R2000, foam in print head rest, possible waste ink problem

[racing_green]

I have R2000 for 5+ years, use Marrutt refillable cartridges - the ones with blue cradle and Marrutt ink. I got the blue cradle cartridges recently - the older ones (Marrutt as well) were showing some problems. I couldn't get the check pattern fully filled, so I decided to use magic bullet (probably the same thing as windex). First, on pad under print head, later 2 ccm gently pumped through the cyan and photo black nozzles. Now I have problem with foam showing up in the print head pad sponges and drops (puddles ) of ink on the paper. Also when I was printing cyan-black pattern to clean the print head printer asked for magenta ink. After resetting the magenta ink I lost priming on photo black and cyan - see attached photo. I didn't touch cyan and photo black during that operation! Link to video showing the bubbling problem|: https://peertube.social/videos/watch/12a3805e-1550-414f-a4f0-c08dfdfc5d8d

My guess, after doing my homework: problems with waste ink system. Can someone help me to verify it before I grab screwdriver? Any advice wlll be appreciated!

The printer in _not_ equipped with waste ink system - should I buy one?

 

[Ink stained Fingers]

I think there is a problem with the cleaning unit - the pump tries to suck the ink from the pads but there is some blockage in one of the ink tubes from the pump to the waste ink pads so that pressure is building up and releases backwards as soon as the pump stops working. Access to the pump, to its underside and to the tubes is difficult. I would not take other steps like an external waste ink reservoir until this problem is fixed. I hope that some other member can help out with some instructions to fix it.

 

[racing_green]

Thank you! i have service manual (average quality, to be honest), so I'll try to get to the tubes from the front. I managed to get my hand "under the bonnet" in the tubes area and it came back with plenty of ink - you might be right about the blockage and probably there is a side leak. i'll post more as soon as I remove the front panel.

 

[racing_green]

I have much better access now - everything from the top removed. Should I try some syringe operation? All photos from the same side.

 

[racing_green]

After removing the bottom gray tube I could suck water from the pad and generate foam as well. So that part doesn't have blockage. Possibly blockage on the other side wherever the tube goes.

Edit: the other side (pad-pump-external access point-"other side") is blocked. I tried underpressure-overpressure, but no change.

 

[Ink stained Fingers]

Possibly blockage on the other side wherever the tube goes.

I'm not that familiar with all technical details here but I have seen it before on other printers - with low usage - that the tubing to the waste ink pads from the pump was blocked with dried ink - in the range where the tube does not have any slope anymore and residual ink just sits in it.

 

[racing_green]

I managed to push in 20 cm (8 inches) of flexible copper wire inside. Still no change,

Edit: where the tube normally goes? Straight into the waste ink pads?

 

[racing_green]

30 cm of the wire pushed in and whatever was there yelded! I hope it was blockage not some fancy check valve

 

[racing_green]

Ink stained Fingers, thank you very much! Problem solved! :-D

 

[Ink stained Fingers]

30 cm of the wire pushed in

that's quite a distance indeed and enough volume for waste ink to dry up slowly in such a tubing; I remember seeing an explosion drawing of this or a similar printer that one of the tubes goes to the left side of the printer and there into a waste ink pad, so that could explain the 30cm distance. Thanks for your feedback , it should be easy now to divert those tubes into an external waste ink reservoir/bottle/container which should prevent that block happening again. But now you are missing something - the view of the cleaning unit bathing in pigment ink foam ......that video clip is impressive