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Need Help Epson s60600 banding/missing nozzle

Tuanny

New Member
Hello printer is about 2 years old. Print a couple times a week getting some banding now did a nozzle check and some lines were missing did some heavy cleaning and its all good. but now but after a wallpaper printing getting bands again so i check the nozzle and is clogged again so did a light cleaning and is good. but it just keeps happening. seems to go away after a light clean but then returns after a bit.
is there something i need to check, replace or clean?
 

Boudica

Back to "educational purposes"
When you say cleaning... Are you manually cleaning around the heads, or letting the machine do it's cleaning?
 

Boudica

Back to "educational purposes"
I don't have your specific machine... We've got an s8600. Do a good manual cleaning around the heads, and the cap tops.
 

ikarasu

Active Member
I had the same issue. Does it happen after xx amount of ft? If you can't figure it out, below was my issue -

I was told it's likely the pump cap assembly or the duct - epsons manual tells the techs to replace the head, pump cap and duct at once.... But usually the duct and pump cap assembly fixes the problem.

I ended up doing all 3 since I bought a used machine and figured I'd start fresh with a new head anyways. Fixed the problem for me though.
 

Tuanny

New Member
after about 20feet or so of material i start to see some banding and have to do the machine Light cleaning to clear the nozzle and it works again for a bit before i have to repeat the process.
 

Boudica

Back to "educational purposes"
Not sure if this is an option with your model... But ours will just decide it needs to run a cleaning cycle during a print job. Fortunately it doesn't result in a "dry line" when it resumes printing. So, We have, on certain long jobs, upped the "cleaning schedule" at the printer... To prevent banding that was occurring after so many feet. Might give that a try?
 

ikarasu

Active Member
Yup. That was exactly my issue... Except for me it was 15 ft.

There's a temp fix... Under settings somewhere you can set it up to run a cleaning after 10 / 15 ft of prints. It'll make it so you can keep printing unti you get the issue resolved.

It does waste ink, so I wouldn't recommend it for the long term! Pump cap was roughly $200 and the assembly was $300. If your mechanically inclined both are pretty easy changes.... I was told I could do them one at a time to see if the issue fixed itself, but I just opted for all 3 and had the tech do it.
 

Tuanny

New Member
That sounds like it could be a media alignment issue. Go to page 73 in this user manual, it will tell you what to do. Try running these tests before printing

i usually do the auto media adjustment when i get bandings and the problems is solved. but this looks to be a different problem as it fails the nozzle check after 15-20 ft but does work after i do the light cleaning mode and able to print for a bit before it comes back.
 

mim

0_o
i usually do the auto media adjustment when i get bandings and the problems is solved. but this looks to be a different problem as it fails the nozzle check after 15-20 ft but does work after i do the light cleaning mode and able to print for a bit before it comes back.

Gotcha, I should've read your post more carefully. I manually clean the head once every week or two. Gunk builds up and I find myself using tweezers to pull out little hairs and other debris even after machine cleanings are done. If you haven't done that I'd definitely give it a shot.
 

Solventinkjet

DIY Printer Fixing Guide
Ink nozzles dropping out during printing is almost always a bad damper or other ink flow issue. I'd start with the dampers especially if they are over 1 to 2 years old.
 

Tuanny

New Member
update:
well I contacted Epson they wanted 3.8k for a flat fee repair based on the symptoms that i told them i had. so asked them if there was any other options and they said yes there is hourly rate for $175 + parts + traveling fees + lodging fees they also said i cant change the options once i pick it. so i decided with he hourly rate
2 days later i get a quote from DecisionOne.com and they quoted me 5.5k for printheads, pump caps, ducts and some rubber rings. and also said they cant get to me for another couple of weeks because i dont have warranty and im down in the list of non priority so he suggested me to call Epson and tell them i if they can do a one time warranty repair which was that 3.8k flat fee.
So i called Epson and asked them if they can do the one time warranty repair thing and they said okay.
the parts will arrive to me next day and a technician will contact me to set up an appointment for sometime next week. not sure if i made the right call cause those print heads were not cheap i think its not the printheads not but its kind of a gamble as i dont know much. well i sure hope they might as well change me new print heads even if it wasn't the problem.
 

Solventinkjet

DIY Printer Fixing Guide
When I had the issue every tech pointed to it being the dampers as well, however I believe on these printers the dampers aren't removable and it's the duct assembly you need to replace.

https://www.sdott-parts.com/epson-s...r-assy-r-esl-a-asp-right-1748896-1863425.html this is the right one - the s60 uses 2 assemblies.

I'm also not 100% sure, I can check my manual when I get home... But you may need the software to do this replacement.
At the end of the day the damper in that machine is a basic dual channel damper but they put 4 of them into a big unnecessary assembly and sell it for more money. I'm willing to bet you could take it all apart and just change the dampers but I have never had a chance to try to know 100%.

Also, it sounds like they are taking a shotgun approach to your issue. Based on the symptoms it's the damper or another ink flow issue that should be fairly straightforward to find and fix. Going straight to newt print heads is jumping the gun in my opinion.
 

Goatshaver

New Member
This is happening to me on my S40600. I can print 10ft and then all of a sudden I get banding and have to do a clean. Nozzle check was all good when I started this morning. I immeditly was thinking it's the caps that needed to be replaced. Looks like I may have to put in a service call to Epson finally. I've had the machine for 3yrs and first time I've had any real issues with it. I also print with it every single day.
 

Signed Out

New Member
I have the same issue with an s80600. Machine is 3 yrs old now, first noticed this happening about a year ago, right before my 2 yr warranty expired. For me I noticed it mostly when printing wraps, and especially if there were large areas of solid colors. Issue wouldn't start at the beginning of a print, would be maybe a few feet into the print and it would start banding. If there were a lot of panels ripped and the printer didn't have a break, the banding would continue. And the banding would get progressively worse the longer you let it keep printing unstopped. If you didn't print back to back, the issue would correct itself and then repeat a few feet into the next print again. To me it seemed like the printer wasn't able to supply enough ink or something.

Had a tech come in and under warranty, they replaced a ton of stuff. Heads, cap top assembly, ducts, etc. Didn't fix the issue, may have improved it a bit, but there was still banding. I kept asking the tech if it could be a pump issue, which he was reluctant about. And honestly can't remember if that was ever replaced, the tech was out here 4 different times over 2 weeks replacing everything. But it just seems like the printer starves for ink if its being asked to deliver the same ink(s) for too long of a period without a break. Because I swear, unless I was imagining it, this printer painted on the solid colors originally, we were blown away compared to our roland it replaced.

So after that we started trying different profiles (we've always used canned profiles) and found a couple that worked a little better. But the best fix we have found is going to 8 pass for anything with solid colors or prone to this issue.

It's interesting that several of us have had this same issue. Hopefully we can get an answer and a solution.
 

netsol

Active Member
At the end of the day the damper in that machine is a basic dual channel damper but they put 4 of them into a big unnecessary assembly and sell it for more money. I'm willing to bet you could take it all apart and just change the dampers but I have never had a chance to try to know 100%.

Also, it sounds like they are taking a shotgun approach to your issue. Based on the symptoms it's the damper or another ink flow issue that should be fairly straightforward to find and fix. Going straight to newt print heads is jumping the gun in my opinion.
you can see the logic of the shotgun approach.
SOMEONE has to pay for the repeat trip & you can brt it won't be epson
changing everything makes it more likely one trip does it
 
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