Epson's printhead

I’m sure most of you have read somewhere on the internet about Epson printheads becoming clogged. No matter how good they are, they get clogged for no reason and do not unclog by themselves.

 I have study how the Epson system works. There is a tube called a needle that makes a hole through the plastic seal in the bottom of the cartridge when the cartridge is first installed. We show a inside view of the Epson printhead.

 

 

 

 

 

We will explore the problems with refillable cartridges.

Problems with refillable cartridges.

1. There are a variety of different refillable cartridges as we show in the photos. Be careful of cheap refillable cartridges. We show a cartridge with the poppet valve and one that does not have this very important valve. Also important is the micro screen inside the cartridge. A large micro screen is better to filter the ink. Some cheap refillable cartridges do not have a micro screen.  Use should never use old ink when filling the cartridge.

 

Most refillable cartridges work very well so long as they have a poppet valve in the cartridge like the original Epson cartridges. The poppet valve will close and stop ink from leaking out when removing the cartridge for refilling. The problem with pre-filled cartridges is that you never know what type of ink they used to fill them. Buy Beware!

a. After refilling the cartridge it will not print any color. The first thing is to check that you did not plug both holes on top of the cartridge. The air hole must always be left open when using the cartridge.

b. The cartridge prints then stops. If this is the first time you refilled the cartridges did you prime them? If you did not then this may be the problem. Prime the cartridge again. Remember never do more then three cleaning at a time.

c. The cartridge leaks after refilling. Check that the poppet valve is not stuck open. Push the tip of our refill tip up inside the poppet valve.  If you used a steel needle to fill the cartridge check to see if there is any ink leaking from the cartridge's inner bag. Never put a leaking cartridge in the printer. 

If the cartridge is filled correctly you should have no problems.

 

 

 

The refillable cartridge to the left is the best to use.

 

We use this style of cartridge because it has no sponge. Our cartridges have the poppet valve and a micro screen.

We use an extra fine micro screen to protect the printhead.

 

We do not use a needle to fill the cartridge. Needles can cause too many fine air bubbles if injected to fast into the cartridge. Our kits supply a special rubber tip that help remove air bubbles when refilling the cartridge. Low foaming ink is very important for the Epson printhead.

When removing our cartridges for refilling the ink will not leak out because of the poppet valve.

 

 

 
 

You should never use a sharp or blunt steel needle when refilling any of these cartridges. There is a liner that could be punctured and air may be drawn into the printhead or slowly leak out into the printer.

We have tested many of the Chinese's cartridges and have found out that most of them are poor quality and also have chip problems. We test our refillable cartridges before selling them.

 

 

We will explore the problems with Chinese CIS systems.

Our company started to build ink systems over twelve years ago and invented the first Canon and HP systems for use in the home or small business.

We show the popular ink bottles in the Chinese CIS systems.

A. This type of bottles has a balance chamber on top that extends two inches into the top of the bottle. There is a very small hole in this balance chamber where the customer put an air filter. If this hole or the air filter gets plug it will cut off the ink to the system. Ink leaking from the bottom of the bottles has been reported by many people.

B & D. This type of bottles do not have a balance chamber and can cause the ink to be draw back to the bottles causing excessive cleaning because air in drawn into the printhead if the system sits idle.

C. This type of bottle has a balance chamber that goes from the top of the bottle to very close to the bottom of the bottles and also uses an external air filter. If ink fills up the balance chamber it can stop ink flow to the cartridges. These bottles can also leak ink after time.

 

Auto Refill System is our trade mark.

Our ink bottles can be installed on a printer and shipped with no harm to the printer or ink leaking out.

These bottles are special for our Epson Auto Refill Systems. They are frosted to protect the ink.

Clear ink bottles can affect ink if the ink is allowed to sit for to long of a time. If ink is exposed to light or just sitting in a bottle for a long time the ink will react. Ink can slowly thicken or the color may change. The biocide or fungicides in the ink will break down.  Over the last 12 years we have test many bottles to use in the inking systems and found that this design is the best. 

 
 

Most Chinese CIS systems use the same cartridge as the refillable cartridge. They use  this style cartridge because it is cheaper. If used in a system it can cause ink draw back  requiring the customer to do cleanings. This is a waste of time and ink. The chip used with this type of cartridge requires you remove the cartridge to reset the ink level. Most of the time you have to do cleaning to get a good nozzle.

