How many clogged nozzles does it take?

[texshooter]

How many clogged nozzles does it take before it starts to visually degrade the print?

And will clogs becomes permanent if I don't clear them promptly?

[deanwork]

😏 One. Just a little of one.


quote author=texshooter link=topic=123727.msg1032325#msg1032325 date=1520904276]
How many clogged nozzles does it take before it starts to visually degrade the print?

And is it safe to leave the clogs alone until they become too many? Or should I always repeat power cleans until all clogs are gone?



[/quote]

[Wayne Fox]

Repeating power cleans can be a little problematic.  After a power clean you should print something else that you feel will exercise all of the nozzles before running a nozzle check.  After a couple of power cleans, you may want the printer to rest for a while, allowing the moisture time to soften things up. (up to 24 hours.  Tough to do if you have to get a job out, and to be honest I haven't had to do that since the 9800).

As far as degrading the image, there are too many variable to offer a clear answer.  Missing only one or two in LK or LLK is enough to show some banding as those two are mixed in with most all other colors.  Missing one in another colors depends on the file itself and what colors are being printed. Sometimes if I have one or two missing and am printing something perhaps not very critical (such as a test print) I'll find the nozzle will clear itself.  But when printing a final print, I verify there are none missing.

[texshooter]

One clog can screw things up? My god!

I'll have to make printer nozzle maintenance a priority then, right up there next to laundry, dishes, and breathing.

[langier]

On my 2nd hand 9900, I had one or two nozzles in one color that were clogged for several years, then one day, they were clear and that was a couple of years ago. Nothing showed on the prints and I ran hundreds of feet of both canvas and photo stocks. My printer is pushing 10 years old and is still going strong with the head firing all the nozzles.

Usually, I try to run a check before anything critical and if there's more than a 3-4 gaps, clean just the pairs or if it's in more than 3 channels, run a full cleaning cycle and start printing.

[Farmer]

It depends on what you're printing and which ones are clogged.  Often, a single missing nozzle from one of the light colours will not generally be noticed, particularly on a busy image (say a forest scene with lots of leaves and relatively few patches of solid colour).

Wayne's advice, as always, is spot on.