# Epson 4880 still clogging thinking of switching to Hybrid or MultInk



## Cjoe Design (Jun 3, 2008)

I have just about had it with this 4880 Sublimation printer. No matter what I do I still get continous clogging with this machine.

I Have gone out of my way to cover all my bases:

1. Print something Everyday ( I mean everyday)
2. Run PrintJockey Every Night (auto Print program)
3. Keep a continuous humidity level between 50%-60% in the room where the 4880 is located.


Allthough I can eventually get a good nozzle check I am constantly needing to do costly nozzle cleans. Not to mention soaking the Capping Station in Simple Green, cleaning the Flushing Box just to get it going again. This is my second 4880 and I must say they do not seem to be able to handle sublimation ink any better than my old 1280s did.

Can the 4880 run all 8 bays with MultInk or some other Heat transfer ink?

Or do I need to go Duo? At least I would be wasting only 4 slots of the more expensive Dye when the sub inks clog.

When you run a Dou can you nozzle clean each side seperately?

That's kinda what Printer Jockey does with Channel Flush but that never seems to help clear the clog. I was hoping for an actual head cleaning that did either left or right side.


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## helix-2000 (Nov 6, 2007)

I have the hybrid and the only problem I have had is having to clean the flushing filter once. Sorry you are having such a problem with your system. I print something at least every few days. I have chromablast ink on my left side.


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## DAGuide (Oct 2, 2006)

Cory,

There are multiple ways for you to setup a 4800 printer. Here are them:

1. Setup as an 8-color dye sub printer. (I believe this is what you have now)

2. Setup as a true hybrid printer with 4-colors of dye sub ink and 4-colors of a heat transfer ink (i.e. MultINK or ChromaBlast)

3. Setup with only 4-channels fo dye sub ink and 4-channels of cleaning fluid (you have to have some type of fluid / ink running through the print head and cleaning fluid is the cheapest).

4. Setup with only 4-channels of heat transfer ink (i.e. ChromaBlast or MultINK) and 4-channels of cleaning fluid.

5. Setup with 8-channels of heat transfer ink (i.e. ChromaBlast or MultINK)

6. Setup with 4-channels of dye sub ink, 1-channel of Black MultINK (to print screen print film positives) and 3-channels of cleaning fluid.

7. Setup the printer with 8-channels of Epson OEM ink.

Of course you have to have the proper software to run the printer in the different formations, but these are your options. Some you will use just the Epson 4880 driver and others you will use a hybrid driver or RIP. If you run the cleaning fluid through half of the printer or even run MultINK (which is less than 40% of the cost of dye sub ink), then running the cleaning cycles with Printer Jockey (Timed Nozzle Flush or the new Timed Nozzle Clean) is siginificant less cost for you.

Sorry to hear that you are having so many challenges. I love the Epson 4800 that I have and I only print with it once every two weeks or so when doing tech support with a customer. 

Hope this helps lays out your options for you.

Mark


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## conde tech (Nov 15, 2007)

Cory,

Raise your ink levers at the end of the day. Or, if the printer is going to be sitting idle keep the ink levers rasied. Climate and tempurature changes can cause the ink to run back in the ink carts. Raising the ink levers will prevent the inks from doing so.


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## Cjoe Design (Jun 3, 2008)

Well, I started out on Saturday with one channel clogged. did a cleaning got it almost right but not quiet. Did one more cleaning after waiting 20 minutes. Then I had 2 channels out. It is now Monday morning and I have 5 channels clogged. With any luck maybe by lunch time I can have all eight channels clogged. Yea!!

And I have 40 coffee mugs to make for teacher appreciation by Wednesday.

Can you say Bye Bye customer

Sublimation Sucks!!!


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## Cjoe Design (Jun 3, 2008)

Now I only have one clogged nozzle. What is making this go back and forth like this? I am waiting plenty of time between cleanings. It seems like all the heads are just taking turns which one is going to act up next.

Except the black ink, He's my friend, he never lets me down. Why is black impervious to clogging?


