How many clogged nozzles does it take to show in a print?

[Butch Welch]

I have one persistent clogged nozzle in the LC that seems to have no effect in prints (see attached nozzle check).  I always print a nozzle check pattern before printing.  When todays check showed a single clogged nozzle in 5 different inks, I decided to try an experiment and printed a purge file (solid bars of each ink color) with the 5 inks still clogged.  All the bars printed perfectly.  Cleaning cycles fixed all of the clogs except the LC, which still persists.  I have made many prints with the one LC clog with no problems.  Should I still try to clear it (a power cleaning cycle did not clear it)?  Continue to ignore it and make prints?  I am printing on an Epson 4900.

[Mark D Segal]

My policy is to clean-up completely to avoid trouble accumulating. Do repeated cycles of purge-print then clean on that one LC pair till the check pattern shows no breaks.

[elliot_n]

One clogged nozzle will effect the color balance and tonal smoothness.

[DeanChriss]

One clogged nozzle will effect the print - color balance and tonal smoothness.

I agree. I once made a print starting with a perfect nozzle check. Then examining the print showed unevenness in what should have been an evenly toned medium gray area. Another nozzle check showed a single clogged LK nozzle. Cleaning for another perfect nozzle check and reprinting fixed the issue.

[disneytoy]

In a nozzle check what is the cause of a nozzle being out of place. One line up or down a bit? All the actual nozzles are fixed aren't they?

[davidh202]

crooked lines are called deflections, and are usually due to crap on the nozzles.