Epson Flushing Routine.

[NikGrey]

So, picture the scene:

I have my new (prob ten year old) Epson Pro 4000 - I have a new set of Dampers for it (Sitting in my office) and a new set of 300ml refillable carts (in the printer, because I could).

I am saving for an Ink set (8x colours - can I use less?).. so, I don't want the head to become clogged so I am looking for flushing solution !

Been quoted 3x times what THIS listing is offering (admittedly the quote in question is for 1 Liter of the stuff and not 500ml) BUT.. The listing says that this solution is NOT COMPATIBLE with Pigment inks ? Why ?? Surely this will just flush out the pipes and head !

Q1: WHY is this listing saying that I should not use this product?

Also,

I want to flush all 8X lines - How much would I need to put into each cart?

Or better yet, can I fill up just ONE cart and place it in each channel and do it 'One By One' (I'm thinking the printer will not allow me to do that) ?

Q2: Can I use 500ml to flush all 8 channels?


A couple of questions there people but I know you are more than capable of answering

[pisquee]

A one litre bottle would be good to get for the initial flushing, but also any future cleaning you need to do. We always have a bottle on hand for when needed.
I would divide the cleaning solution equally into the 8 carts, and use the INIT FILL service menu option to flush all the current inks away, and refill with the printer cleaner. Then whatever is remaining in the carts syringe/pour back out, or get another set of carts and keep these as your cleaning carts.

The compatibility thing is most likely that it isn't good enough to clear pigment ink, which, like sublimation ink are essentially a powder suspended in liquid and dye based ink is a liquid in that the solid dyes are dissolved into the liquid.

I'd be asking your potential future ink supplier if they also carry a printer cleaning/flush solution.

[GoonerGary]

As said above, the solution needs to dissolve ink and pigment inks are trickier to dissolve. I doubt the software will allow you to do one at a time, sometimes it's clean black heads only.

This stuff does everything, plus the manufacturer develops top quality sub ink. At least it is a brand new ink formulae and not decades old!

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/InkTec-Profes ... 43cbf1223b

[socialgiraffe]

plus the manufacturer develops top quality sub ink

I agree, but blooming difficult to get any of if you want small amounts for testing though

[GoonerGary]

Try charming the seller, send him roses or something.

[Andrew]

On the earlier 4000 models you had the choice of running dual cmyk instead of 8 colour.

Are the heads blocked currently or do you not have ink to check? I know others will say this is wrong (and correctly so), but if all heads fired well on oem ink we used to just fill up the refillables and run it through until the colours change and do the odd test print. Done it on about 7or 8 4//9000 models with ease. Flushing is the safer option if you prefer by the book.

[NikGrey]

Andrew, in the 4K 'Field Repair Guide' it states in the maintenance Menu there should be an option to switch colour options, from 8 to 4 colours but I dont seem to have that option in my own menu system and it has the latest firmware.

My first thought was to take the ink out of the OEM carts and do what you suggest but I dont want to contaminate my new carts - I may do that though soon.

One of my new refillable carts has a bad chip (was messing last night with it) so waiting for another to come from HK - I do of course have chips here already from the original carts so I could of course use One of those.. hmm.

The heads were not blocked before all of this.

I am not keen on installing my new dampers until I have my new ink.

Strangely enough, last night when I was testing I put the original 'LM' in (as thats the One which is bad with the new refillable ones) and the machine did an initial charge of that colour BUT no ink flowed though the pipe ? I'm putting that down to a bad Damper ??

[pisquee]

Yes, if the ink is not flowing in one channel, I would try swapping out the damper, and as you have a full set, you may as well swap out them all.
We've done what Andrew said with just going straight in with the new ink without flushing a few times and not had problems, but this has all been with printers that were still in use as normal printers until we changed them over. We had one printer which had cheap Chinese unbranded pigment ink in it that we did flush through first though!
I can't remember the Ebay advert for your printer, but I think I remember it had been sat for a while, or was having a problem printing on one channel - and this would incline me to flush it through.
As far as being able to set it to run dual CMYK, this option was removed from later firmwares quite early on in the printers life span - you'd have to do some digging around Google to try and find advice on which firmware you are looking for and how to downgrade to it.

[JMugs]

Nik....you know you want to flush it....why?...well..
When you flush you will see the ink flowing out and the cleaning fluid going in, very pleasing sight. The pipes will go clear...or not. If one of them fails to clear then you know you have a blockage. So leave it to sit overnight and repeat. It will then flow freely and smoothly when unblocked. This may take a number of attempts if seriously blocked but it will normally clean eventually.
If they all clear in one flush sit back feel smug, grin and have a cuppa.

Nice thing is then you know you have a good datum to work from.

Janners

[pisquee]

If one channel doesn't flow it doesn't necessarily mean that there is blockage, it could be an air leak in a damper or joint somewhere in the system, just like a CISS system on a small printer, as essentially that is what's inside a wide format printer.