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## Cjoe Design (Jun 3, 2008)

All within the last hour and a half:

First I have C, M, Y, B and LC out

Do a cleaning

Then only have Megenta out, Everything else looks perfect!

Do a cleaning to get Magenta working

Magenta now working, Yellow and Blue channel clogged

This whole mess started when the light Magenta was clogged.


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## Riderz Ready (Sep 18, 2008)

Never heard of situation like yours unfortunately. We used to run a 4800 and never had a problem - now run a 9800 and still have minimal clog issues. One thing you did point out that others should be aware of is Printer Jockey. We were also told it was the great cure for channel flushing. What a joke and a complete waste of money. I have never had printer jockey EVER clear a clog. Distributors should actually try products before recommending them to people.


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## Cjoe Design (Jun 3, 2008)

Sawgrass has me running their prn files right now, but they seem to be doing the same thing as the Printer Jockey Channel Flush so I am not highly optomistic.


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## Cjoe Design (Jun 3, 2008)

I have been running Sawgrass PRN files 10 pages each for both my yellow and Red channels. I ran a total of 20 pages. I am not really wasting any ink (only my time) because their is no ink coming out on the pages. After that was not successfull Sawgrass is having me run another 10 pages. 

What is going on here? This is not going to help, I am just getting complete blank pages. 

I know I could probably get the channels back with more cleanings but the pattern seems to be I will just lose a couple different nozzles and be right back where I started with a different color.

I wish someone could diagnose that it is broke and to stop throwing money at it with all these cleanings.


I am 2,400.00 down in ink and have just about matched that in sales. I would almost be even if all my substrates were free. Unfortunately every sale I make goes back on the credit card to cover all the Sawgrass ink I have had to buy.

Sawgras's next step for me is a Power Clean. They will send me 2 free carts but I am going to be draining all 8 carts 20% which means I will have to fork out another 1,200.00 very soon so that I will have backup carts so I don't run out in the middle of a job. Since the 4880 does not tell you which ink is low.

I cannot afford this!!!!


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## Cjoe Design (Jun 3, 2008)

OK, Sawgrass talked me into another PowerClean and I am back in business. At least I can finish the 40 mugs and not loose one of my best customers. I have also probably bought me another week b4 I have to do more head cleanings and probably 4 months b4 I have to do another PowerCleaning. It would be one thing if others had this problem but it seems to me I am the only one experiencing this issue and I:

keep the room at 50-60% humidity
run the printer every day
run printer jockey every night

What gives?


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## Riderz Ready (Sep 18, 2008)

Cjoe Design said:


> I have been running Sawgrass PRN files 10 pages each for both my yellow and Red channels. I ran a total of 20 pages. I am not really wasting any ink (only my time) because their is no ink coming out on the pages. After that was not successfull Sawgrass is having me run another 10 pages.
> 
> What is going on here? This is not going to help, I am just getting complete blank pages.
> 
> ...


I feel your pain - we purchased a refurbished 4800 for the exact reason stated above. I was fortunate enough to read about the 4880 not being able to tell you what cartridge is running low. I can not imagine the amount of ink lost as ink useage is very uneven depending on your designs. Is there a reason you have not switched to refillable cartridges? This would save a small fortune.


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## Cjoe Design (Jun 3, 2008)

To my knowlege there are not refillable carts for the 4880. I guess because the carts are so big there is no need to


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## helix-2000 (Nov 6, 2007)

I believe there are some refillable 220 ml cartridges for the dye sub but not for chromablast.


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## DAGuide (Oct 2, 2006)

Yes, there are refillable cartridges for the 4880. In the U.S., Sawgrass does not allow for distributors to sell Liters of ink to customers that have printers less than 24" wide. That is why it is not offered.

