Tip from an Epson tech

I just got off the phone with Epson regarding continued problems my mom's having with her Epson Stylus C60. She has the same problems with hers that I had with my Epson Stylus Photo 820.

Old blog entries chronicle those problems:
http://mt.gardenwife.com/archives/000035.html
http://mt.gardenwife.com/archives/000134.html
http://mt.gardenwife.com/archives/000390.html

The tech told me a couple of things which they don't seem to tell their customers:

1. The print heads are separate from the cartridges.

2. Turn your printer off when you are not using it. The printer generates heat when on, which dries up ink in the print head. The print head is left unsealed when the printer is on, causing it to have ink dry in it.

3. This was the topper: When you do a head cleaning, run it 5 or 6 times WITHOUT prnting the test page in between cleanings. In other words, run the cleaning, and say FINISH. Then run the cleaning again directly, without doing the test pattern.

He explained that this way it does not use up a bunch of ink. He said each time you do a head cleaning, the printer gets rid of the ink that's been put in the print head. When you tell it to do a test print, you're just having the printer re-fill the print head with a new supply of ink.

Also, by running it several times without printing, you're not just dumping and refilling, but actually cleaning the print head.

This message was edited Oct 31, 2003 6:47 PM