Troubleshooting Ink Flow Issues on Your ET-8550 After Installing New Dampers

Question:

We work on a converted ET-8550 doing DTF. We experienced a clog. I purchased your carriage conversion dampers and clog buster. After reassembly and a few cleanings, we are still not getting any ink flow. I believe everything was hooked up properly since I can see ink being sucked into dampeners, and I’m capping the station after power cleans. But when we go to print on paper to check, nothing comes out. Can you please help?

Answer:

We appreciate your feedback and interaction at BCH Technologies, especially with our YouTube channel. Thank you for writing to us! Your feedback is very important for helping us improve our technical skills.

It sounds like you have done everything right regarding the problem with your ET-8550, but if the ink is not moving through that particular channel, there may be something more serious going on than just a blockage in that printhead. 

Issue and Potential Fix Breakdown

Printhead Priming and Cleaning: You can refill your dampers with ink, and when the power is cleaned, ink can flow into the capping station. That means your printhead is being primed quite nicely. But power cleaning isn't the best thing to do all the time. Epson does not recommend doing power cleanings too close to each other; the printhead could be damaged. Try leaving at least 12 hours between cleanings. It may be because you have been power cleaning too much.

Hand-Drawn with Ink: If the printhead is adequately primed, carrying out additional power cleans will not be necessary. However, you can do safer manual priming more efficiently than power clean. You can manually draw ink from the waste tube when a printhead is parked at the capping station. While doing this, you might feel some hindrance as you note ink via the tubing. Once you see ink coming out of the waste tube, your printhead is properly cleaned

Fuse Check: If the Printhead seems to be primed properly and you are still getting blank strips, the next thing I would recommend you check is the 2 fuses on your mainboard, F1 and F2. These are needed for the printer to work right, but blown ones would explain why it is not working. Finally, check the FFC (Flexible Flat Cable) connections and ensure they are snug and not damaged.

More Tests: Ensure all connections are properly installed and secured, especially for the dampers & printhead. A slight separation or incorrect setting is all that it would take to mess up the ink flow.

Printer problems are challenging to handle as they are hands-on issues. So, we're not able to help you troubleshoot your printer or provide suggestions and support for fixing printers remotely. Local diagnostic facility service: We offer an in-person evaluation and repair (https://bchtechnologies.com/printer-repair-service). Due to high demand, we operate on a first-come-first-serve basis. It takes weeks for you to drop off or mail your ink cartridges. Through easy-to-navigate next steps, our services are designed to fix an entire printer and individual components through instructions supporting mail-in or local drop-off options. But we know our fees may not be the cheapest. We strongly suggest that you get help with self-help by reading online. If you want to look for a specific topic, search using the magnifying glass in the menu bar (to the right of "About") on our YouTube home page here:https://youtube.com/@bchtechnologies. Using the YouTube search field for specific questions with years' worth of video backup is more efficient. Other channels, such as YouTube, recommend similar videos, which can help.

Thanks again for writing to me. We hope this information helps you resolve the problem with your ET-8550. If you have more questions or concerns, please don't hesitate to contact us.