johnson4

Personally I believe these inks are thicker In viscosity than stock and if the head has to “ suck” harder at all- it wears it out faster. I believe they are designed to be in a neutral state, with the damper pressurized behind the printhead reservoir. When the printhead uses the ink in the damper it slowly opens the valve where new ink is forced in quickly closing the valve. Making it require very little suction or work on the printhead. any deviation from that and the printhead has to create a larger “ suction” to activate the damper and it soon dies from the extra work. This would also make it more prone to clogging during this time. A higher viscosity ink will cause this. In my mind I imagine if you do a head clean it “pre loads” this pressure and damper. Sort of removing the extra work on the printhead until that equalizes again. After a few prints the thicker ink is hard for the printhead to overcome and results in lost nozzles again. Cycle over and over until the head gives out on that channel. I tested this a bit with an R2400 and P400 since they are gravity fed. I assumed by design they would be a bit more “resilient” due to their design. The two that also had this issue. I flushed them and reloaded the ink, same. Flushed them added DYE ink, printed perfect. Put back in DTF, poor results. Went back to dye, perfect. I did the same with a couple of the failed P800s and while some nozzles were permanently gone, all the channels came back quickly. that’s my speculation of it. I know it sounds stupid, but I also feel like the older the cmyk ink gets, even in sealed containers, the thicker it gets. I should get a viscosity meter and test the theory. to kind of go along with this theory- ALL aftermarket dampers I have used in ANY of my Epson’s, never work like the original if at all. Dropped channels, dropped nozzles, intermittent drop outs, all kinds of stuff. constant nozzle checks and cleans. I mean never- has it worked well. I have tons of knock off dampers that give me this type of issue, throw in an OEM damper and I’m good for 4-6 months after priming it. so I’ve been using only ( expensive) OEM dampers, but, beats the alternative. overall I genuinely believe it’s a finely tuned system, these inks push that to the limit and sometimes beyond that limit depending on the supplies used. I am happy to say I haven’t had any issues like this since doing the aforementioned. As long as I flush, clean, and change my dampers regularly and keep an eye on my ink expiration I get to enjoy the one head clean a day life. I am kind of testing this theory a bit on my models I use now. I printed an ink line adapter to use the OEM damper assy and bypass the white ink cartridge bays. I used a medical grade submersible pump to mix the ink in the tank without introducing air and pressurized the ink container to 2Psi with about another 2 Psi due to the height over the printhead. overall it’s been working fantastic, cost me about $100 to build and I’m still testing it. In theory if you added the CMYK they would share the pressure pump and not need the mixing pumps, so it would be much cheaper to add those. I don’t because I don’t need to refill CMYK that much and don’t want a giant row of ink tanks unnecessarily. this kind of also tests that theory, because if I remove the pressure pump and make the ink level even( not lower than, just an equal pressure)- making the head do all the work- it drops nozzles almost immediately- head clean- few good prints- another head clean. it’s why I went the route I did and pressurized the tanks. may not be helpful at all, but food for thought.

Odd, almost same boat- except magenta and cyan when I used the P800’s. It usually wasn’t immediately though. The last one I modified the pressure pump so it would build up a bit higher pressure and it solved my flow issues. I didn’t use it long after that though, I switch models for faster speed. I personally assumed it was the viscosity of the ink back. I ran new bottles of ink through a new damper as a filter and only one bottle did leave settlement on the filter. however, on those models I switched to- I Leaned the CMYK ink gives me Shi* when it’s 5-6 months old almost exactly. Likely what happened to the p800’s. I throw away any close to that and keep fresh ink and I’m good to go, haven’t had an issue since. the DTG inks I used in my p800 DTG never had any issues at all. It sat for months without issue at times except needing to flush the settled white ink. something to consider, the dampers not only have the filter but they also have a small needle valve in them that the ink passes through. Working them manually with your own pressure doesn’t mean inside the printer running at its standard pressure will let it function properly. You could test this, but would need to test the PSI of the printer and replicate it outside of the printer or compare it to a new damper. hope you figure it out.

