Just got through my Christmas rush with no problems. Did a variety of ceramic tiles, Chromaluxe pictures, coasters,etc. with no problems & great results. Everything looked great! Continue to do my regular nozzle checks, Here's my situation. It was printing nozzle checks fine, now when I print them.....all colors have gone black. My system is a 4800 Hybrid system with Black, cyan, magenta, yellow sublijet on left side and Black, cyan, magenta, yellow Chromablast on right side. Have had system for 18 months. Do I need to purge the system? Have I done too many cleanings at one time and need to let it settle out? Confused......What has happened all of a sudden?
Thanks in advance for your comments.
Your "flush box" has probably backed up with ink. This is the square pad that is just to the left of the "capping station". The print head docks to the right side when it is not printing, and the capping station pushes up against the print head to keep it from drying out. When you do a head cleaning, the capping station pulls ink through the nozzles and it is pumped down into the Waste Ink Tank. Before the printer starts printing, it moves slightly to the left of the capping station, and sprays its jets into the flush box, and then starts printing. The ink is supposed to run down through the flush box, through a tube and down into the Waste Ink Tank. It runs by gravity, and the ink can gel up before it runs down and backs up, and creates a "bubble" of ink on top of the flush box that extends upward. Eventually, it gets high enough that when you are printing, it smears across the print head, and causes clogging and the problem you described. The flush box can very easily be taken out and cleaned. Feel free to give me a call if you need assistance.
Cindy,
This is a common problem with this printer. I usually slide the head to the left, spray the pads with alcohol, slide the head back into place, and hold the menu buttom down until the "clean" feature appears. It doesn't use that much ink and depending on how clogged your siphon tube is, you might have to do it 4-5 times, but it does work. Your inks are in a sealed system and when the tube clogs, it can't pull the inks through. Programs like "harvey's head cleaner" don't solve the problem because it takes more printing than just the little nozzle check to keep the tube clean.
Epson 4800 Hybrid Nozzle Check Problem 
