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Epson p5000 and p7000 automatic print head check/cleaning

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HartmanPrints:
Hey everyone!

I am curious as to what the consensus is regarding the automatic check and clean on these machines.

I had an epson 4900 that lasted me over 5 years and 30,000+ prints, and after the first few months of owning that machine, I noticed this feature was wasting a lot of ink and time, so I turned it off. I would always pay diligent attention to print quality and do nozzle checks often, so I assumed (and also read online) that it was a waste to have the auto check and clean on, unless you were not attentive with your prints. Aka not a very good printer!

So on these new machines (p5000 and p7000) they seem to do this check and clean every 20 to 30 prints, which is much better than the 4900.... that would run the check and clean cycle every 3 or 4 prints!!

I'm contemplating turning it off on these machines but I would love to hear some input on it. It seems it might be a cost of ink question, meaning am I willing to waste ink on this? I've also heard too many head cleans can damage the heads.

So should I turn it off and just do my normal routine  making sure the prints are clean and the nozzle checks are good?

Also, I normally print a nozzle check and view it, rather than doing a mechanical nozzle check, because the mechanical check always seems to give me blocked nozzle alerts when the visual patterns are clear.  Which do you all prefer?

TLDR;
Auto nozzle check and clean...keep it on or turn it off?
Print nozzle check versus mechanical nozzle check, which do you prefer?

Thanks!

-Justin

Mark D Segal:
I covered this in my review of the SC-P5000. The Auto check mechanism seems to work pretty well and when it finds clogged nozzles a printed check pattern confirms it's true. That said, for analytical reasons I have turned all that stuff off. I want to manage nozzle checks and head cleaning manually so I can track over time exactly what's going on, not because I think there is anything wrong with the auto check system. That said, periodically the printer will commission an auto nozzle check that is beyond user control - it's built into the firmware and not user manageable, but these are infrequent, I suppose however depending on usage patterns. Roughly twice a year, so far my experience, the printer will ask for a an all channel power cleaning from the Admin menu which uses about 70 ml of ink. The printer will keep working without doing this maintenance, but Epson has advised me that one should do it to maintain the long-term health of the print head.

dgberg:
Different model here, P8000.
I have ANC turned off but anytime I shut the machine off and then turn it back on it does a full cleaning which I do not like.
Is there a way to turn it off?

HartmanPrints:
Thanks for the input!!

Mark-Interesting... so even when you turn it off, it still does auto cleans? That's odd. And 70ml?? That sounds like a ploy from Epson to waste ink TBH.

Dan- It runs cleanings every time you turn it on? Does it say cleaning on the display? I haven't had that happen once on my p7000, which is essentially a smaller version of the p8000. It makes a sound similar to cleaning when I power it on, but can't see any actual cleaning happening. That's odd too.

Mark D Segal:

--- Quote from: HartmanPrints on June 11, 2018, 05:43:09 pm ---Thanks for the input!!

Mark-Interesting... so even when you turn it off, it still does auto cleans? That's odd. And 70ml?? That sounds like a ploy from Epson to waste ink TBH.


--- End quote ---

The self-triggered auto-cleans happen only periodically. There is obviously some kind of programming designed to protect the health of the printhead. This also applies to the 70ml admin power clean of all channels that in my experience has been requested twice in a year. It is not a ploy to waste ink. It so happens that up to now, given the kind of inks and printheads they are, no other method has been devised for assuring ink can flow through the printhead other than flowing it.

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