Maybe. You have one line for the MK, which goes unused generally. just let us know it goes when you change the damper.

Personally I have little tips that go on syringes so I can check them. If replacing it doesn’t work, it likely means there is something wrong with the ink bay, which would be odd.

This wouldn’t be a damper problem. If it goes forward under capping station suction and sucks air back into it into the lines as you describe without the pressure pump releasing- it’s an ink cartridge/ink bay problem. For whatever reason ink isn’t flowing into the lines from that channel. Usually the cartridge. check that cartridge.

It shouldn’t flow back, unless the pressure pump is releasing pressure. If it is, then it’s normal. If dampers are new and function correctly and you manually flushed the ink bay without issue and it’s not the capping station- it only leaves the printhead being clogged very badly.

Wow, that’s really low humidity compared to what I am used to. I run my printers from 50F-80F without issue, as long as I keep the humidity the 45%+. Anytime my humidity drops below 40 I get clogging mid print, and one heck of a time when sitting over night or the weekend. I don’t know “ scientifically” but to me the temperature only really changes the viscosity of the ink, which hasn’t been a big deal until it hits in the 40’s in my workspace. The lower the humidity the faster the ink carrier evaporates since the air is drier pulling the moisture from it quicker. for me it’s hard in the summer to keep humidity up when I run the A/C since it inherently removes moisture from the air, winter time is a blessing, everything just works lol. It’s almost always over 50 percent humidity here, unless in an air conditioned space so I’m lucky in that aspect. I wish you luck and hope you can figure it out, hopefully that fixes your issue.

I wouldn't know then, unfortunately unless your cartridges are clogged. They have filters in them that can clog, or gunk build up around the port. Me personally on this machine 2 heavy head cleans would clear the white ink from the ink lines. I do know my next step would be to check the cartridges, if no change then remove the damper assy and see if I can push fluid from the cartridge bay out of the lines easily. If not, then there is something wrong with that. If it does fine, I would replace the dampers. This is of course assuming I had already checked the waste pump had a good suction/seal with cleaning solution and manually rotating it. Anytime you don't have ink flow and do a head clean, you risk damaging the printhead in two ways. One the suction of no ink flow can damage the seal on the printhead, it can only handle so much vacuum before there is a permanent leak/damaged seal. Sometimes all it takes is one go. the other way is with this suction, air will suck back up into the printhead once removed from the capping station and dry out whatever ink is left in there. It's not a good situation to be in frankly because it's a double edge sword on the printhead. If this happens I will wet cap with cleaner directly after a head clean until I can find and fix the issue, this would stop the printhead from having air go up into it and drying out essentially protecting it in that way- if it wasn't damaged from the suction already. I went through 10 of these printers in my day. Hopefully you get it situated!

Personally I’d never do cleanings without ink flow. Can damage the head seals. Is your ink cart pressure pump running?

It could, more important than temperature is your humidity depending on what method you are using to heat the area. Over here I don't have to worry about it, even when it's cold it's humid. If your humidity is less than 45-50% that can cause issues as well, but generally you would see that on a nozzle check. Humidity is more important than temperature in my eyes, as that is what will determine the rate at which the ink dries/clogs as it sits in the head waiting to be jetted. Does that machine use STS inks?

Usually when I print a color block of each individual color C M Y K with and without an under base it will show if there is an issue and what is causing that issue if it's related to the ink or jetting. Could be a film issue too.

Have you tried printing a few large blocks of solid color? See how it does with that?

