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Solving Epson cartridge problems by Yisroel Goodman
by Izzy Goodman
Note: This article assumes you are using ink cartridges purchased at ccs-digital.com or genuine Epson. If you are using another brand, there may actually be a compatibility issue. Periodically, Epson changes the way their printers access the chip on the cartridge. Depending on the manufacture date of the printer, a cartridge may or may not work. Even though Epson T069 cartridges will fit many printers, the same compatible cartridge may work on a CX5000 but not on a Workforce. The Workforce was manufactured later and its programming has been updated to better detect a non-epson cartridge. Even within the same printer model, one may work with a compatible and another may not due to a more recent manufacture date.
Sometimes mixing Epson and non Epson cartridges in the same printer will fail with a "cartridge not recognized" error. We have even heard of customers whose printers failed to recognize genuine Epson cartridges until all the cartridges were changed - even the ones which were not out of ink. It appears that the printers may mistake the "low ink" warning with the "cartridge not recognized" error. Even if the printer does recognize the cartridges, the resulting printout may not look great. This is because the Epson ink formula is different than compatible ink. Epson printers mix some color into the black ink to produce a richer black (which is why color ink is used even if you only print in black). Mixing the different formula inks might give poor results.
Why do ours work better than most compatibles?
A lot of time passes from when the manufacturer perfects and tests their chips, makes the cartridge, ships to the master wholesaler who ships to the smaller distributor who ships to the dealer. By the time the customer gets it months later, Epson may have changed the programming on their new printer and the older chip used in the cartridge is no longer compatible. We have found a way to cut that lag time considerably so you get the latest chip with your cartridges. Our manufacturer makes the chips as the final stage of the process, to ensure that the latest design has been incorporated. If Epson has made a recent change to their printer, the chips may be packed separately in the box. We get these cartridges direct from the master distributor. They reach us within weeks of manufacture - not months like some other dealers.
Our manufacturer of reusable and refillable cartrirdges has completely redesigned the cartridge and chip. In the reusable, a unique 2-piece system keeps the ink in a separate tank. When the ink runs out, just the tank is replaced and the same chip resets to full. The refillable uses the same chip but you refill the cartridge directly from a uniquely designed bottle. Since this chip has already been recognized by your printer, you know there can't be a compatibility issue and it will continue to work.
When we first started selling T069 and T078 cartridges around 2007, we did have a few customers for whom an entire order of cartridges did not work. Over the past few years, complaints have falledn to well under 1% of the cartridges sold. Often the problem isn't even the cartridge itself but something with the printer, since most of the returned cartridges worked perfectly in our printers. Here are some common problems and how they can be resolved.
Cartridge runs out of ink too quickly
There are several reasons for this problem. First, now that Epson has a near-monopoly on ink cartridges, they have drastically reduced the amount of ink supplied. It used to be about 24ml. Now it's as little as 7ml. Read
this report where researchers measured the actual amount of ink in Epson cartridges. They ranged from 11ml for their so-called "high capacity" to 7 ml for the T069 to a miserable 3 ml for the T088. If you don't grasp how little 7 ml is, it's 7/1000ths of a liter. It takes over 100 of these to make a liter and more than 500 to make a gallon. Yet Epson is charging $20 for this. This means printer ink is $20 x 500 or $10,000 a gallon! And you thought gas was high!
So you can understand why it seems your new cartridges are running out of ink too quickly. Our standard cartridges give you almost double the ink of an Epson (and at a price about 75% less). Our refillable cartridges give you almost FOUR TIMES the ink of a genuine Epson. However,
Epson printers do not accurately measure the remaining ink and use an estimate. To prevent having the printer operate on an empty cartridge (which would damage the head), the printer errs on the side of caution and reports the cartridge empty when it still contains ink. The fault lies with the printer, not the cartridge.
