Epson 7800 clogged print head

[DMP]

Hello Everyone,
I recently purchased a second hand Epson 7800 and have just installed it. The first thing I did was a nozzle check but the printed grid has sections missing indicating a clogged nozzle! I am very new to printing and as a photographer just want to print my own work.

What is the best way to fix this and unblock the sections of the head that are clogged? I think that this is common problem with these types of printers so I would like to be able to learn to fix this myself as I am sure it will not be the last time this will happen! I have not done a nozzle clean as I believe it takes up a huge amount of ink and will not necessarily unblock the clog? I would like to know what the best common practice is when this happens.

Any advice and help is very welcome.

Thank you in advance.

Margate

 

[chevalier]

https://files.support.epson.com/pdf/pro7880/pro7880ug.pdf
Pages 138 is where you should start

If this does not fix it you should seek out someone who can repair the printer professionally. You'll likely destroy the printhead and thus the printer if you try to manually service it yourself.

 

[Stephen Marsh]

It is expected that an unused Epson printer will have a few blocked nozzles in a second hand purchase. The seller should have provided and the buyer should have demanded nozzle check print samples proving that the printer could perform 100%, as well as the printed history report etc.

First, use the printer driver software option to run as many cleans/nozzle checks that you can stomach. If there is no improvement, then you will need to do a power clean. The old x800 models require more manual work to unblock nozzles than the new models. You will need to do this from the front panel controls of the printer and you will have to follow the panel instructions for opening/closing the ink cartridge locking levers through the process. Again do this three or more times until you think that you are wasting your time. With luck the power clean will eventually fix the issue, you may go through some ink which is the price everybody pays to keep their heads firing cleanly.

If after exhaustive rounds of cleans/power cleans you see no improvement, then try some small jobs and see if there is any degradation in actual print quality. Then print another nozzle check pattern from the printer driver software and see if there is any improvement in the pattern. Finally, you may have to enter “service mode” on the printer and perform an SSL Clean. I am wary of mentioning this as this is a last resort option, it should not be used more than a two or three times in the life of a printer’s head (overuse will damage the head). You can do an internet search to find how to do this on your x800 model.

Don’t leave the printer on in standby mode when not in use for extended periods of time, always turn the power off the printer on the front panel so that the heads park and cap so that remain moist, which will reduce blockages and wasted ink when cleaning.

Good luck!


Stephen Marsh

 

[DMP]

Hello Stephen,
Thank you for your reply. I brought the printer from a college and said that I would do a nozzle check prior to taking the printer. When I arrived they gave me a printed nozzle check that was clear and told me it was printed a few hours before. All seemed good so I picked up the printer and left. The people were very nice and I felt a bit embarrassed to do the check as i thought it would look like I did not trust them!

I used to have a 9800 that I paid a fortune for about a year ago. I had the same problem. I googled blocked heads and found a tutorial showing head removal / clean! I followed the tutorial and ended up writing the printer off! I had no idea and thought it would be easy. I then tried to find a repair specialist but to no avail at all! It appears that no one working in the U.K. as a printer repair specialist would touch Epson printers! I also could not find support from Epson for such an old model. I will sell the 9800 on Ebay for an 8th of what I paid for it as spares or repair! A very harsh lesson learned. I did not want to make this mistake again as I do not know what I am doing. I will run the tests you mentioned in your post. Is nozzle cloggs a regular problem or am I just totally unlucky?

Thank you for your help,

Margate

 

[DMP]

Thank you for the manual Chevalier, it is very handy. I will look into the other sections as well as I need to learn a lot more about how these printers work.

Margate

 

[tastar]

Here's a youtube video showing how to clean your print head with Simple Green or Windex. Hopefully it will help.

Tony

 

[DMP]

Hi tastar, that's a great tutorial. I wish I had know that before I took apart my 9800! I have managed to unblock a lot of the nozzles already by following the help above by Stephen. I will track down some Windex now and give it a go. I also checked the other YouTube video's and a couple of them say that Windex works! Problem with these old printers is that when they break down there is basically no support for them! No one in the U.K. who was working with printer repair would touch an Epson, no one! I tried to contact Epson but again no luck! Anyway I have this forum and now YouTube!

Thank you very much for your help : )

Margate

 

[iamtall]

we have a 9900 and the windex trick works, it can get messy tho, so dont forget to clean the machine down afterwards.