The P6000 so far has been really easy as well. Easy to work on and I predict it will print 40 11" X 11" prints an hour. My P5000 prediction was accurate before I bought them, verified first hand. So I don't see why this one would be any different. The P6000 does need work done to it to convert it though, unlike the P5000. on my P6000 conversion, No worries of the ink chips, simple and easy WIMS system and waste bottle system. Just need a Waste tank resetter to reset the empty waste tank every now and again and it should be good to go in that aspect. For the angle of the film I made a bracket to feed it into the shaker which converts the film from a downward angle to straight out of the machine. Maybe 1 hour into the conversion and it's almost finished. It's weird, but the more expensive machines are easier to work on, easier to find parts, and have alot of the "perks" you wish you had on the smaller machines built in. After this one though that'll be it. So I'll stick to these machines or buy a Chinese machine.

The P800 was good, even though it runs the same head as the P600 the ink system is far different and works well. It was very susceptible to failure from heads trikes though. It runs closer to the film than I'd like. I modified it so it was higher and made adjustments, but in the end it was slower and a pain to keep the output level. The P5000 has so far been the most reliable and easiest printer to run, repair, and gives the most consistent results. The capping station replacement is 2 screws. That's it. The downfall to this one is that it needs the ink manifold flushed every 2-3 months and dampers changed, which are like $15 each.(X5 every change) BUT, well worth it and all I need to do to keep it running. It has a built in roll holder and cutter, and a built in vacuum system. For this machine there is no conversion needed, just use aftermarket carts and a roll of film instead of paper- That's it to get started. No head strikes, can cut the film for you, It has been a blessing compared to all the rest. I am also working with a P6000 as one of my last DIY projects. I've decided to move on beyond this once I finish what I have already started. I can't put my family on hold forever, so once the P6000 is working I will be done with anything new( That excludes my current systems that are DIY) in the DIY aspect, at least that is the plan.

No worries. That is the CMYK ink I use correct. Yeah, I know what you mean. I have been DIYing it since 2016 with inkjet printers. The amount I thought I would save, along with the time- It didn't come out as expected. In the long run, I would have saved money buying a good machine upfront. However, that wasn't really possible due to cost. So I struggled through with the cheap ones until they earned enough to buy a better/faster machine. Frontloading debt with any business is rough, especially in a volatile environment so I didn't do that. Even so, I am still in the middle of that process almost 7 years later. I see so many people trying to " get in" and undercutting profits with DTF to the point that you can't make back the costs without hundreds of hours of free labor, for one example. I would hate to drop $16,000 ( which I technically don't have) on a machine that would then require 50+ rolls of transfers to be ran through it plus all the free work associated with that before breaking even if you don't break anything- which is unlikely. So most people start cheap and try to build a foundation, so they can easily " get out" unscathed if the load of cinderblocks never arrive so to speak. Unfortunately at that point you run through a ton of parts and machines and time before you really get anywhere, and it's so inconsistent you can't keep regular customers. Gotta pick one though and hope it works, either way it sucks, haha.

Not a problem. The adapter I talk about is this one, or something like this one: https://digitalsigntech.net/PHD-LE-Kit.html Just select water based and the right printhead. Yea, I have been there and done that. I had to rent a 20 foot dumpster to rid of all of my broken machines from my DIY attitude.

I'm sure you have noticed no reputable company has ever advised to do this, even if it meant the company had to issue out a new free printhead to the customer. They would just issue the new printhead and be done with it.