When you run a printer head cleaning, it uses a signifcant amount of ink. Whenever you replace a cartridge, it automatically runs a cleaning on ALL the cartridges. So you should understand why a new cartridge can suddenly appear to have lost a good deal of ink. When you turn the printer on, it often runs a cleaning. That is why you should never turn your printer off. Printers don't use much power in idle mode and the electricity you save turning it off is less than the ink you lose turning it back on. Ink also has a tendency to coagulate. Otherwise, it would never dry on paper. If you don't print for several days, your print heads can get clogged by dry ink. So it's a good idea to leave the printer on. It forces out a minscule amount of ink every so often to prevent clogging. At the very least, turn it on every couple of days just to keep the ink circulating and prevent your print heads from getting clogged.
Once the printer says a cartridge is completely out of ink, it is too late to solve the problem. The new cartridges (T069, T078, T079, T098, T124/125/126/127) have chips which "self-destruct" when the cartridges report empty. They can not be reset by a chip resetter. This is done to prevent refilling, which is never a good idea. Read our article on the dangers of refilling. Our reusable/refillable cartridges use a completely redesigned chip which automatically resets to full. We also have chip resetters for the older cartridges.
Note: changing an ink tank or refilling the cartridge does not automatically reset the ink level. It gets reset when the printer says it's empty and you go through the replace procedure. So if you changed the tank or refilled and the ink level shows low, don't worry. Soon it will show empty and then you can reset it to full.
Printer does not recognize the cartridge
If this happens with any of the earlier cartridges (T044, T048, T060), the problem is almost certainly with the printer. I say this because so far, in the very few times this happened, the cartridges have always worked in another printer. Earlier epson printers and their matching cartridges have not been changed. The chips they contain today are identical to the ones manufactured years ago. It usually means the wrong cartridge was inserted - such as a yellow in the blue slot. Each chip is matched to its color and putting the wrong cartridge in the wrong slot will cause the printer to report an unrecognized cartridge.
Another cause is a short within the printer itself. At one customer (fortunately a local one) I used a flashlight and spotted a tiny fragment of a cartridge chip stuck to the pins inside the printer. This was shorting out the connection and causing the printer to fail to recognize any cartridge in that slot. Removing the fragment solved the problem. At another client, the printer refused to recognize any cartridge - including genuine Epson. We even had 2 customers whose printers refused to recognize genuine Epson but worked with our reusables! I recently found an explanation for that in this article
If it is a later cartridge, it becomes a little harder to diagnose. How old is your printer? If it is brand new, there is a chance that Epson recently changed the programming again, in which case it is possible the cartridges are outdated and you need new chips. If it is a few months old, this is highly unlikely. If the chip was packaged separately in the cartridge box, did you remember to plug it into the cartridge? Turn off the printer, take the cartridge out and try removing and resetting the chip. Shake it a little and put it back in. Are you sure it is reporting the correct cartridge? Sometimes after you replace the cyan, it suddenly reports a problem and you assume it's the cyan you just replaced but it's actually a different one which came loose or is now empty. Try reseating or replacing a different cartridge. Of course it's always possible that something happened to damage the chip on the cartridge. I have seen this happen with genuine epson as well. In this case the cartridge must be replaced.
Remember that it is possible that all the cartridges must be changed before the printer will recognize them. The printer's memory may need to be cleared. Remove all the cartridges, turn the printer on and off for each cartridge (4 times for a 4-color printer, 6 times for a 6-color printer) then insert all the cartridges.
Error cycle - first one cartridge then the next reports an error
error cycle article
Cartridge doesn't print
The printer recognizes the cartridge and shows it as full but that color does not print: Did you take the tape off the top of the cartridge (or on the refillable cartridge, did you remove the clear plastic plug on top)? It covers a tiny air hole. Air has to get in for ink to flow out. If you did remove the tape, perhaps a tiny bit remains which is still covering the hole. Take a sharp object like a pin or scissors and carefully scrape the top of the cartridge to make sure the hole is uncovered. If that's not the problem, print a nozzle check pattern. Does ANY of that color print? If there is some showing, perhaps the print heads for that color are clogged. Run a head cleaning and try another nozzle check. Did it get better? If so, you have a head clog. You may have to run several cleanings, but not too many. If there is no improvement after 3 or 4, stop. Running more can damage the printer.
