P600 Persistant Clogging

[Greatwhitewing]

Using precision color inks with their carts. I run Qimage full page pruge print every two days and still get clogging even in humid summer months, seems worse in winter.

Current problem is large area of the nozzle check pattern accross most of the upper half of all colors.
Two nights in a row cleaned heads 12 hours in a windex soaked paper towel as I learned from the toolman here. No change in nozzle pattern. I think I ran a cleaning cycle after each night.

Currently out of windex or I would have tried again.

I can post a pic of the nozzle check but the colors are so light it's hard to see.

Any ideas or advice what to try? Someone mentioned to check the capping station but besides viaual inspection I have really no idea what check.

 

[mikling]

Post a nozzle check. Show pictures of the setup.

 

[Greatwhitewing]

First image is before I ran an initial purge routine (WIC). The second image is after.

First image also has the results of qimage purge print which is also printed on backside of all printouts

 

[mikling]

You have a mechanical problem of some sort that is affecting all channels. This is not an ink problem at all.

Before we start, remove each one of the tanks and verify two things on each. 1. the vent plug on each tank is removed. Not the refill plug. 2. That each tank is primed appropriately. The top left section of the tank from the clear side has ink.
Post picture of each tank.

 

[Greatwhitewing]

It appears the priming emptied a few carts. I was holding off buying more ink till I determined if I am chucking this in the trash. There was before I started this diagnosis.
I need to order inks and reprime before going further. Really loathing putting more money into this lemmon.
I'll reply when I get that done, maybe a week?

 

[mikling]

Once you empty any amount of tanks, you will be penalized by having to reintialize to dump ink.
THE SINGLE MOST IMPORTANT THING in these printers with the remote tanks and tubes is no NEVER lose prime.
Once you do, you are in a deep deep hole. Aftermarket tank chips only EMULATE the signals to ink levels. What NONE do is to physically monitor the actual ink using a binary sensor. On and Off or Go - No Go like in tooling gauges. This prevents mistakes like the one made. If you choose to refill, you are no longer protected by the OEM umbrellas of all kinds of foolproofing of user misdeeds.
The other thing to check is the amount of ink deposited on the left side of the printer. If there is a mountain or clump, this can actually touch the bottom of the printhead and cause you to lose the ink meniscus on the nozzles and then you won't be able to print. Get rid of the buildup.

P. S. The P600 is not a lemon. It is not a P700 either BUT given the simplified technology used in the P600 it performs rather well. Same as the Chevrolet Corvair for that matter. The R3000 was like the original Corvair. The P600 is like the Corvair in its late stages,

 

[Greatwhitewing]

Once you empty any amount of tanks, you will be penalized by having to reintialize to dump ink.
THE SINGLE MOST IMPORTANT THING in these printers with the remote tanks and tubes is no NEVER lose prime.
Once you do, you are in a deep deep hole. Aftermarket tank chips only EMULATE the signals to ink levels. What NONE do is to physically monitor the actual ink using a binary sensor. On and Off or Go - No Go like in tooling gauges. This prevents mistakes like the one made. If you choose to refill, you are no longer protected by the OEM umbrellas of all kinds of foolproofing of user misdeeds.
The other thing to check is the amount of ink deposited on the left side of the printer. If there is a mountain or clump, this can actually touch the bottom of the printhead and cause you to lose the ink meniscus on the nozzles and then you won't be able to print. Get rid of the buildup.

P. S. The P600 is not a lemon. It is not a P700 either BUT given the simplified technology used in the P600 it performs rather well. Same as the Chevrolet Corvair for that matter. The R3000 was like the original Corvair. The P600 is like the Corvair in its late stages,

Yes I am aware of all you said and agree. I made the mistake of emptying tanks to fix the clogging or to eliminate air as an issue. In my experience this printer has been very problematic. I have done what the experts like you and Jose have advised and constantly had issues. If I get two to three months of clog free use it's unusual. Constant maintenance and fussing using half the ink I buy trying to keep it running.

In the process of deciding if I want to invest more time and money with no guarantee of results, still may have a hardware issue, or just trash it, get a cheap page printer and order prints.
Unhappy Epson customer that appreciates your help

 

[websnail]

Looking at the nozzle check I wonder if the capping station* has some physical damage or paper fragments/material that's stopping the thin rubber skirt from forming a proper seal against the underside of the printhead.

If you can get a zoomed in picture of the station that might provide some clues as to why the nozzle check was so poor across all of them.

.. and yes, to anticipate one point, letting a few cartridge run down would explain some of it, but not ALL of the ink colours. Anyway... just a thought.


*the little swimming pools for ants that the printhead sits on when resting/cleaning

 

[Greatwhitewing]

Might be leaky capping station but that doesn't explain, to me at least, why the nozzle check gets worse each time. Best nozzle check I can get is after it sits a day or two almost like gravity supplies some ink but no pumping action to keep it flowing. My wild guess anyway.

 

[websnail]

Might be leaky capping station but that doesn't explain, to me at least, why the nozzle check gets worse each time. Best nozzle check I can get is after it sits a day or two almost like gravity supplies some ink but no pumping action to keep it flowing. My wild guess anyway.

The capping station is the part of the printhead cleaning system that seals around the printhead nozzle area and performs suction/collection of ink through the nozzles. If there's an air gap, leak or some kind of material that's across that then it would reduce the effectiveness of the cleaning action.

As I said it's a thought rather than a sure fire cause... but it's something I've seen in the past where the waste ink system was playing silly beggars and causing what looked like clogs but were actually air bubbles.