Printer CIS Problems - Roller Marks, Dripping Ink, Faded Color

So I just spent the last three days trying to figure out why my printer wasn’t working properly. After every ink refill or head cleaning, it would start leaving roller marks or dripping ink on the paper (I suppose it dripped ink on the rollers as well). Colors were also appearing faded as if there wasn’t enough ink flowing through.

I tried the usual head cleanings, cleaning solutions, reinstalling ink tubing, etc to no avail. I was beginning to think maybe I had worn out the printer, but it turns out the answer was much simpler. The waste ink bottle was getting full. Those of us who have installed a seperate waste ink system usually do so to avoid ink filling into the printer instead and lowering its lifespan; just remember to empty it when it gets full.

I’m guessing the reason it caused all these other issues is because it’s also involved in the suction created on the ink tubings; when the bottle is full, there is not enough room for ink to flow. This also would lead to the waste ink overflowing in the printer and spilling onto the rollers or dripping from the printhead. I had thought fresh ink was being dripped, but it was apparently waste ink instead.

On a side note, those of us who do experience this problem will be left with a printer that leaves tons of roller marks. No worries, here’s an easy solution:
- Take a paper towel, preferably the rolled up kind that you can cut at a couple feet’s length.
- Insert the towel end into the printer paper feed and print a blank page.
- The towel will be taken into the printer and ejected out. If possible, try to leave the printer cover open so you can take the towel out if it doesn’t feed into the front rollers (thus causing a jam).
- Repeat until you no longer get roller marks.

This method is much more economical than using regular paper to keep feeding until you clean up the rollers.