Message
Re: Troubleshooting Epson Artisan 1430 -- nozzle checks failing
2016-02-16 by rdeloe1@...
The weight of evidence started pointing to the printer being damaged (or perhaps flawed from Day 1). Therefore, I took a chance and bought a replacement. I'm very happy to report that I was right! I'll never know if the printer was defective from the outset, or if I damaged it during the lengthy process of trying to get my original set of bad carts -- and all their replacements -- to work. More than the money, I regret the huge amount of time I spent diagnosing, cleaning, testing, re-diagnosing, cleaning, testing... Live and learn...
I moved my CIS from the old printer to the new one and am making flawless prints. Well, the observer can decide if my photographs are flawless! ;) I just mean the prints coming off the printer are exactly as they should be -- no banding due to misfiring nozzles, no drips... so far... Fingers crossed that it stays like this.
Tom: you wondered (above) if it could be because I am using pigment inks. I really don't think that was the issue. Lots of people are using this printer with Eboni ink. There may be a long-term effect, but I haven't heard that either.
As an aside, if you're thinking of installing a CIS on an Epson 1430, I highly recommend the one from Cobra Inks. It's very well designed and put together; some of the ones you can buy seem to be little more than hoses jammed into bottles. This unit seems to have been built from parts that were purpose built to be a CIS. They even put the black tank on the outside of the set on the assumption that black ink will finish first; that was a thoughtful design decision. It works extremely well with the Eboni pigment ink I'm using. I especially like never having to pull the "cartridge" end out of the holders. There's one switch to reset all the chips at once. Once the ink button flashes because the printer thinks a cartridge is empty, you press and hold the button for 3 seconds -- and all cartridges are full again. Cobra has posted all their installation videos so you can see how the unit installs and works before buying. And no, I have no financial or other interest in this company.