If that doesn't help, here are steps which may unclog your print head:
leave the printer on for a day
run several head cleanings and print the nozzle check pattern
if that doesnt fix it, remove the cartridge(s) from the blocked head and drop alcohol where the ink enters the printer.
reinsert the cartridges
run one head cleaning
wait about an hour then run some head cleanings.
if that still doesnt work, your heads may be clogged to the point where they need repair or replacement, which will probably cost more than a new printer.
You can also try our Epson head cleaning kit which has often solved this problem.
Cartridges are intermittently not recognized
Photos are intermittently no good
Symptoms: 1) At random times, the printer will complain about a different cartridge not being recognized. You take it out and put it back in and it works. Then some time later the printer will complain about a different cartridge. 2) You print a photo and it looks good. You print another photo and it looks washed out, with some color missing.
The printer does not print directly from the cartridge. It prints from a small reservoir of ink which is replenished by the cartridge. What is happening here is the the printer is using the ink faster than the reservoir is being replenished. Photos can take a lot of ink. When the printer doesn't get enough ink, it often reports 'cartridge not recognized' instead of 'low ink.' Set your printer to the slowest setting. Turn off high speed and bidirectional printing. Photos will take longer to print but the quality will be much better.
None of these suggestions work. What next?
We have a full replacement or money-back guarantee on our cartridges as long as the customer behaves reasonably. We will replace or refund for a reasonable number of open cartridges and any number of sealed ones returned to us as long as you follow the simple guidelines. If you bought your cartridges elsewhere, good luck.
Click here for warranty details
We consider ourselves more than reasonable in dealing with customers and go the extra mile to make sure no one is disappointed. However, sometimes a few individuals make it difficult for everyone else. Wouldn't it be nice if everyone conducted themselves fairly and we wouldn't need lawyers and contracts to keep people honest? So while we would like to say 100% money-back guarantee, no questions asked, a few people have made it impossible to do this without adding some conditions. They can be summed up in two words: be reasonable.
If there is a problem with one or two of our cartridges, we will replace them. If three cartridges, we will refund the purchase price for those cartridges and any unopened ones returned within a reasonable amount of time. If a printer uses four or six different cartridges (black and 3-5 colors) and you opened one of each, we will take those back. But don't open more than one of each color and expect a refund.
Why this limit? It is always possible that one or two were defective. This can happen (and has) even with genuine Epson products. But if it is two of the same color, this indicates a problem with the printer itself. What happens is the print head gets jammed. The printer reports out of ink. The customer puts in a new cartridges and it still won't print. The customer assumes the cartridge is defective and tries a second. At that point, the customer should realize it is a printer problem. Even if the customer believes it to be a cartridge problem, if two don't work, there is no point in continuing to open the rest. Return them for a refund. But we did have at least one person order a dozen black cartridges, then return them all opened (and empty) six months later, claiming they were all defective. We did not refund in that situation. Another customer received 12 black cartridges on a hot day in a southern state. Exposure to heat creates pressure within the cartridge. (So does exposure to extreme cold.) He then emailed to say all 12 cartridges spewed ink when he removed the yellow tape. Had he called or emailed after opening the first one or two, we could have told him to put them in a refrigerator and let them cool off before opening. (And had it been a cold day, we would have recommended letting them warm up.) But if the first one spewed and then the second, why continue to open all 12? We have to protect ourselves from geniuses like that. Incidentally, we did send another 6 and that person is still a loyal customer. But we went beyond our warranty and are not obligated to do so in the future.
Another customer tried to charge back a large order on his credit card many months later, claiming they were all defective. He never called or emailed. Even if it were true (which it wasn't), it would not have taken months to determine that an entire batch was defective. He would have tried one and when it didn't work, try a second and at that point contacted us. Fortunately, when we spoke to his credit card company, they agreed that our warranty was reasonable and since he made no attempt to contact us, they denied his charge back.
