Epson 9900 - ink supplies

[Primus]

Wow, this is a monster. Everyone who walks into the house (the printer is still in the hallway for now) says that. I am loving it, the BW prints even on Luster paper have a glow that was missing on my HP 9180 (which was the best so far). I can see exciting times ahead.

I have a small problem. The charging of the lines used up almost 50% of the ink (which I was aware of). I then printed no more than 40 sq ft or so of prints. At that time the LK read 19%. I then changed the paper to somerset velvet and the photo black to matte. For some reason, the printer wanted to do a cleaning cycle. As soon as that was done, the ink levels dropped drastically, to 10% for LK and about 8% for all cartridges (these are 110 ml starting carts).

My questions are:

1. Is it normal for a printer to do a cleaning cycle only after printing a small volume (this was the second day I've had this printer)?
2. Is the loss of ink (almost 8-10 mls) normal in such a cycle?

3.The real question is, how big a supply of carts should I keep? I am not a professional and cannot (at this point) see myself printing more than 25-40 sq feet a week. Should I keep 350 or 700 ml carts?

4. What is the ink most used in general printing (I will print about 20% BW)? My current thoughts are that it is LK, LLK, LVM in that order.

Any help is most appreciated. Thanks.

Pradeep

[Primus]

............I then changed the paper to somerset velvet and the photo black to matte. For some reason, the printer wanted to do a cleaning cycle. As soon as that was done, the ink levels dropped drastically, to 10% for LK and about 8% for all cartridges (these are 110 ml starting carts).

Oops, I should have said dropped BY 8% for all carts, i.e. the cleaning cycle used up almost 10mls of ink!

Pradeep

[dgberg]

I have the 7900 but the 2 are pretty much the same except for size. I purchased the entire set of 700ml carts after only 3 weeks of printing $2600.00 worth. I probably could have staggered the purchase but thought it a good idea to have extra on the shelf. 2 months later the newness has worn off slightly and I am printing less.  So keep that in mind when planning your replacement ink purchases. All the blacks will go first. I think all my 700 blacks are allready down to 85%. Ihave had Epson service here after the first months problem with excessive nozzel cleaning. A firmware upgrade and several parts changed and everything is working smoothly. Go back and look at the posts on the 7900 and 9900 and you will see what is going on. Hopefully you do not have to go through the same ordeal. BUT,if you do Epson is fantastic. I called on a Tues. received the replacement parts Wed. and the Tech. came Thursday. I would not get anything but 700ml's especially in the blacks.
Dan Berg
Bergs Canvas Gallery