problems with after-market ink, Photo 1400

[mike1127]

I have an Epson Photo 1400 wide-format printer, and the ink was getting to be expensive (I'm a student now) so I tried getting some remanufactured cartridges from Amazon. I got the "Green" brand 2-pack of black cartridges.

Well, something went wrong. The Green cartridge worked at first, but when I put the second one in, after a few successful pages, the printer read it as bad. (The printer status window, where it was supposed to show the level of the black ink, just showed a grayed-out area.) Then I removed that one and put in a cartridge I got from InkNovaUSA.com. That one printed blank pages. When I cleaned the print head, it looked okay for about six pages, and then started skipping. Two more head cleanings later (and draining an alarming portion of all colors doing that) it still was skipping like crazy.

So at this point I don't know if I messed up the printer permanently, or if it will function if I go back to manufacturer ink. I'm not sure I WANT to go back to manufacturer ink; maybe I should get a more economical printer instead (according to Amazon reviews, the Photo 1400 is an expensive printer to operate).

I would like to get a couple questions answered here:

1. Anyone have a clue whether I might have actually damaged the printer?

2. Anyone have a suggestion how to find a remanufactured cartridge that works correctly? What about getting the manufacturer's cartridges refilled at Frys? (a recent service they added)

3. Anyone have a suggestion for a more economical printer? Note: I use it to print sheet music (only rarely for photos). It doesn't need to be particularly fast or high-quality, but I don't want the slowest printer in existence. A compromise between speed, cost, and cost of ink is what I'm looking for.

Thanks,
Mike

 

[jtoolman]

The carts you been putting in are simply crappy and they probably have lousy ink flow.
Buy yourself some good quality refillable carts and a refill kit using Image Specialists inks.
Besides OEM which you clearly do not want to use, this is the best way to go.

You probably have a lot of air in the system due to the crappy carts unless you really mistreated the printer, the head should be OK.

Precision Colors
Inkjetcarts.us

Are good sources if you live in the USA.

Joe

 

[fotofreek]

To follow up on jtoolman's good advice, Mike and Precision Colors can also tell you if the Epson 1400 original cartridges are suitable for refilling. Otheirwise, Jtoolman's suggestion for a source of refillable carts or Mike's advice on the same would be the way to go. Prefilled carts are often poor quality. Fortuantely, Epson printheads aren't as subject to damage from poorly flowing carts. As Jtooman wrote, however, you can get air trapped in the printhead, and it wont print properly until the air is cleared out.

Refilling is the best way to go short of original manufacturer's carts. Refilling will be so much cheaper than going to a refilling service such as Frys. Actually, if you only need to print black the best is a mono black laser printer. No concererns about frequency of use, cartridges that don't feed well, etc. If you don't want to invest in another printer, however, do consider refilling.

 

[mike1127]

Thanks everyone. I forgot to mention another problem I'm having, which is a problem feeding paper. Sometimes the printer runs through a page without printing on it, and then stops with the "out of paper" light. This happens constantly if there is a lot of paper in the feed area, so I have taken to loading about five or six sheets at a time maximum. But this really isn't going to work, because I can no longer do a large unattended print job. And forget trying to do a double-sided print job--- normally I would do a double-sided job by printing all the even sheets, then flipping the paper over and printing the odd sheets, but the problem is that after I flip the paper, if the printer decides to skip a page then the numbering is thrown off.

So I need to fix this feed problem or else get a new printer. Any advice?

 

[mikling]

Take a look at the feed tray and bring out a vacuum cleaner. Remove as much dust as possible from that area. Take a damp cloth and gently wipe off the exposed sides as well.
Now take a look at the right hand side and you 'll notice two rubber wheels. One is not really a wheel but from what you can see, it is round. Wipe off that surface as best you can with a grease free damp cloth. Right below that is a rubber wheel that contacts the larger upper wheel. What you will do is wipe that wheel by depressing it gently and then you're able to rotate it.
Quite often older printers can have these older parts coated with dust and grime and cause slippage and feed problems.
If you're able to get rubber renew that Xerox service techs have, that might be a better solution. The wipedown is all I have needed so far for a tired R1800 that suffers from this time to time.
When not using the printer, close the top cover of the feed to prevent dust from entering if you live in a dusty environment.