Epson 2880 clogging..Help ME!

Erin Smith , Aug 28, 2008; 09:31 p.m.

I just bought an epson 2880 three weeks ago and i am already having terrible clogging problems. I did everything in the utilities to clean it and make it better, but it isn't going away. I've printed out about two hundred images and I'm already having problems. Isnt it a little early to have problems with this printer. i am not sure what to do to get these bands out of my images.. but i need to fix this problem ASAP because i have some deadlines and it is costing me so much money to waste so much ink and paper. is it acting up because I am printing alot? Or because it is 90 degrees. My printer is sitting on my desk near the window. Would that affect it? Thanks! Erin :)

Responses

Lad Lueck , Aug 28, 2008; 10:35 p.m.

The stock responses: Make sure you correctly power off the printer with the printer's panel power switch. Power off the printer when not in use. Make sure you are using genuine Epson ink. There are fakes out there. Google for example fakes. The sun-heating will make the ink carrier evaporate faster. Shade the printer, or move it to a cooler location. If you have to, just turn the printer on, let it self-clean, then turn it off every couple days.

Charles Monday , Aug 29, 2008; 12:48 a.m.

If you got the printer 3 weeks ago it should still be in warranty. The first thing to do is contact Epson support and follow their recomendations.
Yes, the higher temperaturers can cause the ink to dry up faster resulting in clogged heads.
Older and it is assumed the newer Epson printers run a 3 cycle cleaning rountine. 1st clean is a quick flush, 2nd a more thorough cleaning and the 3rd one a heavy cleaning. The cleaning is just pumping ink thru the head as fresh ink will act as a solvent to the dried ink in the heads and cause the dried ink to liquify and flush out of the head. Excessive cleanings in sucession can cause a completely pluged up head. Print a few pages after every 3 cleanings when doing manual cleanings to clear a clog or banding problems. Use plain paper for the test and head clearing prints. Purge.zip contains a file called purge 8 that works well for the head clearing print outs. Scaled to fit the page it will print out a 7/8 inch wide stripe for each color the lenght of the page. One to two pages of purge 8 printed normally results in correct ink flow and correct printing. There are patterns for each indivual color that can be printed to a full page if one color is malfunctioning. (MIS inks preform 99.99% of Epsons as do a very few others.)
Epson cartridges sometimes do not flow ink properly straight from the package or fail part way through the cartridge and must be replaced to correct the printing problem.

Kory Gunnarsen , Aug 29, 2008; 12:37 p.m.

Keep the head moist, this will help it not dry out. Get a cover for it to help hold in the moisture. Do the warranty thing first though, let them deal with it.