How to perform Basic Maintenance on the Epson R2000 and 3800 

You have not mentioned having done a nozzle check! Banding can be causes my several conditions. Also are you talking about a 3800 or 3880? Are you using original ink carts or refillables?

Sorry. Did nozzle check numerous times. Ran the cleaning cycle after each attempt at cleaning the sponges. Orange and Red still had problems. R2000, OEM cartridges only. Banding didn't start until after I started the windex cleanings; before that all was fine except the Red cartridge being blocked. Worked on it for about 6 hours yesterday in total. This morning started again. Something in the last 3 steps fixed it: either cleaning the wiper blade, re-doing the sponge cleanings or the paper towel with hot distilled water under the heads. Since I did all 3 , I don't know which fixed it, but it's printing fine now. And thanks again for your tutorials; I would have been lost without them.

Glad to hear it. Make sure If to print often. Orange and red are very dense colors and will the first to cause clogs due to lack of use.

I saw that and I thank you profusely! Glad it all worked out for you and your printer.

+brentj gordon I am glad you found this helpful. It is a huge pity the way EPSON and CANON operate. They basically treat that amazing piece of technology as a disposable item. That is of course a big pile of you know what! I currently maintain 21 Plus printers, several of them I obtained from the trash heap! If I can manage to keep them going, anyone can! It really just takes a bit of know how and lots of Patience!

+brentj gordon They are so full of it! I can keep 21 plus printers going and several I got from thrash!

+brentj gordon They are so full of it! I can keep 21 plus printers going and several I got from thrash!

+brentj gordon They are so full of it! I can keep 21 plus printers going and several I got from thrash!

This simple.bit of maintenance will apply to just about every Epson 17" wide or smaller printer!

Awesome.

One single nozzle or a Color Channel? Remember that a color channel has MANY nozzles so it is not a NOZZLE. One nozzle clogged would not even show up as a problem on prints.

Go slowly and take your time! Epson doesn't want your printer to last too long. The want your to buy a new model printer.

I have a followup question, Jose. I hope you don't mind. The purge pump empties into something. Where does this excess ink go and should I clean this reservoir? Do you have a video regarding this? I fear a leaky incident in my future.

It empties to the very internal bottom of the Printer. That is where the waste ink pads reside.

Great to hear!

That's great. Hope it worked perfectly after that.

It takes a ton of patience. I am working on that same printer again to get it to print 100% again.

Awesome to hear!

Awesome. Thanks.

..

+Glenford Laughton Thank you I am glad you found it helpfull!

Thank you Conrad!

Awesome.

Linda Jacobs No problem. Just do that every so many months depending on your rate of use and your R2000 will continue to operate as expected.Joe AKA Jtoolman

Thank you!

Robert Dente Printing borderless will always deposit the over spray on top of the Platen sponges, to the right and the left edges of the paper depending on the size. Your only option is to drip Windex on those dirty areas and dab them over and over till they are as clean as possible. Otherwise you will eventually begin to get smudges on your prints if the deposits become excessive. Repeat every month or so or as needed. The way to completely avoid this is to not print borderless. But since you do, then your option is to constantly clean those areas that get dirty from over spray.

Many thanks again Jose. I have another question/dilemma if you have the patience?

Does the Front Feed Thick Stock option work with non-think watercolor paper. I couldn’t get it to work with Arches watercolor stock.

Water color paper up to over 300 gram weight can be feed from the rear feeder. The front feeder is for thicker material about 1.5mm. If you feed regular paper thinner than that it will be printer blurred due to the pretty huge head to paper distance that the printer will set itself to.

Canon Print Heads have a finite live span and they simply die due to the it's thermal nature. I am afraid there is not much one can do and in most case the new one will cost more then the new printer. But what is wrong with the R2000?

+John Anderson Glad you found it helpful! Thanks for watching!

Neither do a ton of printer owners. You HAVE to regularly perform these maintenance steps if you expect your printer to last years.