Anytime I have manually cleaned the printhead in this machine, even being as gentle as possible- I always end up with a bad printhead in some form. Issue after issue after issue. Some Epson heads are more fragile than others. The DX11 and TFP printhead are resilient compared to any other printheads I have worked with from Epson or any other company. These machines, Anytime I put enough pressure to " waterfall" it was the end of the printhead. Not an instant death, but it would never print correctly again. Things like dropped colors, nozzles, print a page fine then nothing- etc. The p600/P800 share the same printhead, at least in design. The P800 head works in the P600, but not the other way around. You can buy an adapter that you bolt the printhead to, that SUCKS the fluid from the printhead. It's a kit. It has one cleaning line/syringe on each "nipple" in the head. Then you suck that channel with another syringe. This doesn't put pressure pushing outwards, rather a suction which is preferred. The white ink takes time to cause issues, and only really if you are low volume printing or letting it sit for days at a time. That would be separation in the ink lines/ink bay and then clogging the dampers. Me personally, to flush the printhead I use 1. The adapter I talk about to create a " suction". anything over 2-3PSI in " pressure" causes damage. You need more than that to create the waterfall effect.. or 2. a spare P600 filled with only cleaning solution and clean the printhead over the course of a few days along with wet capping the head with cleaning solution. I have killed over 5 P600 heads- each time the final straw was manually flushing it. Once I stopped doing that and letting the printer handle the cleaning it was easy going. Unrelated, Also cleaning the ink bay for the white ink to prevent that side of issues- They ran flawlessly after that. Another thing to consider is your ink. I buy my stuff from DTFSUPERSTORE. If I remember correctly they say the CMYK ink is good for 12 months. Me personally, ever since I started using their (the cheap not wide format) ink It's more like 6 months. I mean that, a hard 6 months. My experience: The CMYK ink following the printed date on the bottom of the bottle loaded into 3 different machines. No issues. Works great. Randomly I will get that issue of a clog, so I do a clean and while that clog comes out, another comes in it's place. over and over. They'll also drop out mid print ( not entirely, just nozzles). When I go look at the ink I am using it is always 6 months or older. So I tested this theory of course. I used a brand new machine. Loaded the older ink ( 6-8 month old from date on bottom of bottle) and the same occurred right away. I simply loaded in fresher ink ( 2-3 months old) and the problem is gone once I flush the ink lines of the old ink. One head clean a day and not another thing after that for months. I did this a few different times on different machines. Same results, new or old. So I put that theory into action keeping in mind the date on the bottle. As a result, I throw away any CMYK ink over 6 months old and only order what I need for that timeframe. I no longer experience this at all with this specific CMYK ink. Every now and again I will get a cyan that doesn't "mix" well with the white ink, but it doesn't cause any issues, just turns the white layer cyan in the cyan heavy spots. Iv'e only had 2 bottles like this out of maybe 20 liters. I also noticed ink that is "open" should be sealed well. It seems to " thicken" even with the lid closed tightly. I put mine in zip lock bags after opening with the air removed and it stopped doing that. So- To put it plainly, It could also be your ink. I tried Kodak ink, but the yellow doesn't work with DTFSUPERSTORE's white ink at all. I won't use any other white ink, as this is the best white ink I have found so I am sticking with it and am using the CMYK ink from there as well. I have used over 100 rolls of film with this ink and have it down to a T what to do and what not to do, as well as the symptoms and solutions from printer maintenance to supply issues. I personally have tested Kodak inks ( DTFSUPERSTORE "super inks), Wide format inks, regular ink from DTFsuperstore, STS inks, and random chinese branded inks. I get the best most repeatable results from DTFsuperstore so that is what I use and stick with. I Just watch for the dates. If you research ( with photos under a microscope) how an Epson printhead works, you will be amazed anyone does half the stuff they do to them. Let the machine handle it, fix the real problem and don't end up wasting money. Some people get lucky, some lie about it or repeat what others have said with no bearing on what they are saying. If you held everyone accountable for their advice, I doubt this would be done to printheads as often as it is- at least the way people are doing it. Good luck!

If it's set to roll printing in the RIP then it's the paper sensor on the bottom of the printhead. Just put a white sticker on the edge of the film when loading for the edge detection, it only needs to detect it once if the RIP actually supports roll printing. After that it will print continuously. Generally a good film will be opaque enough to not have to do this though. I have seen the same model of printer have varying results though, I guess sensor sensitivity. If the printer works fine the first time, then the 2nd time spits some out, says paper out, and does that over and over again until you remove and reinstall- then that is a RIP setting.

