Epson Printer Overview

Caring 4 Your Printer

Preventive Maintenance

Regular cleaning and maintenance will go a
long way toward extending the life of your
printer. In general, your printer will not require
much maintenance, but you should make it a
practice to clean the outside whenever you
replace the ink cartridge. Simply wipe it with a
damp cloth, but be careful that no moisture
gets inside the printer and be sure to
disconnect the power before starting. If
necessary, use a soft brush or a computer
vacuum cleaner to remove lint and dust from
the sheet feeder and paper path.
Placing a cover over the printer when it is not
in use is a good idea in order to keep dust and
foreign particles away from the print heads.
Some ink residue
may build up inside
the housing. This is
common and may
be removed with a
damp cloth. Never
use alcohol,
solvents or other
cleaners as they may damage the printer.
Also, do not use any lubricant on the metal
rod that the print cartridge moves on. It is
normal for the cradle to make noise when it is
in motion.
On and Off
This may seem like a basic thing, turning a
printer on and off...How can that be a
problem? It isn't unless you turn it on and off
from a power strip. Never do that. When you
turn a printer off, it parks the heads in a very
References: Epson printer manuals and Epson Complete Guide to Digital Printing by Rob Sheppard pp. 153-155
specific place. Shutting the printer down from a
power strip may by pass the normal shut down
procedure and the heads may not be parked
properly. This can lead to the head drying out
and becoming clogged.
If you use your
printer on a daily
basis, just leave it
on. This is not a
waste of energy as
the printer uses
minimal power in
stand-by mode. You
should turn the printer off if it is not going to be
used for a few days. However, your printer
does work best when used regularly so it is
recommended that you turn the printer on and
make a small number of prints at least every
seven to ten days.

Print Head Cleaning

Clogged print heads is one of the most
common problems with ink jet printers.
Typically, you'll see streaks of colors or
missing lines where ink did not penetrate the
page. Cleaning the inkjet cartridges
themselves may also improve the
performance of your printer by correcting
missing lines or dots and eliminating streaks
on the paper. On Epson printers you can clean
the print head in two ways:
1. On the printer – There is a cleaning button
on the front of the printer (check your manual
for the exact placement). Hold it down for three
seconds and the unit will start the cleaning
cycle.
2. Software – There is a head-cleaning utility
built into the software that came with your
Epson printer. For PCs, you may access it
through the printer driver. Right-click on the
printer icon in the Windows taskbar (or get to it
through the Start menu, Settings, and Printers)
and select Head Cleaning.
For Macs, open the file menu and choose
Page Setup or Print. Click the Utility and Head-
Cleaning buttons and follow the on-screen
instructions.
Whichever technique you choose, the printer
will make some noise while it works. This is
normal. The green power light will also flash
while it is working. Be sure not to turn the
printer off while it is cleaning the heads.
Once completed, you should use the head-
cleaning utility to check the nozzles. Click on
Print nozzle check pattern, then Print. If the
resulting printed page is streaky, try cleaning
again. If you do this a few times and it is still
streaky, try turning the printer off and letting it
sit overnight. This allows the dried ink to
soften. Try cleaning it again the following day.
You may also want to replace the ink cartridge.
Be careful not to leave the cartridges lying out
for more than 30 minutes, or the heads will dry
up and the cartridges will be unusable.
Genuine Epson Ink
Clogged heads
may be the result of
using non-Epson
ink. Epson
calibrates its
printers to a very
high standard which
requires superior
ink quality. Ink
cartridges produced by other manufacturers
may not measure up to those standards and
can cause problems and clogs. Print heads
clogged with bad ink are extremely difficult to
clean. Therefore, in order to minimize clog
problems, Epson recommends that you only
use genuine Epson ink.

Aligning the Print Head

You will only need to align the head if your
prints show vertical lines that don't connect.
To align the print heads do the following:
Open the Printer Utilities, select print Print
Head Adjustment, and follow the instructions
on-screen.
For more information about cleaning your
printer or aligning the print head, refer to your
printer's user manual.