We use a special cartridge and chip assembly in our Auto Refill Systems. The ink chamber is small and will deliver ink to the printhead with constant pressure so there is no ink draw back. The chips are one piece and can reset the ink levels back to full. There is no need to remove the cartridges because there is a reset switch on the chip assembly that will override the printer's firmware. You can also piggy back an Epson cartridge to override the printers firmware.

The hose was designed for constant bending if needed and will not crack or separate .

 

Printing Problems

The printer has not been use for a short time. Two or three weeks

1. This is common when the Epson printer is not used for a short time. It is important that you see some ink when you do a nozzle check and especial after doing three cleaning. The nozzle check does not have to be perfect but there should be some ink in the color test grid.

a. Do up to three cleanings. Test the nozzles after each cleaning and there should be a change in the nozzle test. If you clean more then three times the nozzles might get worse, this is normal.

b. Let the printer sit for a few hours or over night. This will fix the problem most of the time.

c. Should you still have some missing spaces then use a cleaning solution to flush out the nozzles. 

We sell a nozzle blaster kit that comes with a cartridge that you fill with printhead cleaning solution. You install the cartridge into the printer then attach our special pressure check valve and by applying some pressure into the cartridge with a syringe provided you let the printer sit for awhile. With a build up of pressure inside the cartridge it will slowly break through the dried ink, freeing up the printhead. Under the printhead we install some blotter material that will soak up the printhead cleaner and help dissolve the ink on the out side of the printhead.  With this method we have been very successful un-clogging the Epson printhead.

 

Failed Printhead

1. Some or no colors show on the nozzle check.

a. After doing many cleaning sessions there is still no color at all when you do a nozzle check. At this point you probably have used up a set or two of cartridges.

b. You even try some printhead cleaning chemicals and still no luck. Our Epson R1800 printer was printing perfectly one day and then the next day one color would not print. We tried new cartridges, many cleanings and our nozzle blaster and nothing would work. It seams that the printhead just fail for no reason.

Printheads can fail because of these reasons:

1. If air gets into the printerhead it can cause serous problems and may damage the printhead.

2. Foreign partials inside the printhead.

3. Power failure in the printhead.

4. Printhead nozzles completely clogged or the micro screens below the needles are completely clogged. If this happens then the printhead is destroyed. 
 We have supplied some tips on how to un-clog the nozzles of the printhead and needles.

 

After doing a nozzle check there is no color in one or more of the nozzle patterns. At this point you may not be able to correct the problem.

If you see broken lines do a cleaning. If that shows improvement then do two more cleanings if needed. If there is no improvement then one or more nozzles are clog.

You should never let the printer sit without cartridges in the printer. This will keep the needles from drying out.

 

 

In the photo to the left we show the needles close-up. Look at the photo and you will see there are very tiny holes on top of the point of the needle. These holes can become clogged with dried ink.

 We make a special chemical

 Our nozzle blaster kit includes all the parts and pieces needed. Our instructions are step by step color photo instructions.

 

 

The best way to dissolve this dried ink is to make a tool with a syringe and a piece of tubing. It is very important the hose fit tight over the needle and never push down to hard.

Fill the syringe with some Windex and place the hose over the needle and push down and then pull up. Let it sit for awhile, then do the same thing again. You should see some ink being pulled back into the syringe. Follow the next step below. 

 

Install a set of cartridges.

The printer has a waste sponge that is used when you do a cleaning. The ink is drawn down and pumped into a waste pad in the printer.

 

Fill this sponge with some Windex and then do a cleaning. Run the nozzle check and see if this helped. You can fill this sponge up a few more time to help clean the bottom of the printhead.

 

 

We make a special chemical and a special tool that includes a cartridge. By installing this in the printer it will apply a light pressure over time cleaning the needles and the internal printhead parts. Our nozzle blaster kit includes all the parts and pieces needed. Our instructions are step by step color photo instructions.

 

We remover the printhead and shined a light through the printhead showing the clogged nozzles. As you call see there are many nozzles that are clogged on this printhead.

There is a very poor chance that all the nozzles will be able to be opened up. This can happen when a printer is not used for a very long time.

 

Even if the nozzles are not perfect, you can sometimes over come this by setting the paper to best glossy photo paper and set to print best photo. This can work for text and photos.

 

 

 

 

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