Epson 9800 clogged nozzles

[elytahan]

I have an Epson 9800 that is a little more than 3 years old. It worked very well up to a couple of weeks ago. I do not print every day but at least once a week. The print quality went way down, showing tiny banding at high resolutions and the colors are off. i.e. I am getting green instead of deep black ect...When I ran a nozzle check, entire lines were missing in the first 2 or 3 colors. Muliple cleanings and a deep cleaning cycle did nothing to help. Just used a ton of inks and filled my maintenance tanks. On auto cleaning, it tries to clear the nozzles by running a few cycles then comes up with a frustrating cleaning error. How do I stop the bleeding!?
I ran accross the Lyson cleaning cartridges product on the web and thought that I would run a supersonic deep cleaning cycle with those installed instead of my inks as I am dismayed by the amount of ink that is being wasted with no result!!
Any advice or suggestions?
Thank you in advance
Ely

 

[edwinb]

You can turn off the auto nozzel check while the machine is misbehaving.
if your doing lots of cleaning the build up of ink can pool on the head giving lines,
if the blockages stay in the exact same nozzel then its the nozzel, if the blockages move around its probably dirt.
After a power clean I have heard its good to let the machine stand then do standard 2 head cleans to clean off the ink residue

 

[elytahan]

The blockages have stayed in the same place after 2 weeks of trying. Of course, I had to get more maintenance tanks and inks! At this point, I feel it is wasteful to do any more cleaning myself. I contacted a repair facility and will be sending them the printer as soon as I can. They said they will let the head soak with the Epson cleaning fluid...I am crossing my fingers that I won't need a new head at which point (if price of new head is too prohibitive) I may consider selling it as is

 

[Slammer]

please do not use supersonic cleaning, the piezo cyristals in the head use controlled supersonics to operate if you use a Supersonic bath you will have the heads dancing a jitterbug on crack, better to use freon vapour and damn the ozone layer.

 

[RickS]

elytahan, it sounds like you have the same problem we had. After 3 years our 9800 had the same problems you described. Cleanings sometimes worked but as time went on they worked less and less. I talked with service and was told the cleaning station needed changed. We had that done. It is working like new again. The invoice said Part number EN-1064 Pump/cap. About a week later we got an error " Maintenance required 0040" I called and apparently the service tech forgot to reset the counter as it was letting us know we needed to have the cleaning station changed.

 

[loustique20]

You can also try the SS cleaning. You access it when turning the device "on" while holding the "pause" button. Then go to "maintenance", then select "SS cleaning". It will "shake" the heads and remove any air bubbles that may cause clogging. The good part is that it doesn't use any ink! Good luck!

 

[elytahan]

I tried the SS cleaning for a second time and there still is no change in the nozzle head printout. As a matter of fact, the one I printed today (standard diagonal bars for the 8 colors) shows "color contamination" i.e.: some black bars in the blue, blue bars in the red...and still entire lines missing in 4 colors (at top and bottom) I may be looking at something more than just clogged nozzles!!

 

[Mark]

I've noticed more clogs with Epson printers since the ink is now coming from China instead of Japan.

 

[elytahan]

I have used Epson inks exclusively but yes they are made in China

 

[elytahan]

I finally got a technician to replace the print head and pump for 1k. So after about an additional k in wasted inks, maintenance tanks and cleaning solvents, the machine is running like new and I am a happy camper once again!

 

[edwinb]

Just to add for future readers, after SS cleaning you should do something like 1 power + 2 std nozzle cleans to clean out loosened debris and surplus ink
Edwin

 

[magicrick1]

I have 9800 about 3 years old. Lately it is haveing a problem with fine white lines (clogged nozzle). What's unusual is that I clean the heads with a basic cleaning from the software (not the machine itself) and everything is fine for several print but then the lines show up again even in the middle of a run of several prints. My experience with Epson printers has usually been that the heads would clog when they sat too long(several days or weeks) I've never had the clog in the middle of runs. This has been going on for a few months now. Any ideas. Thanks Rick Anderson

 

[PrePress Guru]

Hi Rick,

This seems to be a common occurrence with older 9800's. One of my clients recommended the following after an Epson tech came and told them about it. IIRC this is 9800 specific and does not apply to the 9880.
Your mileage may vary on this tip. I have a 9880 so i cant try it myself.

Put the printer into the Change Cutter Blade mode.
Use a flashlight and look all the way to the right, were the print head rests.
Check and make sure that the wiper blades are free from bust and paper flecks. They make contact with the print head and must be cleaned often according to the tech.
Then run another cleaning cycle to be safe.

They said that this helped a lot and the problem subsided for a while.
But Epson has built in obsolescence to these printers as i have found out the hard way.
If the wiper blades are continually dirty, they will permanently damage the print head.

 

[Mickey Noony]

9800 no nozzle print out

9800 no nozzle print out

Sounds like what has just happened with our 9800 again just over 3 years old got a fine white line in some close detailed printing and did the usual clean. Printed a nozzle check and had loads missing, so did a power clean ended up with only about 30% printing and inks bleeding into each other magenta where cyan should be and so on. Funny the only colour through out this yellow had printed virtually perfect.
We have just had an engineer out who has done a strip down & clean of the carriage & wipe area but is now printing worse than before and have done 6 power cleans, 2 SS cleans and umpteen normals still to avail.

Do you think it's the heads? and if it is going to cost at least a grand to sort then it might be worth trading in and getting a new 9880 or 11880. which prices seem to be starting at about £3450.

Cheers

Mickey Noo

 

[mitchhughes]

Head Issue

Head Issue

It sounds like you may have bigger problems than hoped for. As a last resort, you may try one more option before replacing the heads. In the menu on the printer, tell it to change the cutter so that the print head will move out of the way of the cleaning pads. We have had great success spraying the cleaning pads with two broad sprays of standard Windex. Try to use a non-ammonia or low ammonia variation. After spraying the cleaning pads, run another cleaning cycle. In older printers, it was wise to let the printer stand for an hour after the cleaning to let gravity move ink through the lines. This is not necessary with the 9800 as the cartridges are pressurized. If it doesn't clear things, I'm afraid it may be some of the nozzles in your print head have gone bad.
Best of luck!

 

[elytahan]

Epson 9800 Print head

Epson 9800 Print head

It's been almost 16 months that I got my 9800 printer fixed by a repairman who replaced the print head and pump cap for a total of $938.00. Prior to that, I had spent close to a $1000 in inks and troubleshooting to no avail so after all, I was very happy with the repair job and the printer has been working great since. I recommend getting the head replaced as it saved me a lot of trouble and heartache.

 

[Mickey Noony]

Many Thanks

Many Thanks

Hi Mitch

Will have a go, just getting a price on a new machine which can be installed & up & running
in 2 days, as work is mounted up fast which should go along way towards paying for another.

When we bought this printer it did pay for it self in the first 5 months profits so was well worth it and at the last count went through 180 ink cartridges in 2 1/2 years and 37k sq mtrs of media.

We have been using a matt Xerox vinyl which is great for mounting but does have quite a chalky coating which could be our problem.

Cheers Mickey