# Epson 4880: How to flush epson ink?



## Ramsee1 (Mar 24, 2008)

Hello everyone. This is my first post, but I've been visiting the site for a while. Let me just say this is an excellent board and I'm amazed how helpful everyone can be. I searched the forums, but haven't found an answer. Here's my issue:

I recently bought an Epson 4880. I installed the ink that came with the printer so I could make sure the printer was functional. Now that I know the printer works and it's all that I need to make sublimation prints, I am faced with the dilemma of flushing the ink out and running sublimation ink. I have a set of Artanium cartridges which have worked great for me in the past. 

Anyway, there's approximately two feet of tubing which carries the ink to the printer head. I haven't been able to find any cleaning solution cartridges and I've been told it cost a small fortune to have a tech flush the system and there's no way I am taking this apart myself.

It seems I'm faced with taking the existing cartridges out, putting the sublimation cartridges in and printing a bunch of test pages until the old ink flushes out. Any constructive thoughts are welcome and appreciated.

Ramsey


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## azballbusters (Jan 8, 2008)

I just bought a LNIB Epson4800 that someone had used to run a very limited amount of photo prints. When I called Conde about a flush they recommended against it stating it is easier to just running the existing ink out versus flushing and starting the process from scratch.


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## Ramsee1 (Mar 24, 2008)

Hi Mark thanks for writing. I did a bit more research and found information on draining the ink from the 9600. I figured let me take that information and call Epson back. It winds up most of the large format printers have a maintenance tank which holds the ink that overflows from the printhead after "charging" the lines. 

For the 4880, all I had to do is turn the printer on, remove the cartridges and turn the printer off. Upon which time the printer cycled through and I noticed the tank had fresh black ink on top of the sponges on the maintenance tank (all the colors mixing together make black).

After draining the ink, the lines will still have color in them as if they are full. I was told this is normal and the lines are stained. I still plan on running some test pages just to make sure. I suppose I won't know for sure if all the original ink has run through until I start pressing goods.


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## azballbusters (Jan 8, 2008)

Ramsee.

Let me know how it turns out. My dye sub ink is due Friday. I was also told by Conde to get a chip resetter so that you do not have to keep buying maintenance tanks. From what I got the printer will shut down once the maintenance tank hits a certain point. I was also told that for the reasons you described above not to turn the printer off as iut goes through that cycle (wasting) ink when you power back on. 

I am new to the larger format printers so maybe so old pros can also jump in with suggestions and need to knows.


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## DAGuide (Oct 2, 2006)

Ramsee1 said:


> For the 4880, all I had to do is turn the printer on, remove the cartridges and turn the printer off. Upon which time the printer cycled through and I noticed the tank had fresh black ink on top of the sponges on the maintenance tank (all the colors mixing together make black).


Ramsee,

Can you post the link that you referred in your previous message that tells you to do this method? I don't want to speak for all types of printers, but the general rule is that you don't want to run the printer with nothing in the print head or lines. The reason behind this is because the print head would be pushing air through it and it can damage nozzles. 

I would be surprise if any Epson tech would tell you anything other then putting cleaning fluid into the printer first to clean out the previous ink before you put the other ink in it. That is the typical line that is used. It helps them sell more stuff to you.

The main potential issue that can come up is when the two inks would mix together in the ink lines, printhead or in the capping / maintenance station. If the inks are not compatible, they will gel together and clog up the system. I know several people that have mixed Epson ink with both types of sublimation ink and have no problems. I have only heard of a handful of issues happening with ChromaBlast and dtg inks.

If you decide to go down the route of using cleaning fluids, I would recommend calling The Paper Ranch and asking about their rental policy. The will let you rent the cleaning cartridges for as long as you need them and you return them. This will save you some money.

I would be interested in seeing that link if you can find it. Thanks.

Mark


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## Ramsee1 (Mar 24, 2008)

Hi Fellas. 

Here is the link to the 9600 manual:
http://files.support.epson.com/pdf/pro76u/pro76uu1.pdf
Draining the ink is on page 150. If the link doesn't work it's because I'm using Safari on a Mac. 

So after I saw you can drain ink from the 9600, I called Epson and the tech gave me instructions over the phone. He asked me if I was using third party ink and I told him yes, for sublimation. He said yes this is what I need to do. I'm just as skeptical as everyone else, but I don't have much of a choice. I am going to try and cycle/charge the printer a couple of times and hope all the existing ink is out.

