Why Won't My Epson Printer Print In Black When A Colour Cartridge is Empty? Sep 16, 2011 12:08 by Matt Bird
If you’ve ever had an Epson printer, it’s quite likely that at some point in time you will have attempted to print in black only to receive an error message that you cannot print until a colour cartridge is replaced.
Scandalous! Ridiculous! I want to print some work, not a multi-coloured rainbow of joy. This understandably irks our customers quite considerably, so we went and got the answer for you!
Why Can’t I Print In Black When A Colour Is Empty…
and I quote….
“If ink is not in the tubes from the head to the cartridge, air will be sucked in and therefore cause damage to the print head. This is because the nozzles are in the print head and not in the cartridge. ”
What Epson are basically saying is… if this safeguard was not in place, and you sent a print request for black when a colour cartridge was empty, there is a risk of air being pulled into the printhead. This air will ruin the vacuum effect needed for the printhead to pull ink in, meaning your printhead would be at risk of never printing again.
Additionally, if any air is allowed go get into the aformentioned tubes from the head to the cartridge, any remaining ink will coagulate. Just in case you’re not a scientist – coagulation in a tube/cartridge is bad, and will lead to you not being able to print again with that cartridge, or to a blocked nozzle/printhead which will require a significant amount of cleaning cycles to budge.
Will Printing Black Without a Colour Really Break my Printer?
Now I’m not one to accuse a manufacture of profiteering 
…. but this does sound a legitimate response from Epson, especially considering how advanced the piezoelectric technology is in their newer range of Epson stylus printers (which it’s worth remembering lends itself to a very expensive printhead in the first place). Whether you believe it or not, the issue is there and is something to consider if you are looking at replacing a printer with a new Epson one.
Are you willing to keep replacing colours to be able to enjoy the newer range of Epson printers like the Epson SX130, which are fantastic value machines and ideal for every day printing, or would you rather not be constrained by a cartridge running empty when you’re in an important print run.
I just ran into this problem. So infuriating. Now I may as well use the cheaper printing at uni. What a waste of money…
Exactly same problem – color cartridges are empty, but black is brand new and full, and sx130 does not print with grayscale setting ON. ****ing Epson. Last one of this brand for me – for sure.
I am really frustrated because i need to print something in black and though I have a full back cartridge I cannot do so because the cyan is empty. Next time I buy a printer I will check out for this meanwhile I will warn people !
this is bonkers as they say u print in black only if you wish…. why should i have to shell out for coloru cartridges when i never use them…. i would love to SWEAR
why can’t my epson NX 130 print even if all the colour cartridges are full and the black ink is empty. Doesn’t the colour cartridges make a colour (dark blue) … this is utterly ridiculous considering the cost of the ink!!! HELP ME If you have an answer please let me know
Hi there. It is quite frustrating, but when reversed to not printing black because the black is empty, Epson is actually doing you a favour, -ish. If you’re concerned about the cost of ink, combining all 3 colours to make a black to print will essentially triple your black printing cost so maybe it’s best it doesn’t let you do it!
No, it’s not a favour in an emergency. Let me decide that. If it was true that rubbish about protecting the heads than they would let you swap out any colour for full cartridge. In my case I have 4 full cartridges but missing a black one. So no printing for me. Epson can take a hike, it’s sad they will all end up as landfill due to their completely inflexible product and obvious consumer scam.
With all this technology, supposedly protecting us from ourselves, you’d think Epson could engineer it so that you could at least replace one colour with another, thereby circumnavigating the apparent vacuum problem. Hardly a technological leap forward I would’ve thought. All sounds like flannel and milking the profit from accessories – maybe that’s the price we pay of a cheap / inferior printer.
I totally agree – have just run into the same problem. My online order for a colour cartridge has taken longer than expected to arrive, and I can’t print off documents in black and white which is absolutely infuriating. Epson should warn customers about this issue when they purchase a printer. Thanks for highlighting this issue – what a shame Epson don’t seem to have responded as yet.
Same problem new black cartridge no chance of printing. Epson has lost a customer I will never buy a Epson product again. I vote with my purse!
Nobody asked the obvious question: Can you simply put black cartridges into the place for colour cartridges, so all your cartridges are black?
Hi Ernest,
Good idea but unfortunately it won’t work…. clever machines know which cartridge is which. Maybe if you did some swapping of the chips… but even if it did work, your printer may never print colour properly again. Definitely wouldn’t advise it.
This is ridiculous… just ran into a very similar problem. Even more annoying is that the Cyan cartridge (which cannot be recognised) is actually full of ink.
So I’ve got to by a new Cyan cartridge to replace my existing Cyan cartridge (full of Cyan) ink, despite me only wanting to print something in black.
Never buying Epson again if this is standard practise. I remember my first dot matrix… if that ever ran low you’d just use a black felt tip to colour in the ribbon lol… those were the days.
What a rip off, Why have four individual cartridges at all? As most of us plebs don’t understand the amount of each colour used to acquire certain shades , it leaves the sx130 owner to always carry a full set of spare cartridges. Will no-one in the industry stop this shameless profiteering. I will never again buy Epson! Back to HP for me!
I have SX130 and it’s not fantastic value machine. Except that I cannot print in black if other collors are empty, it is also very (and I mean VERY!) slow machine. It’s cheap printer, but my old one was also cheap,But with old one I printed books and books (some of them had 600 pages) and it was very fast. This new machines that are printers/copies/scaners all in one, are garbage. They purpose is to force user to spend alot of money on original collors.
Spent the last hour figuring out this sh***.
F***ing Epson! Never buying their printers again.
I’ve got the SX235 with the same problem. A really cheap “Throw away” printer that Epson cleverly ensured needed lots and lots of loverly cartridges bought for it before the end of it’s very short life.
Even when new not the best printer at it’s highest speed it leaves lots of print gaps. At it’s “Fine” speed (which I needed to ensure quality print) it is painfully slow, 40 A4 pages of print takes almost 3/4 of an hour.
Yes, I tried putting black cartridges into the cyan, didn’t work !. Then I tried putting a small jole in the top of the Cyan cartridge and introducing some black ink from a spare cartridge I had. A Ha! It works.
Cyan cartridge now thinks it has Cyan ink inside it and the 8 black cartridges I bought off ebay for £8.99 are not wasted.
Best advice ?——– DON NOT BUY EPSON
Never again EPSON!!! My colour cartridges dried up, as I never used them and now I have to spend money to replace something I never use in order to print in black and white.
I’ve kind of the opposite problem. Black ink head seems knackered but the colours are working fine. Would like to combine the colours to form black as black is virtually useless. I’ve tried head cleaning a number of times.
I had it with Epson printers, I replaced all cartridges and still won’t print.
I don’t know how they can get away with it.
Seems I am in similar company. I replaced my Cannon, which lets you print in black when colours run out by selecting greyscale in the printer properties, by the SX130. Like the photocopying option but the problem not being able to circumnavigate the empty colour cartridge is a pain
Never Epson again, worst printer fraude ever!!!!!!!
I call b******t.
I just want to replace the cyan ink I am having problems
sx105 printer please can someone help me to replace cyan ink