Hello
I will buy a new P-800, it is better to load the OEM inks and then change for the piezo inks for testing the printer? And don’t have
flush carts.
Thank you
I bought my P 800 and all that I needed to use the Cone Inks a few months ago. My plan was to use the Epson ink’s until they ran out, before installing the Cone Inks and decoder board. I am glad I did since the purchased printer developed a hardware problem, which Epson fixed by sending me another P 800.
Thank you for the feedback
You will need to flush the printer with PiezoFlush after running Epson inks before installing Piezography inks otherwise the residual colors will stain the grays.
If you are installing ConeColors, flushing won’t be necessary since each Epson color is being replaced by the same Cone color.
With a new printer, you have to decide for yourself whether or not you are willing to take a chance that you might have a problem such as Jeannie describes. Epson likes to try to blame all problems on a 3rd party when possible.
Personally, I’ve taken that chance several times over the years and haven’t regretted it, but I am aware of the risk.
Keith
Thank you Keith!
Moises
How did you get on with that? I just got a P800 and was advised to test the printer with the OEM cartridges because the P800 did not need to be flushed when the Piezo cartridges are installed.
Who told you it doesn’t need to be flushed? That might be the case if going from OEM to ConeColor inks, but the colors will stain Piezography grayscale inks if not flushed first.
I’ll be happy to proven wrong about this, but I’m not holding my breath. 
Keith
Hi Keith, it was Wells from inkjet mall who told me that. I called them to ask whether I should test a new printer with OEM inks before installing Piezo inks. He said that since the P800 didn’t need to be flushed, there was no real cost to using the OEM inks first.
My bigger problem is getting the printer to recognize the cartridges though!
I would still argue that if there were color inks in the lines it should be flushed before installing Piezo inks, unless you have a high tolerance for unexpected color effects. Yellow is particularly notorious for staining anything it touches.
Of course, I’ve only done this on a 7600, two 1430s, and three 3880s, while they have probably done hundreds of printers, so take my advice with a grain of salt as maybe being overly cautious. I’m curious to hear Walker’s opinion on this.
I can’t really help with the cartridge recognition thing, other than to ask whether you are using the decoder board or that new chipless solution. If I read the instructions for the P800 correctly, it seems you don’t need the OEM chips at all, but I have no personal experience with the P800. On my 3880s, once in a while I get a recognition error that is resolved simply by releasing and reinserting the cartridge. Some folks have had to shim cartridges to maintain good contact between chip and pins, but that is mainly on the larger printers.
Good luck,
Keith
There is also this if you are using the decoder board:
Cartridges unrecognized.
If your printer displays empty cartridge boxes on the LCD (even after reset on the chip decoder) or other strange errors, there may be a faulty connection or other error with your Chip Decoder. Remove the chip decoder, re-install the epson ribbon cables, and put the Epson OEM cartridges back into the printer to debug.
It is near the bottom of this page: