Epson 1430 printing with just Black Cartiridge?

[peter k.]

We got a perfect B&W print, with just a one Black Matte cartridge in the printer and the other 5 cartridges in Pizeo Flush.
Normally we select the type of paper where going to print on, with our 1430, so that the paper profile will match, but in this case for a quick test print, we just selected plain white paper. Here was the set up: "Black/ Grey Scale", "Color Controls Gamma 2.2", using "Plain Paper/ Bright White Paper."
The print of the image had no pink Pizeo Flush anywhere on the print.
Was totally shocked, having never done this before!
Then tried it with Presentation Paper Matte, Luster or Glossy and then came the pink.

Could someone explain what is happening here with just plain bright white paper setting with the 1430?
Crazy .. Is there a need to use a printing profile, or select a paper type, other than plain white paper with the Black/ Grey Scale", "Color Controls Gamma 2.2" on?
Can't believe this to be true, that one could use this printer to print just B&W, with only one live cartridge!
For a test print.. ok.. but for anything else... would sure to be a No way Jose, we would think. .
Any thoughts?

Background:
Well we let my newer Epson 1430 printer sit to long, and now having trouble with the black print pattern. So were doing a sit clean mode with Pizeo Flush, in all of its 6 ink stations, so its out of commission for a little while. But the cleaning is working!
So wanted to do a quick composition test print of a B&W image that we have been working on, so dragged out the old 1430, in which has a bad Cyan station, that just would not clear up, so it had gone into hibernation. .
Put in some black Matte ink, into its proper station, but left the other 5 stations in Pizeo Flush, and of course when we turned the printer back, on it went through its normal cleaning cycle.
Printed as stated above and was totally shocked!
Set up for 1430 was: "Black/ Grey Scale", "Color Controls Gamma 2.2", using "Plain Paper/ Bright White Paper."

 

[pschwart]

selecting "Grayscale" in the 14xx print driver will print with only the black channel -- all colors will be rendered as shades of black. You can get nice images this way, but they will have a gritty appearance as there is significantly less ink being laid down by the print head. It's a nice feature and will work regardless of your paper selection, but won't deliver the highest quality images. Piezoflush will still get pulled into the print head by cleaning cycles; that may be the source of the pink tinge you are seeing.

 

[peter k.]

Ah.. that makes sense, really didn't check the quality against another print, but that's only part of it.
Your statement that it:

will work regardless of your paper selection

seems not to be true.
We tried it as a text image selection, which prints relatively fast, with the setting on "Plain Paper/ Bright White Paper.", and it did!
Then changed the paper selection to matte, keeping it as text image, and it printed much slower,

Sooo, .. if that's the case then its not just the Piezo flush that has been pulled into the head, it would seem that it is actually printing Piezo Flush from the other ink containers. Otherwise, from my perspective, there would have been pink on the plain paper print to begin with, as there would have been the same residue your referring to in the heads!.
We guess the only way to prove or disprove this is to do several cleaning cycles, but what for!
Who really cares, it's not important, but to me it is a darn curious situation.

Yet, ... my thought, which may well be in error, ... is that the printer must automatically take it out of printing just the Black ink Cartridge, when the paper is other than plain paper, to make a finer print quality. By having the other inks kick in to help.
Or as stated on another forum, the other paper's may require more ink to be used, and so the pink shows up.

But there may be an advantage, In a sense now, for a quick test print, we can just use the old printer for B&W.
Needing only to refill the Black ink cartridge when necessary.
Does this make sense? Have no idea, and keep it out of storage, and perhaps with its new use will get lucky and the cyan will come clean.
Haha ah ha .. life is crazy... ..