Regular maintenance and your Epson printers will last many years.

Glad it has helped a bit. The R2400 was and still is a notorious cantankerous paper feeder. At least mine certainly was. The cleaning sheets simply picked up loose dust and paper fibers that build up with the passage of time. 4-5 years is actually very good for that class printer. Keep it up and it shoiuld last even longer. Thanks and take care!

+Roosevelt Brown Gland you enjoyed it. Hope it is of some help.

Jose Rodriguez Yes, It Was.

You carefully blot it up by dabbing. Good luck and let me know how it all turns out.

Well when I ran the test page the red square did not appear.

What printer make and models again? R2000?

I will repeat the paper towel under the print head.

Patience is imperative.

Glad to hear that.

At the time I lost that it was though that it would be OK to do so. Now we know that alcohol exposure can dry out so e types of rubber. However most printer rollers are made of synthetic runner like compounds but some lower end pripri ter rollers are still plaiplain rubber. I was also made aware of an actual spray for cleaning rollers that will not harm anything. It also can be used to rejuvenate older rollers so they grip better. What would do is to onlky perform this operation only when absolutely required

Are you on WiFi?? Nothing I know of would cause slowing down of the printing process except a WiFi problem. And please do that maintenance procedure every two months. Eventually you will get unexplained black blotches all liver your prints.

Thank you so much for your response. Yes, I am on WiFi. Recently, we changed our Internet provider and hence, our router. I initially thought this was the problem, but after uninstalling and reinstalling the software and updated drivers umpteen times AND trying a USB and an Ethernet connection instead of the wireless one, the problem persisted. Did not happen with the previous router, but wouldn't the same issue with the wired connections rule out the router? Got Windex today and will definitely do the maintenance procedures. Thank you again.

Remember that when you install for WiFi and alwo USB you will get TWO copies or instances of the printer in your devices and printers. Wait...... Are you on Windows??? Please say yes. If so, you will two icons in the devices and printers. One will use WiFi and the mother USB. Make sure you are printing with the correct one Iintended for USB. I have an R3000 that prints like a Tortoise on WiFi and like a Hare on USB. But you need to select the correct printer as you will have two copies of the same one printer.

OK, Thank you. I THINK I have tried that in my quest to solve this issue on my own, but it's worth another shot tomorrow. I will let you know of the outcome. And yes, I am on Windows. Just to be clear, would you install the "USB Copy" from the original disk, or just use the "Add Device" from the devices and printers window?

No from the original disk. Delete the copy you now probably have showing up in Devices and Printers. Right Click and remove printer. Then during the reinstall choose Via USB and none of the others.

***** Thanks

It is just a bottle and some tubing. There are some specialized kits from the uk at www.octoinkjet.co.uk

Clean the purge pad gasket so it seals agains the printhead and cleaning cycles actually work. It relies on suction from the purge pad sealing against the printhead. Been there.

@@cheo1949 Thanks so much for your reply! Really appreciate it. I assume by "purge pad gasket", you mean the sponge area on the right where the printhead rests when idle? Unfortunately, I can't get Windex where I am (Malaysia) and ammonia is really hard to get, so I have ordered some Magic Bullet online. Not the cheapest option, I know. Hope it works. Thanks again!

Thanks.

Yes the tube from that pad is blocked with dried ink and crud. Do you happen have an external waste ink bottle installed? Whether you do or not, you will have to back flush the purge system. Let me know if you do and I will describe or do a video on what you need to do to solve that.

Hello Jose, I have the normal ink system, no external. Yes I thought that was the case, how would I back flush my system ? Thanks so much !

trenefrank Without seeing an actual print I can only guess at what the problems is. Perform a nozzle check and see if there are any breaks in the patterns. If so, do a cleaning cycle and retest. Or check your head alignment. All of this in in the maintenance tab!

You may have a problem.

