I’ve posted several articles on dealing with the clogged nozzle problem I’ve experienced with the Epson 4800. In summary, I tried increasing the humidity inside the printer by using damp sponges. This technique appeared to work but in the end was a really bad idea. Here are the original posts.
The reason the wet sponge technique was a bad idea is this. I placed them in a small Starbucks shot glass in a place that I thought was out of the way. But when I turned on the printer and it went through its startup program, the print head would hit the shot glass and a horrible grinding sound issued from the printer. Ugh.
But I did some research on the Internet and discovered that someone else with the same problem talked it over with an Epson engineer who informed him of a very simple solution. I wish I had the link to his article because it turned out to be exactly what I needed.
The engineer explained that when the printer sits for a while two things can happen – the ink can dry on the nozzles and air bubbles can form in the lines. Don’t ask me how the second thing can happen. So the 4800 was designed to fix these problems when you turn it on.
I had been leaving the printer on all the time and the clogging problem was driving me crazy. So I started shutting it off when I was done printing. And it works. The printer has sat for weeks and when I turn it back on it works like a charm.
And I’m a happy camper (or should I say ‘printer’).