R2400 B&W prints all of a sudden printing too dark

I've been using the same profile on the same paper with same ink for several months now on my Epson R2400. MIS K4

inks on Moab Kayenta with a professionally made profile. Tonight I am reprinting a set of A4 prints for a client,

so I know just what the original set of prints looked like. But the prints tonight are coming our very black in

the shadows. Simply laying down way too much ink. I've double checked all my settings, and they are the same as

ever.

 

Does anybody have any ideas of what could be causing this erratic behaviour? Please don't bother to reply with

the stock snarky comments about using "cheap 3rd party inks." I've been using MIS inks for a few years now and,

professionally profiled and with regular head cleanings here and there, they've operate wonderfully for me.

 

The only thing I can think of is that the Eboni ink bottle was close to the bottom of the bottle when I refilled

it a couple of nights ago. But what would that mean? More pigment in the solution than when the bottle was first

opened?

 

Mystified. Thanks in advance for your ideas.

I have noticed that when the bottles of ink set for a month or more some of the pigment starts to settle out of the carrier solution. I always shake my ink bottles a few minutes before I open them for refilling. Simular can happen to cartridges that have been allowed to sit for a considerable amount of time which is why Epson says to shake their cartridges before installing them. I would get a fresh bottle of ink, drain and refill the cartridge with the fresh ink then print a copy or two of MIS purge 8 page scalled to paper size and evulate the colors. You can pour some of the new ink into the old bottle, mix well, and pour back into the fresh bottle but that may darken it to a lower tone.

After sending out my request, Charles, I swapped emails with a friend who suggested something similar, so I did that - just shook the almost full cartridge and put it back in. My next print was better, but still too dark in the shadows. Then I noticed that the print began to lighten the longer it sat on the table. My other papers normally dry down a but it seems that this Kayenta (which I'm not used in a while) dries to a lighter value in the shadows, not a darker value. I have no idea why this might be, but all prints after that exhibited the same behaviour. At least, for areas of an image that have really dark shadow detail.

 

End of story, my new prints look like the ones from a few weeks ago, so I guess I'm OK. I had to refill 4 of the colour carts last night after this episode, and I started what will now be a new routine for me - inverting and swirling the ink bottle a bit before syringing the ink and filling the cart, then inverting and lightly shaking the cart a bit before reinstalling it.