No. you will treat the nozzle plate over three to four layers of paper toweling wetted with Windex when you slide the print over to the left. That physically wets the surface of the nozzle plate. You can also dribble some on the purge pad to dissolve any deposits downstream from the sponge ( into the pump itself ). When the print head is slid over it the FUMES alone do the job. If you park print head as you suggest the Windex will be sucked away before it parks itself.

Thank you very much. Your answers are great since you provide context as well.

Thank you!

I think it's the application. It creates vector based designs. It has to be an pixel based image or it can't be printed with color management. A PDF would react the same way. The vector file needs to be rasterized before printing.

+Mark Samuels Yes most EPSONs with Carts that Ride on the Printhead carriages have those covers. You can actually perform something that seems to unclog truly stubborn nozzle clogs that you can not do on the more PRO printers. After having the Print Head moved toward the center position and resting over a damp paper towel , you can remove the color cart corresponding to the color that is being stubborn and with a plain tipped syringe with a piece of tubing attach, directly inject head cleaner into the ink stem. Easy does it. As you can actually cause damage to the print head. But when done right it will most often clear out really tough clogs. I'd have to review the video to know what you are referring to when you say " how long does one have to wait to make sure the ammonia solution is dried before actually using the printer?" There really is no wait in most cases.

+Jose Rodriguez Thanks for the reply Jose. There are some other videos showing how to inject a small amount of solution into the print nozzles after removing the ink cartridges. This printer was out of use for several years so is probably very clogged, and there may be air bubbles in the nozzles. What I meant about the cleaning solution is that ammonia is pretty strong, even diluted, so wondered if one had to wait before running a print check for example. Sounds like not a problem. I am in Canada, we can buy Windex here, some other site mentioned that other ammonia cleaners could damage the print head so will stick to the windex. Am waiting for some replacement ink cartridges as some ran dry as well, can't do print checks or run the cleaning program till then. Will let you know. Mark

+Mark Samuels I've been using Windex for years without a single incident. But if you prefer, there are many Head Cleaning Solutions being sold by various companies that are ammonia free and use alcohols and surfactants ( Soap ). They are all pretty good and work as advertised. In my series on how to revive a printer, I go through the steps I used to revive an old EPSON R340 that hardly had any nozzle firing. I got it to work 100%. Have a look and you should find it useful. The key is TOTAL Patience! You can not hussy this process. But unless the printer is mechanically damaged, you should be able to get it to work.

Thanks Jose I will try to find that other video and let you know if I can't. I work in a research lab so dealing with syringes and plastic tubing is not unusual. I just don't want to break something with too much pressure or short-circuiting or wrong solvent. Sounds like the mechanics are actually fairly forgiving if one can use ammonia, alcohol or ethylene glycol (i.e. antifreeze) without damaging the print head or sponge material. I'll try just wetting and blotting first, if that doesn't work then I'll blow solution through the nozzles to clear them or remove air bubbles. But it might just be dried ink on the head itself. Thanks!

+Mark Samuels That's interesting, I also worked in a research Microbiology lab at the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology, not closed, for about 25 years. So I also had access to all sorts of goodies. I've never had a single problem directly caused or due to using Windex on any of my multitude of printers. If you get to the point where you will inject head cleaner into the ink stem just keep in mind that you can damage the head. So if you are able to easily inject cleaner, while the print head is resting over folded paper towels, let it sit for several hours before you inject one more time. Then replace the cartridge and restart the printer. Let it do its purge and check your nozzle check. Likely you will sill cleaner inside the channel chamber so do a cleaning cleaning cycle and recheck. If all is fine then you are set. If it still isn't but you are showing improvements, turn off the printer and let it sit overnight before retesting and possibly repeating the process. I was abler to completely restore a R340 that had about 95% of its nozzles blocked. If you are interested, watch my series on that. But patience reing king when you are trying to clear out a really stubborn channel.