Good luck with everything.

I had a lot of p800’s. They are good, but has very little room for error- the head is closer to the film so head strikes are often with it. One good headstrike, it’s done. If you can keep that from happening it’s a good printer, has a good ink system. Replace the dampers every 3-4 months. The ink settles in it, but shake the carts daily and do a heavy head clean and it’s good to go. there is nothing about the stock ink system to break in the P800 due to the white Ink except the dampers. all it ever needs part wise is dampers. I’ve only had to replace the capping station once on one of them. P400 was good too, especially if you ran good ink through it. I started with those. They are just as fragile as the others though. I have a fleet of dead printers, haha.

Not a problem at all. Sublimation ink is dye based and would work well in those types of printers I'd imagine.

I absolutely do. If you haven’t ever had an eco tank printer- they are very poorly made. I have had 3 of them. 2 repaired under warranty. All malfunctioning with OEM use within a year. My WF series printers with aftermarket inks were running before I bought the ET printers- and still after those new ET machines broke. The price of them- you are paying for the “ upfront” cost of no ink cartridges mixed with a lower quality printer. everyone I have known to use them ultimately they end up disappearing after some catastrophic problem or end up with the 15000. You can buy one and love it, or buy one and learn why it was a bad idea. It’s like a game of financial Russian roulette. it’s hard to find a good low volume machine, because the nature of the process, this low volume use is what breaks them. I’m telling you, this guy on here knows what he is doing with the xp-15000 machines. Check out his kit with the white ink management and all of the aftermarket controls including white ink circulation. About $450 I think it was for this machine. In my day, my “ low volume use” printer was the Epson P400 which worked well, I roll printed with it. Carts are real and not what the 15000 takes, so it’s easy and never leaked. Sucks they discontinued them.

The P5000 is best for lots of daily printing. xp-15000 good for small scale in my opinion. Chipless firmware advancements has been dead since the xp15000 that I am aware of. the conversion is as easy or difficult as you would like. It can be as simple as loading refillable carts and being done. Long term usage on any printer is difficult, so if it’s not going to see at least 200-300 12” x 12”s a week I’d advise against it. just your basic chip resetter. Once it runs out, reset it and put it back in. They are 250ML carts so it’s not often needed. In theory you can do anything you want, as I’ve found. But you’ll ultimately exchange something for the experience and knowledge. Your best bet is to buy refillable cartridges. I am down sizing personally. DTF has become saturated and has started to get a bad name due to poor quality sellers. I ran 3 P400’s- then 3 P600’s- Then 3 P800’s, then 3 P5000’s. i am moving over to 1 P6000 and one P5000 DTF and bringing back 2 of my DTG machines. It’s become quite scarce, people are looking for DTG softness again so for the finished product side of the business that’s where I’m going. I converted a washer/dryer for bulk hassle free pre treating garments. Works very well. I have learned there is no best method or “ one for all”. It’s what’s best for the application and CMYK DTG is hard to beat. So I’m splitting it up between DTG, Screen printing, and DTF. my point is be certain, otherwise it’ll turn into a regret and waste of money if you go with a bigger machine than the 15000. None of them will save the hassle of maintenance and repair costs.

That’s part of the reason Chinese machines are enticing. Crazy on those prices, I remember when refurb P800’s were $500 delivered and the ink was worth $400. P700/P900 I have no idea, they are new and don’t have Chipless or aftermarket chips- so to me won’t work. ANY ET printer is a waste of time and money in my opinion, but I’ve never used one for DTF. I have helped a few people with them, ultimately they are worse than the 15000. I’ve had 3 with dye ink, and I would never imagine using them for anything else. All 3 broke with normal OEM printing in less than a year. that’s why people are going with the P5000, still in production and has unlimited resettable chips. It’s about the only one left that seems worthwhile. That or a P6000 with a P6080 mainboard with ARC chips. beyond that, Chinese printers is the way to go.