Do not attempt to purge your print head by injecting water, alcohol or Windex or anything else directly into the print head. It can lead to problems if not done exactly right. The above purging procedure is the safest and most reliable purge method.

If you were previously using Lysonic ink, then you must first purge your printer using either a Lysonic or MIS cleaning cartridge. The Lysonic ink is not compatible with Epson ink or MIS ink. The cleaning fluid will get rid of the incompatible ink before the MIS ink is introduced. Follow the same procedure as above when using the cleaning cartridge.

If you are changing from Epson color ink to MIS Quadtone ink you can use the cleaning cartridge to observe the purging progress. As you begin to print with the clear fluid in the cleaning cartridge, you will see the old color ink start to disappear as you print your purge patterns. If you still have color or black left in the print head after 5 pages of each color, you can continue to print until all traces of color or black are gone. This is not really necessary, because after you remove the cleaning cartridges and install the quadtone cartridges, you will have to run the purge procedure again to get the cleaning fluid out of the print head. However, sometimes it is comforting to know that all the color is gone, but it is extra work.

Flipping back and forth from archival to quadtone or from archival to Epson ink is not a good idea. You should plan on dedicating the printer to just one type of ink. Minor banding and color problems can occur if you do not do a good job of purging out the old ink.


 

1. With the printer switched on, remove all four ink cartridges from the printer.
   
   
2. Turn off printer. The printer will now run a cleaning cycle which will automatically empty any remaining inks from the ink feed pipes and the print head. Wait until this operation has finished and all the indicator lights on the printer have gone off.
   
   
3. Switch the printer on and then off again after 5-10 seconds.
   
   
4. Place the Quadtone or Archival cartridges into the printer and turn the machine on. The printer will prime the lines and print head with the new ink. This operation can take several minutes.
   
   
5. Wait for the printer to be idle.
   
   
6. Print full page of each color; 100% Cyan (#00FFFF), 100%Magenta (#FF00FF), 100% Yellow (#FFFF00), 100% Black (#000000) on some inexpensive paper. If you are using Quadtone ink they will come out in shades of black. This will get rid of any residual ink of the old type left in the printer. Print about 5 pages of each color to be sure the new ink is in place. This will get you to the 98% point. To get to the 100% point, several more pages of each color is required. You will get good results at the 98% point. Some customers report it takes as many as 40 8.5 x 11 pages to get to the 100% point.
   
   
7. If you previously were using Lysonic ink, you must purge the printer using either Lysonic or MIS cleaning cartridges before installing the new MIS ink cartridges. Then after installing the MIS cartridges, you will have to purge again to get the cleaning fluid out of the printer. This is necessary because the Lysonic ink is not compatible with Epson or MIS ink.
   
   
8. If any banding is present, run a nozzle check/nozzle clean cycle in the normal way. If the printer is skipping or not printing properly, go back to step one and repeat the process.
9. Printer is now ready to use.
   
   

1. Turn on the printer while holding down the bottom three buttons:
   "Cleaning" + "Cut" + "Paper Feed"
   The display reads: Check: Test
2. Press the "Paper Source/ Item" button 5 times.
   The display reads: Check: Adjustment
3. Press "Enter"
4. Press the "Paper Source/ Item" button 2 times
   The display reads: Adj: Clean Head
5. Press "Enter"
6. The display reads: Please Remove Cartridges
   Remove the cartridges.
   The display reads: Please Lower Ink Lever
   Lower the Ink Levers
   The display reads: Please remove cartridges
   Press "Enter"
7. The display reads: "Cleaning"
8. When the display reads: Set Cleaning Jig, press "Pause" twice.
9. The display reads: Check Adjustment
   Press the "Paper Source/ Item" button 5 times.
10. The display reads: Check Cleaning
    Press "Enter"
11. The display reads: Cleaning: Std.kk0
    Press the "Paper Source/ Item" button once
12. The display reads: Init: Fill
    Load the cleaning cartridge set. Lower the Ink Levers.
13. Press "Enter"
    The printer primes with cleaning fluid. This process takes around 8 minutes. When all activity has stopped turn the machine off.
14. Turn machine on. Perform a nozzle check. The pattern will be very faint as the cleaning fluid is a clear solution. Press the "Clean" button and after one clean repeat the nozzle check. This runs the cleaning fluid through the nozzles of the print head.
15. Turn printer off.
16. Repeat steps 1 - 13 replacing the cleaning cartridges with your new ink set. Turn the machine off.
17. Turn machine on. Load media and perform a nozzle test and, if necessary, a head clean. When the pattern of lines in the nozzle test is unbroken you are ready to print.