Not really. All have print heads. Purge pads on far right. Purge pad gaskets. Wiper blades. The R2000 is maintained the same Way as the 1400 series.

@@cheo1949 Thanks! Yes, your instructions for the R2000 worked for my 1430. Just checking to see if there is something I missed.

Three causes of banding can occur. One caused by missing nozzles. Not zzle check will show if that's the case Another caused by a printhead needing to be aligned. Running the head alignment either manual or auto Thirdly the encoder strip is dirty. That is something a service tech better do. Those are the three main causes to banding.

Ok, I will keep running checks and alignments.Thank you, Jose for getting back to me so quickly.

So is your nozzle check perfect??

Well your rollers may simply be worn out. After all it is over 15 years old.

The truth is I have not done anything other than what the printer does on it;s own and it is now 6.5 years and still printing perfectly.

I would look into a product sold by MARRUTT which is in the UK called MagicBulit. I has a very good reputation.

ok Jose many thanks i will keep a lookout for this product & give it a try.thanks again for your time & for all of your great vids & info.cheers

It's supposed to be good!

It's not the printer you have a spooling problem in your computer. One thing you can do is disable to spooler in the services that assuming you're using Windows computer reboot and re-enable it again.

+MrTeatime2 Glad it helped. You can use a 5% solution of regular cleaning ammonia in distilled water then use that.The Pop Up? Does it say that parts Have Reached the End of their Lives? If so that is the Waste ink Pads and the waste ink Counters need to be reset.Make sure you really clean the left most area of the platen sponge. That gets super grungy.Clean the perimeter of the Purge unit-sponge or AKA parking station and the wiper blade.You need to do this at least once every couple of months depending on how often you are printing.

+Jose Rodriguez Thanks for the reply Jose, I didn't clean the parking sponge or the wiper yet, just the very fouled big left pad. I'd like to get some ammonia and D.water to clean it all properly as your video shows. One pop up said parts have reached their end of life, now it says it needs a service! Since it's working now I'm thinking a good clean up might be all it needs and I don't intend to use it again until it's been cleaned anyway. Thanks again Jose.

+MrTeatime2 You will ha e to reset the waste ink counters zoo er or!after. There is a free tool that will work on the r800. The SSC tool I TBI k it is can!led. Or the pay per use WIC tool. You can get the too from www.octoinkjet.co.uk and you use it for free to read the couters. To reset you have to buy $10 reset serial key.

+Jose Rodriguez Thanks for all your help Jose I really appreciate it. The printer gets only light usage and I bought enough good ink to last a long time so if a clean and reset keeps it working then that's great. I didn't understand what you mean, 'The SSC tool I TBI k it is can!led.? Martyn

+MrTeatime2 Yeah. Sorry about that. Typing on my table is a bear for me! It was supposed to read "The SSC tool I thnk it's called"Go here for the SSC toolwww.ssclg.com/epsone.shtmlYou may have to run it in XP compatability mode.It should be able to reset the R800. If not then you will have to use the WIC tool fromwww.octoinkjet.co.uk for $10 per reset.

Well have you checked you nozzle check? I bet your Cyan is not printing at 100%

You are correct def. clogged nozzle- I have followed your Print Head Clogs What to do! loosened some but, still not good. :( I will follow your advise and order some PiezoFlush. Thank you so much for all of your advise!!

You left out something important. What printer and model are we talking about here? I can only help you if they are Photo Printers.

Epson R2000

Piezoflush will do wonders and next time you need to use your printer often so it does not clog again.

That could be a dozen reasons. No clue.

Alcohol will not dissolve ink effectively. You need a cleaning solution designed for this. Magic Bulit I believe is sold in Europe.

In Greece we have Ajax. It is ammonia based window cleaner.

