The early Epson printers had one cleaning station on the right side,
which also was interfaced with the purge/vacuum pump. In order to try
to prevent mid-printing clogs, Epson added a second station on the left
side, which is sort of a spittoon. All the nozzles from each head are
activated 2-3 times during a print and this extra ink is sprayed into
that small funnel-like area to the left.
With dye inks, it works fine, as the dye inks are absorbed and get
carried down into the waste ink pads.
The pigmented inks, like Ultrachromes which are used in the R800 and the
Durabrites used in the C and CX series have a lot of solid residue in
them, and they contain resins which become waterproof as they dry. In
some cases, this ink will dry enough to coat the absorbing pads and
cause them to no longer take up wet ink well, and a type of "swimming
pool" develops which gets filled with this waste ink.
Other than having the whole pad system removed and replaced, the best
thing to do is to use an eyedropper and some cotton swabs and clear the
area out. You can then put some drops of ammoniated window cleaner in
there and allow it to soak. Over a couple of days it should dissolve
the resins, and hopefully allow for the padding to absorb ink again.
If that is unsuccessful, and the printer is under warranty, I'd get
Epson on to it. This is a known problem that has been around for
several models which use pigmented inks.
Art
