Stopping Auto Head Cleanings

[ippolitois]

Is there anyway to stop the Epson 4000 from performing spontaneous auto head cleaning? What seems to happen is that after a certain amount of printing or idle time, the printer does a head cleaning. I'm finding that every time this happens, it does a head cleaning that ends up clogging my printer all the time. I turned off the auto head cleaning command through the menu system on the panel but that hasn't prevented  the printer from still doing this task.

Any help in this matter would be really greatly appreciated.

Paul

[namartinnz]

Paul

I have the same issue with my 4000. Every week without fail it'll do a head clean with the same results. I don't think it can be turned off - even with the setting done as you suggested.

Neal

[Peter McLennan]

I agree.  My experience with my 4800 is that you can't turn it off.   

Dropouts that magically appear after a head cleaning seem to result from stuff previously lodged on the bottom of the head becoming mobile or contamination from either the capping station or the rubber wiper.  I've found that you have to be meticulous in keeping these areas free of any gunk.

[ippolitois]

Here's a reply from my service tech who's looked after my printer in Toronto:

Paul,

The auto print head cleaning is controlled by the firmware. Check at the Epson website if a newer version of the firmware has resolved the issue of spontaneous auto print head cleaning.

The print head nozzles are probably not clogged after a cleaning cycle; rather it is an issue of ink supply. That is the print head does not receive ink fast enough during the cleaning cycle and a few nozzles are left without ink. When there are many missing segments in the nozzle check pattern appears after a spontaneous auto print head cleaning rather that doing additional cleaning cycles do the following;

1.   just let the printer sit idle for five minutes
2.   perform a nozzle check test
3.   note if some or all of the missing segments are now present

I just re leveled my printer again this time using the 220 cart as the source of the level. It was off more than I thought, so I'm hoping that helps.

These printers are gravity fed and I was told that that can contribute to the problem. Hope this helps.

Paul