7900 - clogged nozzles (AGAIN)

[bellimages]

Okay, I'm still new to this printer. And you told me to learn from this forum. So here goes .....

I did as many of you recommended, I turned OFF the "Auto Nozzle Check." Since doing that, I run a nozzle check every couple of prints. About once or twice/week, there is some clogging, so I clean the heads (via the Epson Printer Utility). One cleaning seems to correct the clogging.

Tonight, after printing an image, the display says "Clogged Nozzles Detected, Cleaning Recommended."

This is NOT what I anticipated when I ordered this printer. I'm not sure what to do. In the future, there may be weeks where I don't use the printer -- what might happen then???

Nozzle checks wastes ink; and cleaning wastes MORE ink. Is this something that I'm just going to have to put up with, or should Epson send a tech to replace the print head???

[dgberg]

Not sure what to tell you other then nozzle checks are a regular pre-maintenance item for Epson wide format printers. The other way to check your nozzles is to print and find out after printing that a  channel is clogged and the print is ruined. I know which one I do.
The nozzle check process uses a very small amount of ink,not sure of the exact amount.
I am assuming when you have a clog you do the pairs clean as it uses the least amount of ink.
Our first 3 months with the 7900 had quite a few clog problems. Not sure if the firmware upgrades fixed it but it has really settled down.
I might do some form of clean once every other month. The biggest factor for less clogging might be that I am printing more then a year ago.
The 9900 has been outstanding with regards to very rare clogs (Knock on wood.) But I still do nozzle checks.

Ps. Please read Randy's clog vs. ink delivery comment below.

[Randy Carone]

I'd first run a nozzle check in response to the "Clogged Nozzles Detected, Cleaning Recommended" message, rather than performing a cleaning. I also run a second nozzle check after a nozzle check that has breaks in the pattern. Often a second nozzle check is enough to correct the bad nozzle check. This has been discussed on other threads, but I think the term "clogged nozzle" is used incorrectly as I think a bad nozzle check can be the result of ink not getting to the head. An ink delivery issue rather than a clog.

[bellimages]

Well, the thought of ink not getting to the head seems more disconcerting than clogged nozzles. Yes? No?

And, when I see the "Clogged Nozzles Detected, Cleaning Recommended," what action do you recommend to clear it from the screen?


I'll take your suggestion, Randy, and always run a second cleaning. Does anyone have any idea how much ink is used for a regular cleaning?

[fjmcsu]

Well for me having had the 7900 for close to 10 months, I still have clogs on a week to 2 week basis. Turning the machine off between usage has helped but still have the clogs! I must admin that the amount of clogging is less(usually only one channel) but it is still present. Perhaps the low humidity as some have eluded may be at fault. I had hopes that the issue would be less than my 7500 & 7600 but in reality it seems to be about the same.Thankfully the image quality makes up for it my case!

[Randy Carone]

Jan,

I mentioned running another NOZZLE CHECK, not another cleaning, which uses much less ink than a cleaning.

Randy

[bellimages]

Oh, okay. I have always ran a second nozzle check.

I guess this clogging or ink not getting to the heads is new to me, since my Epson 7800 didn't have this issue. Granted, periodically gaps were seen in the printout when I did a nozzle check. But I never once got a "Clogged Nozzles Detected, Cleaning Recommended" warning.

I just changed paper, requiring an ink change (from photo black to matte black). The printer takes about a minute to make the change. I just sent a file to the printer, and it is going through this cleaning cycle ..... all on it's own. It's been cleaning for about four minutes. I've had this happen before. Anyway to avoid this? Or does it have to do this after changing black ink?

[Wayne Fox]

Oh, okay. I have always ran a second nozzle check.

I guess this clogging or ink not getting to the heads is new to me, since my Epson 7800 didn't have this issue. Granted, periodically gaps were seen in the printout when I did a nozzle check. But I never once got a "Clogged Nozzles Detected, Cleaning Recommended" warning.

I just changed paper, requiring an ink change (from photo black to matte black). The printer takes about a minute to make the change. I just sent a file to the printer, and it is going through this cleaning cycle ..... all on it's own. It's been cleaning for about four minutes. I've had this happen before. Anyway to avoid this? Or does it have to do this after changing black ink?

Your 7800 didn't have any technology to sense failed nozzles so of course you wouldn't see a warning message.

Unfortunatey when Epson updated the firmware to truly disable ANC, they left it in when swapping blacks, and it seems to need to clean every time.  To avoid this you can do the ink swap in service mode and then do a nozzle check and manual cleans (which can use much less ink).  I did a write up 7900 issues last year where I describe using service mode to control excessive cleaning.
   
http://www.cwaynefox.com/myBlog/Printing/Entries/2009/7/1_Some_tips_on_using_an_Epson_7900.html