ricoh 3110dn ink usage on standby!

[paul 44]

Hi folks,

My ricoh dosen't get used that much, it has had 2 lots of carts installed, the first set was the starter sawgrass starter carts, the second was a full set of sublisure inks.
The printer has been left on for the best part of 6 months and I have been using it on and off this year to do coasters and mugs, coasters about 50-60 and mugs I have printed have been about 100 give or take plus a few t shirts.

When new carts are installed the system automatically cleans the heads etc using a little ink which I didn't know so I cleaned again and to my horror left with me with around 60-65% in the carts which annoyed me, the mugs and coasters were printed using the remaining ink of around 65%.

What I have found is that the ricoh does a maintenance cycle whenever it sodding likes which you can't turn off, sometime this cycle will be for just a few seconds, other times it lasts a lot longer and uses ink and it does this without any input from me. The other night I had 17% yellow and 1% red, it ran the cycle and used the remaining ink in the carts which has really pi**ed me off, £200.00 quid of inks gone and and done around 150 prints...I should be getting a lot more than that!

I spoke to Isub supplies asking whether there was a fault, they told me "It sounds like your printer has gone into an extendedmaintenance cycle, probably due to the long period of inactivity. However, theynormally only do this if the printer has been switched off for a long period?"

It has been left on to save ink so I don't know what the issue is, surely it shouldn't empty the carts that quick as has been used this year and left on.
Anybody else had this problem?

[StellaD]

Yes!

I initially borrowed a Ricoh with Sawgrass setup from a trade friend who was busy with other things.

It worked perfectly so, fuelled with confidence, I bought my own kit. Initially it sucked up a lot of ink on set up which I had been warned about but I was horrified when it went on a mad cleaning cycle of it's own accord without much work having been produced. It was always left switched on to keep the heads unclogged but the unexpected "maintenance" clean sucked up the rest of the ink.

There was no way I was going to buy more Sawgrass inks at those ridiculous prices and have the same thing happen again so bought an Epson 1500W with CISS which was probably the best move ever made - 6 colour inks at a tiny fraction of the Sawgrass price and A3 prints.

Works beautifully and the Ricoh is sat here gathering dust.

[paul 44]

I was informed by isub that the next lot of carts should be better but i'm doubting it, it is only the first full set i've put in there but I cant justify £200.00 each time the printer decides it wants a drink, I could hjave saved more ink, i think, if i had switched the sodding thing off!

[Drew]

I created this thread a while ago:
https://www.dyesubforum.co.uk/vbforu...nance-Schedule

Mine is still sat there gathering dust, as turning it on is just annoying. The constant maintenance is a nightmare.

I can't see how another set of carts will be better of?? That sounds like after sales BS to me, why would you need 3 sets before the machine starts to calm down?

[webtrekker]

I really can't understand this. My Ricoh 3110 has been left on for over 2 years and I've never had the problems you lot are having. Yes, it does an odd maintenance cycle now and then, but uses very little ink, and the benefit is that I rarely have to do a nozzle check, even though my printer sometimes stands for days without printing anything.

[paul 44]

That's weird then, what I find with mine, I could be wrong here but the lower the ink tank gets the more maintenance cycles it does, my collection tank is almost full to and I have done zero manual cleans and i've only ever done one nozzle check on it after it had been sat for a few months before I did some coasters, it's never needed to be cleaned manually.

Yes the machine will do it's own little maintenance for a few seconds, that should be all it does regardless of the amount in the tanks, it's really annoyed me (understatement) that I've had less than 200 mugs and some coasters out of the starter sawgrass and a full set of sublisure carts

[paul 44]

Maybe it all depends on the usage it gets, if I do get another set of carts, what I plan on doing is maybe printing off a few designs each week, maybe mugs and coasters and keep them in a safe place until they need to be used (hopefully before the ink migrates over the sheet) and in that way the machine will be getting used every week or so and this maybe help lower the cleaning cycles that it does

[webtrekker]

Can I make a suggestion then? ..... Dump the Sawgrass carts! Their ink is far too expensive to be wasting on maintenance cycles and, quite frankly, there are better, cheaper options available.

I use CIE inks in refillable carts. Maybe that's the difference - my inks come in 100ml bottles so I can constantly keep my carts topped up to reasonable levels. There are many other good inks available, Inktec for example. You're just throwing good money (and profit!) away by sticking with Sawgrass. They've had their day.

As an example - A single 29ml Sawgrass cart costs in the region of £40. A 100ml bottle of CIE ink costs £15! Yes, you need to also buy a set of refillable carts to get you started, but thereafter you're saving loads.

[paul 44]

What inks can I use or would you suggest for use in the Ricoh?

And is the quality/vibrance, the same as the sawgrass and other inks?

[raydavies]

For the last year or so I've used these http://www.inkforinkjet.co.uk/shop/ricoh-aficio-dye-sublimation-ink/ I've had no blockages and stunningly great colours. The owner(Ken) is super helpful and will even set up your system remotely if you get a problem.

I can not recommend him highly enough.

Ray