How to make Initial Fill Procedures for Epson Pro 3880, 4900 and other Pro Series Printers?

How to make Initial Ink Charge in Epson Pro 3880, 4900?

The Epson Pro 3880 and 4900 printers habe clogging problems due in part to the absence of user maintenance tools. The POWER CLEAN is curiously absent from this printer model. The use of repeated Paired Powerful Cleanings may be responsible for head failures. There is no effective alternative.

To flush an Epson 4900 and 3880 printers requires performing an Initial Fill/Ink Charge Cycle using the Windows only Epson Pro 4900 Adjustment Program and Epson Pro 3880 Adjustment Program .

The Ink System is tuned to the gentle ink flow demanded by regular printing. However all Cleaning cycles employ a much stronger ink demand (and use) than printing.



The purpose of the Initial Ink Fill is to remove air from the Negative Pressure Dampers, or air from the Print Head side of the Dampers.

The Power Ink Charge cycle closes the Valves that restrict ink flow from the Ink Bays while simultaneously running the Cleaning Pump to build a vacuum on the Print Head Nozzle Plate. When sufficient vacuum is created, the Printer opens the Valves allowing the ink to “fill the vacuum”. This technique facilitates the removal of air from the system. Air in the system causes Nozzle drop out while printing.

Use the Initial Ink Fill after changing Dampers or Print Head.

To make Initial Ink Fill you have to: - run the Epson Pro 4900 Adjustment Program - select "Ink Charge" or "Ink Eject and Initial Charge"

You can flush only the ink channel/s that are clogged by purchasing only those cartridges for those positions. However, the Initial Fill/Ink Charge Cycle procedure runs all ink channels at once.

The Initial Fill/Ink Charge Cycle moves the equivalent of fluid as would 30-40 of the paired-powerful cleanings, but does so without further damaging the printhead as would running 30-40 paired-powerful cleanings.

The minimum amount of PiezoFlush in a cartridge is about 70ml. The carts can be used over and over again. They are keyed per color position because Epson printers require a chipped cartridge that matches the color position of the printer.

Amount of ink required to do cleanings and ink charging for the Epson Pro 4900:

From the printer control panel:
Normal clean – 3ml
Powerfull Clean – 15ml
Switch Black Inks – 4ml

From the Service Adjustment program:
Ink Charge – 115ml
Ink Eject – 79ml
CL3 Clean – 51ml
CL2 Clean – 18ml
CL1 Clean – 4ml