As far as cleaning solutions, I was told by a couple of vendors there aren't any cartridges for the 4880 yet. 

And for the chips, from what I've seen with the Artanium ink I'm using, levels aren't being read by the Epson Utilities program which would lead me to believe they're altered to read always full. I also have a set of Magic Flow CIS inks that I think work the same way.


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## Ramsee1 (Mar 24, 2008)

I wanted to add the 4880 came with a black cartridge and other cartridges that can mix to make black. There are directions on the printer interface itself on how to drain the black line only. So it seems this is common to drain the lines, for this printer anyway.

Anddddddd... My maintenance tank is full. Epson has some racket going on. I ordered the maintenance tank with chip like you suggested Mark. Found it for 60.00 at dtgweb.com Comes with three sets of sponges. When they get full all you need to do is reorder the sponges. Hmmmm why didn't Epson think of that?


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## Edsell (Apr 18, 2008)

My question is going from Dye Sub to K2 inks.. I have heard that DS inks plug easier than K2.. Is that true? Any tips for cleaning?


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## Ramsee1 (Mar 24, 2008)

Hi Edsell, not really familiar with what plugging is. What are you trying to achieve?


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## helix-2000 (Nov 6, 2007)

Ramsey

My 4880 camde with the same instructions. Pull the origminal carts out and power the unit off. When the new ye sub carts put in and system powered on the printer may take up to 1/3 of the cartridges ink during the initialization process. Good luck.

Carl


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## Ramsee1 (Mar 24, 2008)

Hi Carl. Those ink lines are long in that printer. There has to be at least two feet in there... I wouldn't be surprised once the lines fill up and dump a little into the tank that it equals a third of the cartridge. I'm looking into refillable cartridges with alternate dye sub ink. It looks like they make it very inexpensively overseas.


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## Edsell (Apr 18, 2008)

Ramsee1 said:


> Hi Edsell, not really familiar with what plugging is. What are you trying to achieve?


I'm rederring to plugged jets.. I was told that Dye Sub plugs the jets easier than Pigment inks. My intent is to clean out the heads and switch to K2 inks on a 9600. I've read about the Simple Green method. Has anybody done that?


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## rrc62 (Jun 2, 2007)

azballbusters said:


> I was also told that for the reasons you described above not to turn the printer off as iut goes through that cycle (wasting) ink when you power back on.


That's true to an extent. The printer will cycle every time you turn it off then back on, but it will also cycle if it has been left on and not used for a little while. I'm not sure of the time frame, but I can print something today, leave the printer on, then print something tomorrow and it will go through the entire cycle just like it were being powered up. It is a 4880.


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## Ramsee1 (Mar 24, 2008)

Actually if I'm reading what you're saying correctly, that's not the case with the 4880. When you change out the cartridges, it will actually flush all the lines into the waste tank, as is the case when I just changed from Epson ink to sublimation ink. If you turn your printer off and then on (with fresh sponges in your tank), you won't see any ink on the sponges. Correct me if I'm wrong, but this leads me to believe the "cycling" that occurs when the printer is turned off and on is not wasting ink or you'd see evidence of that in the waste tank.


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## Ramsee1 (Mar 24, 2008)

Edsell, If you're not seeing any clogged jets, than just let the ink run through as we've been talking about. Unless you wanted to use a cleaning solution as suggest above.


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## rrc62 (Jun 2, 2007)

Now I'm not sure. I hear the print head cycling and equate that to ink being wasted. I haven't actually checked the waste tank to see if there is fresh ink there. Good news if that's the case.


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## SBEMedia (Jun 26, 2008)

If you're having Epson 4880 Clogging problems go here for the solution: http://www.t-shirtforums.com/heat-press-heat-transfers/t60918.html


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## Cjoe Design (Jun 3, 2008)

In response to the Printer going through the cycle process after a period of time even when not shut off. I had the same problem. While dealing with my own Clogged problem Sawgrass had me go through my options menue on the 4880 and turn off a whole bunch of features and one of them was that feature. I don't know which feature that was off the top of my head because we changed quite a few setting but they had me change a lot of settings in order to stop wasting ink.


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