Epson P900, how to access print head and manually clean like the 3880

[tsinsf]

In the old days with an Epson 3880 you could easily unlock the print head and use paper towels and Piezo wash to clean off excess ink; you could also clean the perch station where the print head rested. I have googled incessently trying to find how to unlock the print head and if anybody has used this old technique, but have found nothing. Is there an easy way to get a look at the print head and the print head path to see if there is excess ink on the porous pads along the pathway? That seems not to be possible on the Epson P900. Is that correct?

[mcbroomf]

The way it is typically done outside of a maintenance mode is to turn the printer off, then turn it on.  During the power up sequence the head moves to the left away from the parked position.  When it does that you pull the power plug (not power down the printed with the button).  If you have a battery backup UPS make sure you pull the plug from the UPS, not the UPS from the wall (don't ask me how I know).

Not sure if the P900 moves the same way as other wide format printers but give that a try.

[tsinsf]

Thanks for trying to help. The Epson P900 does not behave like the older Epson printers, such as the 3880 which easily unlocked the print head by unplugging shortly after it starts to move. To reiterate, I cannot find any info online about manually cleaning the print head with paper towels and Windex or Piezo. And unplugging does not unlock the print head. So I am looking for info specific to the P900.

[Randy Carone]

Are you having specific issues with the printer?

[tsinsf]

Yes, I just had my first severe clog after a couple of months of not using it and then a heat wave where the temps were high 90s for a week. It took seven print head cleanings over 72 hours to unclog it. Now it makes good prints again, but the leading edge is getting black smears (see attachment for example). I've tried cleaning the paper path but this hasn't help, so I was considering doing a manual clean like I used to to with my 3880