If installed correctly and balanced correctly and it is perfectly designed for that printer then no it will not cause any problems. At this time there are no third party inks I would consider a close match to Original R2000 inks. www.percisoncolors has one of the best ones but still not a close match so you need lots of custom profiles for all the papers you are using in order to come somewhat close. The Gloss Optimizer and the general gloss characteristics of ALL the third party inks will not come close to OEM.

I see, thank you Jose. I was just watching your other videos about refilling cartridges on other versions of epson printer. Seems like r2000's cartridges are not refill friendly as you mentioned in the video that flushed chip versions have included with wet-sensors installed. What would be the best way to save money on inks? Refill cartridges or use ciss system for R2000? I am still investigating if there you have uploaded video about r2000 model but so far, I could not find them since you have so much abundant of info in all printers. Again, you are the master of printer, I respect you for your knowledge and mastery on your specialty Jose.

It simply is not worth trying to refill these types. Unlike CANON Epson has truly done an amazing at blocking us from refilling their OEM carts. R200 OEM cart sets are actually relatively low cost on EBAY check them out. or Use a refillable carts but I'll tell most if not all 3rd party inksets for it do not come up to par.

Two blinking lights means nothing. You need to determine the blink pattern. I could guess that if it is fairly old then your internal ink pads are saturated and require servicing. Do you get any message at your computer? Such as " Parts have reached the end of their life"? Or some other message or error code you could then Google.

Lots of yellow seems to have saturated the paper towel too, but I think it's getting obscured by the black. I haven't been able to do a cleaning or nozzle check because the printer's saying the red cartridge is empty though I just replaced it with a fresh one. 😭

Nowhere do I see what Printhead you are talking about.

The 3800 purge sponge assembly can be easily dislodged. If I remember I simply squirted cleaner onto the sponge and let it drain. Repeating till clean. The gasket is gently cleaned with Q-Tip.

Are you using original inks or compatibles or refillable? Have you done a print head alignment? Do the lines you see look like blank areas or overlaps in other words white or darker?

Alessandro Piras Probably not the inks IF you bought inks from a reputable dealer and not CHINA! The cart may have also failed to feed the lines OR you may have introduced AIR into the line which is nearly impossible to remove or purge unless you reinitialize the printer, only a service tech has the software to do . That is why you had a complete failed black nozzle check on that color. You will almost NEVER have a complete failure of a color channel. That usually indicates a bad cart that leaks air and not actual clogs. You should expect to play at least $20 per 100ml or each color if you buy from reputable dealers in the USA. Anything less and you are buying crap that will hurt your expensive printer.I use OEM and top quality 3rd party inks on all my 16 CANON and EPSON photo printers! Only the best will do.Or just stick with OEM inks. No one ever said that home printing was going to be cheap. Why buy a great and expensive printer and then go cheap and feed it garbage that will probably kill it? Not a good idea right?

Jose Rodriguez I have a complete block in black. the printer was off and in storage for 5 months. before storage it printed perfectly. i have run the cleaning utility three times yesterday and three times today, black is still not printing when printing the nozzle check. going to do the windex clean but im curious about air in the line...

There are no lines to speak of on the R2000 so it is not that, but are you using a refillable cart? There ways to clear out a true clog if it is indeed that. Are you saying that one Black channel is totally blank? Not even on line?

Jose Rodriguez by carts, do you mean ink cartridge? if so, im using the carts that came with the printer direct from Epson. No lines are printing from either black. Thanks!

***** The Matte and Photo black are not printing? On your first comment you say no-genuine. So now you are using OEM inks? If both Black channels are blank I would suggest that it might be a mechanical problem that you will have to talk about with EPSON. I apologize on my previous post. I thought we were talking about the R2000. The R3000 does indeed have ink lines and if you were at one time using refillables or otherwise, you could indeed introduce air into the ink lines and that is very difficult to force out with only cleaning cycles. Only a full re initialization can force air through and out of the lines so you only have ink in them again. And Adjustment program is the only way to re initialize the printer. It will use up a ton of inks but the air will be forced out.Those programs are only available to Service techs but you can buy them off of EBAY If you look for "R3000 reset" www.ebay.com/itm/EPSON-STYLUS-PHOTO-R3000-SERVICE-ERROR-FAULT-RESET-FIX-MAINTENANCE-DISC-/161755190981?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_3&hash=item25a95c56c5You must be VERY careful using this software as it is meant for EPSON Engineers and you could forever ruin the printer's firmware.

