Designjet 500 ink tube life expectancy

Before I purchase the belt kit #C7770-60014-K from your online store… I was wondering if we should be prepared to replace any other items as a “overhaul” on the 7 year old plotter?

We don’t print daily.  The machine may be used once a week at best for print one or two black & white AutoCAD 2D line drawings.  No photos or images are printed.

Any ideas on the life expectancy of the ink tubes?

Ink tubes are usually ok until they leak ink or let air in.  If you are not experiencing either of those problems, the tube system is most likely OK.  The print heads tend to clog up with lack of use.  You may want to run a test print once every week to clear them and prevent clogging.  The service station has a waste ink wheel that needs to turn a small amount every time the print heads clean themselves.  The wheel has a scraper to remove the ink and it gets “glued” to the wheel if it isn’t used often enough.  That will stall the motor on the service station and cause a 21:10 error.  If that is happening you can remove, disassemble and clean the cleaning station (very messy) or replace it with a new or refurbished cleaning station.  We have the refurbs for $89 or so with a $15 refund for return of the old one.  http://www.lpscomputer.com/p-3337-c7769-60149-r-designjet-500-800-service-station-refurb.aspx If the error code is not appearing, don’t worry about it. 

Clogged print heads can be fixed by spraying Windex directly on the print head nozzles and immediately running a print head alignment to move some ink through the nozzles.  This works most of the time.