My CISS Epson Stylus Photo 2100 has dried up

Mijo

New Member
Hi everyone – I'm really hoping somebody may be able to assist me with a CISS system printing problem and, perhaps, one of you has encountered a similar problem.

I purchased the new CISS through an Amazon vendor and my Epson Stylus Photo 2100 appeared to work properly to begin with and was very pleased with it. However, after a few days, left powered up all the time, it has now stopped printing. An extremely feint magenta image is all that appears.

I'm wondering whether air bubbles may have got into the cartridges or ink from the nozzles has dried up. If this is so, do I invert the cartridge and use one of the plastic syringes to draw air and ink out of them all? Could this damage the system if not done properly?

Essentially, it would appear that it is unbadged (no manufacture on the carton) and although I could go back to the Amazon seller, fear this might well be a waste of time. The user instructions are woeful and, though easy to fit, I don't really understand the procedure to extract air from the cartridges. The system I've got is a standard one with external tanks and a 'computer style' ink-tube ribbon feeding all seven individual chipped ink cartridges.

Has any one come across a similar issue?

In anticipation,
Michael
 
The answer

Hi Wrumble

Thanks for getting back.

However, in the meantime I've now resolved the issue via a very clever brother-in-law. He pointed out that the reservoir tanks needed to be raised above the printer to get the ink feeding through again into their respective tubes.

Then, what I hadn't be doing properly with the cartridge air holes themselves, was to push the syringe far enough into the small inlet hole in the cartridge top to create an air-tight seal, through which, when the syringe plunger is pulled up, fills up with ink and removes any air-bubbles. The excess ink can be deposited back in the tanks and then each cartridge re-sealed with it's small rubber stopper.

Return the tanks to the same level as the surface on which the printer sits, then open the rubber stoppers on top of each ink tank to prevent a vacuum forming between the surface of the remaining ink and the empty top of the tank (I think this is the theory!).

When finished printing for the day, simply "re-cork" the tank stoppers to prevent evaporation of ink. However, I've begun experimenting with not opening each tank's air-hole every print session as it's too easy to forget to re-seal them afterwards and, therefore, waste ink.

Mick
 
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