The maintenance tank in Epson large format printers

Where does that waste ink go?

The other day, the maintenance tank on my Epson Stylus Pro 9600 flashed up as full on the front panel.

You can reset the waste ink counters (see below) or replace the part.

Fortunately I had a spare Ink Maintenance Tank (Part Number C12C890071)

It's the same tank as used in the SP 7600

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Here is the old maintenance tank...

Ink maintenance tank from 9600

Note the chip on the side. You can reset this to get a bit more use out of the unit, but I've heard reports that doing this can corrupt the data chips on the (much more expensive) ink cartridges.

As I took out the old one I noticed how much heavier it was than the replacement.

The old one was 804gms and the new one 373gms.

That's 431gms or just under a pound of ink. If you assume that there is not a lot of evaporation from inside the printer, that's ~440ml of ink or two full 220ml ink carts.

Fortunately, when I changed from Photo to Matt Black I used the technique that doesn't waste the usual ~200ml of ink: 7600/9600 black ink swap procedure

...Just thought you might be curious as to what a hundred pounds worth of waste ink looks like :-)

Tank is used in the following

Epson Stylus Pro 4000 (C511001UCM)

Epson Stylus Pro 4000 Professional Edition (C511001PRO)

Epson Stylus Pro 7600 Photographic Dye (C472001DYE)

Epson Stylus Pro 7600 with UltraChrome Ink (C472001UCM)

Epson Stylus Pro 9600 with Photographic Dye (C473001DYE)

Epson Stylus Pro 9600 with UltraChrome Ink (C473001UCM)

I've not seen the new tank (C12C890191) from the 9800 yet

Resetting your maintenance tank

The information below is from various newsgroups, so use it with care.

Very useful if the tank runs out over the weekend and you don't have a spare. Do remember to replace it eventually since it will overflow and make a lot of mess!

We have a page of more general 7600/9600 tips and fixes which includes a PDF service manual

7600 - 9600 Maintenance tank reset

I was sent this reset procedure for Epson Stylus Pro 9600 (and 7600)

Turn off printer

Hold PAPER SOURCE+PAPER FEED+CUT/EJECT buttons at the same time and keep them pressed

Turn on printer

Release buttons

Hidden new menu appears

press DOWN, "CLEAR COUNTERS" option should appear

press RIGHT

press UP, "MAINT TANK" should appear

press RIGHT

press ENTER (CUT/EJECT button)

Turn off printer.

Stylus Pro 4000 Maintenance tank reset

The maintenance reset procedure for Epson Stylus Pro 4000 is slightly different from that described above.

Turn off printer

Hold down the three leftmost arrow buttons:
[left-arrow] [down-arrow] [up-arrow]

Turn on printer

Release buttons

New menu appears

press up/down arrows to get to the "Clear Counters" menu

press RIGHT

press up/down arrows to get to the "Maintenance Tank" menu

Clear the counter

Turn off printer.

On restarting the maintenance tank should appear 'Empty'

Resetting the 9800 and 7800 maintenance tank

If you have a 9600/7600 available, it seems that you can put the newer tanks into the older type printer and use the reset procedure above.

I've not seen it done though...

It also seems that you can use a 'chip resetter' (much like you would for refilling cartridges)

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