A reasonable time limit to return an entire order for refund is about a month. That doesn't mean we won't give more time but we have to put some time limit on it. We have a 60-day window in which we can reverse a charge or refund a paypal payment. Naturally, if someone buys a quantity of cartridges, we can't expect them to test all of them within a month. So if they bought a quantity and a few months later find that one didn't work properly, we will replace it or add extra to their next order. But the excuse "I know I bought these 6 months ago but I just got around to using them" doesn't cut it. What's to stop anyone from buying anything - a MP3 player, computer, car, etc and saying they didn't use it until after the warranty expired? The warranty begins from date of purchase, not the date they decide to use it.
We have given refunds or made exchanges months after the purchase date when there was good reason. For example, customers who bought a quantity of cartridges and then had to buy a new printer which couldn't take the old cartridges. We almost always take back sealed cartridges. But we don't want to be obligated to do so, hence the limitations in the warranty.
If you experience a problem, email or call first. Often we can resolve the problem over the phone. We get very few cartridges back and most of those work just fine in our printers. If we can't solve it, the next step would be to replace or refund. We may require that you send the product back to us. We do not send prepaid potage labels or reimburse your shipping. If this is for replacement or exchange, we will add extra to cover your costs. This is what you accept when placing your order online. If you buy an item from a store and it doesn't work, it must be returned to the store. You can't call them up and expect go get your money back. If you expect a refund without returning the merchandise, shop elsewhere.
When returning opened ink cartridges, you must be careful to seal them against leaks. If they leak, the Post Office will dispose of them without delivery. Tape the bottom of the cartridge where the printer punctured it and the top where you removed the yellow tape. Place them in a baggie. Do not put closed cartridges in the same baggie. Return them to:
Izzy Goodman
2412 Oceancrest Blvd
Far Rockaway, NY 11691
We supply schools, professional printers, and corporations. We do very little advertising. Most of our customers come to us by referral from other customers. We must be doing something right (and our cartridges must be working properly) to achieve this track record. As long as your expectations are reasonable, we will be more than reasonable.
Our warranty only covers the cartridges bought from us and for up to the amount paid us. We do not cover any other expenses. If someone waited until the day an important job was due and discovered a cartridge didn't work and had to run out and pay a lot more somewhere else, they can't expect us to refund the amount they paid for the other cartridge. We had one customer say since a cartridge didn't work and she couldn't find another one, she bought a whole new printer and expected us to pay for it. Sorry, but that's not the way it works. Another customer complained that his 4-year old printer stopped working a year and a half after putting in our cartridges so it had to be the fault of our cartridges and therefore he expected us to buy him a new printer. I hope anyone reading this understands why this is not a reasonable expectation. If not, please shop elsewhere.
Don't wait until the last second to do a critical job. At about $4 a cartridge, there is no reason not to have a backup. Someone's failure to spend an extra $4 does not impose $100 obligation on us. An entire set of our cartridges cost less than a single Epson cartridge. Instead of spending $60-$100 for one set of Epsons, spend $30 to $60 for two to three sets of ours. With our special bonuses for buying backup sets, there is no excuse not to be prepared.
We do not offer lifetime free replacements. Cartridges do not contain any moving parts. There is no particular reason a reusable or refillable cartridge can't last for years. We have a set going on four years. However, electronic chips can be damaged by stray voltage, liquid, or being touched by sweaty fingers. So don't count on your cartridge lasting forever. We typically replace it free within a few months of purchase. But we did have a professional print shop with multiple printers buy a single set of refillable cartridges and move it from printer to printer. Naturally doing this caused the ink to be used very quickly. Every time time cartridges are inserted in a printer, they go through a charging process which uses a good deal of ink. This print shop kept calling to complain the ink was being used too quickly. In four months we had sent five replacements for the four cartridges they bought. In all that time, despite our reminders, they never took the obvious step of buying a set for each printer. Expecting unlimited lifetime replacements of a $4 item is not reasonable. Epson won't do it and their cartridges cost five times more and give one-third the ink.
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