p9000 auto clean issue

[Wayne Fox]

So I"ve confirmed that the p9000 does do an Auto Nozzle Check on startup, and this feature cannot be disabled - disabling ANC functions simply means the printer won't perform the checks before printing prints.  Unfortunately most of the time when the printer powers up and a nozzle or two is missing, they will clear on their own while printing a couple of test prints, often negating the need for a cleaning cycle.  The new Epson's won't allow this option.  So far mine has cleaned 3 times, and since I can't do a nozzle check first I don't know if they really need cleaning or not (I don't know if the new machines ANC feature is more reliable or continues to be unreliable with false positives triggering cleaning cycles.)

It does seem these cleaning cycles are not very aggressive, and I haven't seen any major sign of heavy ink usage.  Am trying to track it closer to see if I can tell a little more what is going on.

[George Marinos]

Wayne, can you please report about p9000 clogs if you compare to 9900 ,and how is his general function...?

[Wayne Fox]

I’ve had the p9000 a little over 2 months now.  So far I have seen it clean 3 times when starting up, and it’s been a few weeks since the last time.  I haven’t seen an actual missing nozzle on a nozzle check yet, maybe it’s possible the ANC and auto cleaning at startup is actually useful now. The printer is in a humidity controlled environment at 45%, I don’t know if there were any changes to help with missing nozzles at all, or if my experience is just similar to what i had with the 9900.

I’ve seen a few issues with marks on exhibition fiber, and fought some serious issues with gloss differential in deep blacks on some older stock of Exhibition Fiber paper. Epson sent a new box of paper to replace that, and it seems to have resolved the issue.  I’m still working with Epson and the issue with marking and a couple of jams, it seems the suction of my printer isn’t as strong as the 9900. I been doing some testing to try and verify this, if so I’m suspecting it’s an issue with my specific printer because from all appearance nothing changed in the overall design of the machine and paper path.

Also for some reason the printer does not turn itself off like it is supposed to after the set amount of time. When I power it up (which isn’t every day) I will always leave it run overnight, and only once the following morning was it off.  It seems to wake from sleep on it’s own while it’s on, which of course would keep it from shutting down.  my p800 (so far a terrific machine, had it about a month now, worthy replacement for the 3880) seems to have the same issue, so I’m trying to figure out if something in my network is causing this.  Not a big deal, but it does seem a little weird.

I do like the blacks, very subtle differences in output in some images with rendering in shadows, and the overall output is great.  I’ll probably be installing the new p20000 in my store, curious as to the  quad blacks and black and white printing.

[George Marinos]

"I’ve seen a few issues with marks on exhibition finer, and fought some serious issues with gloss differential in deep blacks on some older stock of Exhibition Fiber paper."

Thank you for the report.What other Fine Art Photo Papers you use and did you had similar issues.