Digital BW, The Print

>...
> After replacing a cart I seem to have to wait overnight for 
>it to flow ink well enough (or whatever else is happening)
> to get a clean nozzle check and/or make a print.

It's probably air at the outlet.  This could be caused by a less than great
vacuum when loading the ink.  It may be that using a bottom fill adapter and
pulling a bit of ink out the outlet to "prime" the cartridge would work.  Of
course, it would also waste some ink.  I always prime the new carts I load
from the top because air is always trapped just above the outlet.  Once the
cart have been primed once, it's usually good for many re-fillings.

> No amount of cleaning cycles make it flow better.

The sponge will not release ink fast enough to support many cleaning cycles
in succession.  

> OE color carts never do this. 

Epson pulls a better vacuum, I believe.  Thus there is no air at the outlet.

The vast majority of 2200 carts that are half sponge have worked well for
me.  Occasionally one just does not seem to transfer ink from the reservoir
to the sponge correctly or the system is pulling air around the sponge as
opposed to pulling ink out of it.  This is usually only with a very old cart
or one that has run totally dry.

At any rate, I'm not 100% sure what the problem is, but I'm guessing air at
the outlet due to an imperfect vacuum on filling.

Paul
www.PaulRoark.com