Waking up a printer that has been unused for months...

Hey all,

First things first, I want to say thank you to the members of this board. You're great. I've been a long-time lurker around here, and I've always had luck finding the answers to any questions I've had by searching this board.

That said, I think I finally have a question that hasn't received much coverage in the past, hence the reason for me finally creating an account.

Ok, here's the situation: In fall of 2012 I bought an Epson R3000 printer. Then I rather unexpectedly ended up moving me abroad for the past several months, and the printer couldn't come. Result: It has sat unused in the US (in the humidity-poor Great Plains, no less) for a rather long time. 7-8 months is my guess. I'll be back home around Christmas time, though, and I have some print jobs that I would loooove to do in the two-three weeks that I'll be around. I plan on buying some Piezo Flush and carts so I can more properly store the printer whenever I know it'll be going unused for a while again in the future (though any additional info on how to properly "hibernate" it would be incredibly helpful!). I wish I was aware of piezo flush before I left......

My question is this: given that it has been dormant for so long, I'm interested to know how you'd recommend I go about bringing it back up to speed. I know repeated cleaning cycles can be bad news for printers that have major clogs. I plan to run a nozzle check to assess the extent of the cloggage, and I'll probably run one cleaning cycle to see if that ends up being all it takes to things up. I use Cone Color Pro ink, which is claimed to be highly resistant to clogs, so my concern might be moot, but given how I've broken practically every rule in regards inkjet printer upkeep, I want to have a plan so I can hopefully spend more of my time printing and less time fixing during my time at home.

Thank you for being a great board! I look forward to your input!

-Collin

Collin,

The R3000 has proven to be a relatively clog free printer, due to the coating on the print head. You may be very lucky, as you are also using Cone inks. I use Cone inks in my R3000 and have never experienced a clog, even when the printer was unused for over a month.

My first concern is settling of the pigment in your ink cartridges. Before turning on your printer, take out each cartridge and gently agitate. This would also be a good time to refill the cartridges and reset the chips on each cartridge. Then power up the printer and perform a nozzle check. If you have any clogged nozzles, perform a cleaning cycle followed by a nozzle check. I would perform no more than 3 cleaning cycles, followed by an overnight rest of the printer. Most likely this will be all that is needed.

Bob

Bobjoek said:

Collin,

The R3000 has proven to be a relatively clog free printer, due to the coating on the print head. You may be very lucky, as you are also using Cone inks. I use Cone inks in my R3000 and have never experienced a clog, even when the printer was unused for over a month.

My first concern is settling of the pigment in your ink cartridges. Before turning on your printer, take out each cartridge and gently agitate. This would also be a good time to refill the cartridges and reset the chips on each cartridge. Then power up the printer and perform a nozzle check. If you have any clogged nozzles, perform a cleaning cycle followed by a nozzle check. I would perform no more than 3 cleaning cycles, followed by an overnight rest of the printer. Most likely this will be all that is needed.

Click to expand...

I would consider gently agitating the entire printer. Pigment will also sediment in the lines too.

Brian A

Hugowolf said:

Bobjoek said:

Collin,

The R3000 has proven to be a relatively clog free printer, due to the coating on the print head. You may be very lucky, as you are also using Cone inks. I use Cone inks in my R3000 and have never experienced a clog, even when the printer was unused for over a month.

My first concern is settling of the pigment in your ink cartridges. Before turning on your printer, take out each cartridge and gently agitate. This would also be a good time to refill the cartridges and reset the chips on each cartridge. Then power up the printer and perform a nozzle check. If you have any clogged nozzles, perform a cleaning cycle followed by a nozzle check. I would perform no more than 3 cleaning cycles, followed by an overnight rest of the printer. Most likely this will be all that is needed.

Click to expand...

I would consider gently agitating the entire printer. Pigment will also sediment in the lines too.

Brian A

Click to expand...

As well as any small dampers that may be part of the Head Carriage. I am nor sure of the R3000 but it is definitely a part of the PRO 3880 head.
Joe

How does one go about gently agitating an entire printer? Pick it up and give it a (careful) shake? Take it for a drive on a gravel road? Or is there a setting that would do all this for me?