As for Printer Jockey, it serves two purposes: 1) provide the user more control over their Epson printers and 2) provides more options to handle the cleaning and maintenance part of running an piezo print head based printer. In several posts, you should find where I state that running a Channel Flush will only clear those clogs when you have more than 50% of the nozzle check showing up. The Channel Flush feature works just like the Sawgrass PRN files (just with much more control and easier to use) by having the print head spit ink out of the specific ink channel(s) you select. If you have any ink delivery problems (also call ink starvation), then just printing / spitting is not going to clear the clog - you need to use the suction pump under the capping station to remove the clogs. This is why Epson put this pump into the printer. Printer Jockey also provides the users two different options for helping to prevent clogs from ocurring (proactive approach). The Timed Test Print feature allows the user to print a test print that uses a small amount of ink from each ink channel based on the schedule the user sets (what time(s) of the day, the # of days a week). The Timed Cleaning feature is something that is regularly found in the dtg side of the industry and it allows the user to set a schedule for having the printer automatically run a head cleaning (standard head clean from the Printers & Faxes - not a Power Clean which uses more ink). There are several other features (export / import PRN files, create product runs, run nozzle checks / head cleans straight from Printer Jockey,...) that Printer Jockey also provides as well.

There is no magical software that will keep all your nozzles clear and not use up an extra ink when using an Epson printer - this is a product of the way the piezo print heads work. If Printer Jockey was this, I would force the developer to sell it to Epson directly and we would be sitting on his yacht drinking beers to celebrate Cinco de Mayo! Printer Jockey was designed to be an additional tool to give people more control over their printers.

Mark


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## DAGuide (Oct 2, 2006)

Cjoe Design said:


> Sawgras's next step for me is a Power Clean. They will send me 2 free carts but I am going to be draining all 8 carts 20% which means I will have to fork out another 1,200.00 very soon so that I will have backup carts so I don't run out in the middle of a job. Since the 4880 does not tell you which ink is low.
> 
> I cannot afford this!!!!


Cory,

If you switch to a hybrid setup for just 4-channels of sublimation ink and run refillable cartridges for the 4-channels of cleaning fluid, you will cut your cost of a Power Clean in half (i.e. you will be only flushing 4-channels of sublimation ink instead of 8-channels). Even if you decided to put one of the heat transfers inks on the other side (ChromaBlast or MultINK), the heat transfer inks are still cheaper than the sublimation ink. So in your case as to having to run more cleanings than most people to keep the printer operating correctly, you will be saving money by running a hybrid setup.

Something to consider.

Mark


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## Cjoe Design (Jun 3, 2008)

Printer Jockey Channel Flush does work exactly like the Sawgrass and is a whole lot easier. Not to mention you can pick the channels which you cannot do with Sawgrass. Sawgrass gives you eight different files. Neither PRN files or channel flush seem to help when you really need it though.

The timed prints is what I love about the Printer Jockey. I use it every morning at 2am. Allthough I still have clogging issues, I know they are not as bad since using it.

I just wish it worked with my 1280 printers. I love my little 1280s and they need the benefits of timed prints too. Specially since one of them rarely gets used and has the genuine Epson expensive ink (wife's printer). There are still thousands of these things around, Mark what do you say, how about a little patch for the software.


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## Riderz Ready (Sep 18, 2008)

Maybe for timed printing, etc it works but we purchased so we did not have to do head cleans on all channels when we had a clog. We have 9800's and they run all day. NEVER have I used Printer Jockey on a even a partial clog and have it clear it. We are in hopes the new Sublim is as clog free as advertised.


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## DAGuide (Oct 2, 2006)

Cjoe Design said:


> I just wish it worked with my 1280 printers. I love my little 1280s and they need the benefits of timed prints too. Specially since one of them rarely gets used and has the genuine Epson expensive ink (wife's printer). There are still thousands of these things around, Mark what do you say, how about a little patch for the software.


Ask and you shall get it! Actually, it is already done and posted. The smaller printers got added right before the Timed Cleaning feature. 

Check out Printer Jockey and scroll down. The programmer added a ton of the smaller printers. I personally have not tried it on a 1280 since mine decided to fly out the window when I got the 4800. Uninstall the existing version you have, download / install the latest version and give it a try.

Mark


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