exept the cyan that didnt print at all, next more head cleanings.. no result, next step was to go to my pharmacist to let her make the "Pharmacist" headcleaning solution (she dint had ammonia), so after the paper towel trick, no result, did a few more nozle checks the next week ..after the perfect one and see more nozzles got blocked even the whole black channel..
this week i added 2.4ml 25% ammonia ( on a 200ml bottle)
after doing the papertowel cleaning (several hours) a lot more ink was in the papertowel,
did a purge pattern and magic i saw the cyan..but wheni did a photo, still very weird looking photo..next a nozzle check and no cyan!!
since my new inkcartridges are inkthrift conecolour i could open the cartridges, i saw that the inklevel was very low with the yellow ,so i opend the cyan , let it rest for a while and the cyan that doesnt seems to print was also very low!!
so, lost 70 % of my ink printing 7 13x18 cm photo's and the head cleans ( original inklevel is at 50% of the cartridge, i have a second set of them)
would it be possible that i got old ink or so?? since conecolour doesnt sell to Falter anymore or is epson software blocking the cyan channel??
tryed to flush the cyan with a tube that i could fit on the nozzle but i couldnt fit a syringe to the tube , so i got a needle and put some solution in the tube..nothing went trough the printhead since i saw noting on the white papertowel
my last purging patterns were worse no more cyan and lots of lines in other colours , probably after removing all the cartrifdges to soak some spilled cleaning fluid with ear...cottons.

so..expensive cheaper ink ..till now..and a lot of problems

 

[Ink stained Fingers]

overall , based on some experience with some dye and pigment inks on a few printers from the old R200 to the still old Pro 7600 up to the L300/800 I'm getting more and more the opinion that a particular ink, the age or else , was/is the reason for clogs just in rare cases - it''s much more problems with the ink flow, air , bad fitting cartridges, blocked purge units etc causing problems which just appear to be clogs. So a push/pull cleaning action is about the last action I would do on a printhead. And I would use any more aggressive agents like ammonia only in cases I'm pretty sure I would need that. Just as an example for the complexity of the subject - you have very fine wire mesch filters in various printheads, directly in the printhead, Brother , Epson, those filters accumulate thicker ink substances over time and slowly restrict ink flow, without good chance of direct access to those spots for you . It may need a stronger solvent to help in such situations, or trying to pull back that ink gel drop.
I just looked to the little tool I'm using for that purpose, a 10ml syringe with a piece of PVC tube, about 2 inches long, outer diameter 4.5mm, inner diameter about 3.5mm. I got such tube from an aquarium supply store, I placed one end of the tube for a few seconds into 60C hot water to soften the PVC and pushed it over the syringe outlet for a tight fit. Epson was/is using different types of ink pickups in the cartridge carriers, either a coned fiber bundle or a hollow plastic rod with a coned top with a few small holes for the ink flow out of the cartridges, and the PVC tube just fits quite tightly over these rods. I'm using this technique not so often, more like a last resort if nothing else works out anymore.

 

[ice-t]

@Ink stained Fingers,
thanks for the reply,
i never tought to put the small tube in hot water so i could insert the syringe
i posted some foto's on my flickr channel
https://www.flickr.com/photos/109194557@N03/
Thanks for helping

 

[ice-t]

Just this late evening i tryed something.. i re installed my old epson cyan cartridge,
previous i did a head soaking with the papertowel
since i never saw any cyan in printing but looking at my cyan cartridge..it was almost empty,so it worked doing headcleanings
so i must have a kind of airleak with causes no normal prints, but when i do a purging test pattern it sucks a lot more ink and it works
the result is..all my cartridges are at their last legs, light magenta is completly empty
so like it or not i have to use my second set of cartridges and hope i dont have problems with them
27euro's down the drain ...or in this case down the inkpads
grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr
i updated my flickr channel

 

[ice-t]

more trouble, after reinstalling the new cartridges ( new cartridges in the inkjetmall keys..epson says i have no cards installed..pressed the inkdrop 3 times an removed and installed the cartridges 3 times..no result..tss

wrong ..
since i was posting photos on flickr i removed my connection with the printer , thats why the software didnt see any cartridges, now the purgefile works ok but the inklevel still shows 10 % ..
stress..

we have a saying..who does nothing..does nothing wrong ..

 

[martin0reg]

Just a side note: there is no need to print so many purging patterns - the nozzle check tells it all, and better. And the nozzle check has to be perfect, because any missing small step/line indicates a missing nozzle (for whatever reason) and this will result in (more or less) visible stripes when printing.

 

[ice-t]

Just a side note: there is no need to print so many purging patterns - the nozzle check tells it all, and better. And the nozzle check has to be perfect, because any missing small step/line indicates a missing nozzle (for whatever reason) and this will result in (more or less) visible stripes when printing.

Thanks for your answer Martin,
but at that moment the only way to know if my cyanchannel worked was doing a purgefile test, since doing a nozzle check my cyan never showed up
in the meantime i printed the same photo at 2 differnt types of paper ( Epson premium glossy and my new paper PPD pearl satin)
and the photo's are exactly the same, but compared to my print with oem ink the prints look darker and the skintone is more reddish
will try to add the results to my flickr page later today
Thanks

 

[Ink stained Fingers]

compared to my print with oem ink the prints look darker and the skintone is more reddish

yes, that's quite typical, papers and inks - genuine or 3rd party - both have a visible impact how colors are rendered in the printout. You either can go and try to correct/adjust the output to your liking in the driver via the color adjustments or start using specific icm color profiles for this paper/ink combination, the understanding for this starts with color management and can develop into quite a complex subject and should be handled separately from nozzle problems.

Depending on the driver/quality settings you may have the effect that a missing nozzle is covered up by multiple print cycles - the nozzle check should tell you whether all nozzles are actually printing.