Which printer? Your cart is probably leaking!

@@cheo1949 I have 3800. For some reason this happens only with photo black. With matte black the printer works perfectly.

You got an empty cart level indication on the driver? You purchased an original Cart and after installing it still shows as empty?

Great question. I had not fully installed the drivers needed to monitor the cart levels. I uninstalled the driver from the disk and installed the driver compatible with Windows 10. I also unplugged the USB cord for the printer until prompted to connect. Problem solved. Cyan was registering as empty. I purchased another one. Printing fine. What is your recommendation for refill carts? I also see it may be in my best interest to install an external waste bottle. Please assist.

+David E Well that's like apples and oranges. The EPSON R2000 is a Pigment based printer with Gloss Optimizier and the CANON Pro-100 is a dye based one. Both are excellent. Just because the R2000 is now fairly old does not mean by any means that it is inferior. I have both of them and absolutely love them.

No sorry you're going to have to find yourself some window cleaner type product that has ammonia in it ammonia is a key element to here.

Always welcome

Thank you

It is used to collect diverted waste ink from the internal purge pump. It's only used on printers that have a side panel that can be removed to access the waste ink tubes. Only on printers with internal waste ink pads only. And not all of them can be modified for external waste ink collection.

Yes.

Printer model???? If Epson it would almost be impossible for both to be black if the share a single black channel for PK and MK. UNLESS.... You black switch valve is damaged. That is a $300 job.

@@cheo1949 Its an R2000. Do you mean impossible for both to be blank? If its the valve is there any way I can do it myself for less $$?

@@cheo1949 I just found this quote...from you! Wow, thanks for being so active on here. "The R2000 does not share black channels so there is no switch." So since I have an R2000, that means its not a $300 job? Then what is it... I'd really like to get my printer working again.

Okay now that we know what printer model you have and it's the r2000 that one does not share black channel so you have a clogged pair of black channels. It's really odd to me that both blacks appear to be clogged. Those are some pretty high odds that both are clogged. Now are you by any chance refilling using refillable cartridges or are you still using original cartridges? One option as a last resort it's after you have exhausted any other method of trying to unclog your print head, you could inject very very gently some cleaner directly into the two black spigots that are found inside the printhead carrier. You uninstall your two black cartridges and attach a syringe with a piece tubing connected to it and loaded with cleaner. Then very very gently attempt to inject a bit of the cleaner but if you feel any pressure what so ever you immediately stop. You do not want to delaminate the printhead by attempting to force cleaner through it. You would inject a very small amount if you are able to and then pull back a bit. Inject a little bit more and pull back and so on. You want to do this in the next several days again there's a very high chance you could damage your print is so this is as I said a last resort.

@@cheo1949 I'm using original cartridges. I soaked the sponges again, overnight this time, also ran the printer head over a folded windex soaked paper towel a couple times, and now there's a just a couple marks in the PB and MK test spaces. They don't look black though. All other colors are perfect or almost. I posted a photo of the nozzle test on dppreview www.dpreview.com/forums/post/62172964 What do you recommend next? Is it last resort time?

Windex is an American Product. I don't think it is available in Europe. Magic Bullet is expensive but very effective.

Thank you .

Hi Jose, how often would you recommend to clean my printer . i have revived my R1900 WITH MAGIC BULIT.just bought Epson SP600, not used it yet . i AM a low user and how often would you do a print check using the printers nozzel check and print heads on my printer ? any help appreciated .