On Nov 6, 2004, at 1:51 PM, Alfred Loeb wrote:
Just took delivery of my Epson 4000. Noticed that the maintenance tank must
be totally replaced when full at a cost of $40. Can't it just be emptied?
In the grand scheme of things that's a fairly low cost so I wouldn't worry about it. Using the Epson recommended replacement and procedure it take seconds to remove the old on, install a new one and be on your way with the piece of mind that you're maintaining the printer exactly as per Epson's specs. On my 9600 I think a maintenance tank will need to be replaced after I've gone through maybe two full sets of 220ml ink carts. That a lot of printing and about $1200 worth of ink. $40 for a maintenance tank at that point isn't a major worry. There are those that do simply remove the adsorptive material and replace it with something else. You then have to reset the counter in the printer so that it thinks it has an empty tank. I've reset the counter on my 9600 in order to extend the life of a tank before replacing it. I'm sure exactly what the steps are to reset the counter on a 4000. If you search the archives or ask on one of the Epson Yahoo lists you'll find plenty of information. Look at the Epsonwideformat list and the Epson4000 list on Yahoo. One caution though... the tank will probably contain a lot more material than it appears to. The first time I hit full on the tank on my 9600 I kept look at it and thinking that there was still loads of capacity in there. I reset the counter and kept printing for quite a while. I finally went ahead and put a new one in. The old one still did not look overly full based on what the adsorbent material at the top looks like. However based on the difference in weight of the new tank, it was obvious that there was a LOT of ink in the old one. Letting it get too full can cause a service nightmare so I'd recommend keeping a spare tank on hand and just replace as needed.
Bob Smith
Accurate Image • Bob Smith Photographer • Waco Texas USA http://www.accurateimage.org
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