Cyan Ink

[R.Prints]

Is it just me or is anyone else having problems with their inks recently. Have recently gone through 3 x Brother printers and then went back to Epson and got a WF-7110DTW, the Cyan blocked all the Brothers and has now done the same to the Epson, which is only a month old. All these printers are within the last six months. Thought it might have been the ink so got a new bottle just in case. Getting rather irate and with Christmas looming don't want to miss the rush, but can't keep buying printers every month. Ink was from Xpres and have used them for years, but have noticed that you can't order the ink on line anymore and have to call them?
Ray

[JMugs]

I remember this being raised in the past....so rummaging in the search will throw something up.

[JMugs]

Like this
http://www.dyesubforum.co.uk/vbforum/sh ... cyan+block

[pisquee]

Can't remember which supplier it was, but I found one where the large format refillable printer carts they sold, on the listing for the cyan one it recommended replacing it every 12 months, whilst not saying this for any of the other colours, but no explanation as to why this was.
Not sure if this is just a Sawgrass thing or something inherent with sublimation inks in general, but this isn't a problem we've seen with our InkTec inks, and we just leave the refill carts in the printer, as if they were a permanent part of the printer, certainly not replaced them every year!

[R.Prints]

Have already tried normal carts and still nothing. Have also used a syringe and flushed nozzles through with cleaning fluid, and ink,, still no joy. Got another printer yesterday so here we go again.
Ray

[GoonerGary]

I missed your thread originally, but went through this a few weeks before Christmas and I still haven't managed to get my original two Epson WFs up and running. I originally blamed the magenta, but as of this week it is looking like the cyan.

One Epson went down with banding, even though the nozzle check was perfect, then the back up Epson went at the same time shortly after refilling. I blamed the ink and thought that evaporation in the main bottle had caused a change in consistency, but the ink looked fine..no separation..so still not conclusive. I later found out that my refill carts required a swapping about of the ink and air plugs before priming and installation which I was never told about, so my poor refilling technique could have caused problems.

Purchased a new Epson WF printer, new ink, new carts, The cyan cartridge wouldn't install properly and regularly got cartridge not recognised. Received replacement cyan cart which eventually installed and all seems fine (early days).

So, the bad printer has been going through a thorough cleaning session and guess what? The cyan cleaning cart failed tonight, that's three cyan carts in a week..two different printers!

So on two separate occasions, my two printers both had problems at the same time. It can't be the ink.

My strong suspicion is that the problem could be a driver issue, or a Microsoft update causing the cyan to either not fire correctly. But most likely Epson communicating with the printer and knocking out the replacement carts. Have you ever installed Epson Navi software? Do you have ink alerts or any of the other internet links enabled in the driver software? If so it's too late!

What I have learnt in the process is that many of the head cleaning solutions may not dissolve sub ink enough to work. I have bought pure versions of the main 'secret' ingredients, IPA, Glycol and each of them work differently on each of the four colours. I did test a mixture today which blitzed sub ink better than IPA/ Glycol but still can't get that blooming cyan nozzle check perfect. I'm leaving it overnight and might have an answer.

Another top tip, is to never turn your printer off at the socket without letting it power down correctly, power cuts, accidents or bad habits can cause the printer to malfunction and not park correctly in the seating pad, this can lead to blockages.

I thought having a back up printer working was good practice, but buy an identical printer with carts and leave it in the box until needed. Install custom ICC profile and go. If anyone knows how to block Epson using a hosts file let me know.

[rossdv8]

If you use Brother printers for 'anything' from dye sub to dye transfer, DTG or pigment transfer - Leave the printers turned ON 24/7.

They will start up at annoying times, but will be mostly ready to run most of the time. My Brother printers all suffer from occasional nozzle stoppages, but because they are left to do self maintenance they usually respond to an quick nozzle check and a clean if needed. Often simply printing the nozzle check is enough.

Bear in mind I am often away from my workshop and printers for weeks at a time, but I can usually come back and just print. Oddly though, for my printers I have Magenta pigment stoppages most often. Very rarely an OEM dye ink stoppage and also very rarely a Dye Sub ink stoppage.

Brothers seem to thrive on that built in maintenance cycle, usually between midnight and 1am on my printers.