Dana, or anyone
Can the auto head cleaning cycle be disabled on the 7880’s. This unnecessary function will initiate whenever printer sits idle for any length of time or when printer is turned on. The only partial solution I’ve found is to not return paper release lever after current print is finished. This seems to extend the idle time by about 12 hours before auto clean will start up again as soon as print command is started. This clean function wastes a tremendous amount of ink for no purpose. The nozzles are not clogging so why keep purging all of this ink not to mention the delay while this operation runs. Does anyone else find this epson action annoying? Any solution?
Mark
Hey densible,
Yes, I also find the 7880 auto head cleaning cycle to be a big waste of ink. I’d also like to disable it unless it provides some benefit that I’m not aware of. I’ll keep tabs on this thread to see if Dana or anyone else has any suggestions.
John
John, I’ve measured the wasted ink and it’s as much as doing a full manual head clean. When I delay the auto action , by not lowering the paper release arm and do a nozzle check at least every 12 hrs. I still get perfect full nozzle checks. I can’t detect that that any clogging will occur if the printer doesn’t do a auto clean. If I did see a single clog I could always do a manual initiated head clean. This is just an Epson created ink wasting function so you buy more ink. In this case it’s more ink from IJM. Either way it’s expensive.
Mark
Hey Mark,
That’s incredible… as much as a full manual head clean is a huge amount of wasted ink. I cleaned and reset my waste ink maintenance tank on the 7880 the other day and then followed it with a full manual head clean. After the head clean I examined the waste tank and was really surprised at just how much ink was used!! I looked through the service manual but could not find a way to disable the auto head cleaning cycle.
John
The only possible setting that I haven’t explored is some setting using the technician service software that would have to be purchased from 2manuals. Hopefully a longtime multiple unit user such as Dana, will chime in and verify that the service software offers some solution or not. In other forums some users don’'t think this is a big problem with ink waste , some may think that but I couldn’t.
On the printer’s LCD panel- push the Menu button, then select Printer Setup (push right arrow/Menu button to select), scroll down to Auto Cleaning and push the right arrow to select, then select *OFF.
I have the auto cleaning cycle and auto nozzle checks disabled on all our printers, and they are all working very well with both ConeColor and Piezography inks.
The printers are programmed to keep some ink flowing to help avoid the print head from drying out, so some amount of regular cleaning is good for the health of the machine, and I expect uses less ink to maintain the printer than you would have to use doing cleaning cycles if the print head did dry out and you were fighting with clogging caused by dried ink in the print head.
I hope this answers your question.
Best regards and happy printing~ Dana 
Dana,
I’ve always have this function set to “OFF” on both of my 7880’s one of the 1st thing I made sure was set since I installed the printers. this does not disable the programmed auto clean after a relatively short idle time. can’t say the exact time frame but it’s probably around 30mins. the only extension to this auto cycle is to not lower the paper release lever after a print has finished printing. Extends the idle time window to around 12 hrs. If you really look at how much ink is cycled thru the heads with the programmed ink flow I’m sure most would find it a extremely expensive waste of ink if one is paying full price for ink. K7 inks, probably are less clog prone than OEM. I guess if no one has found a way to circumvent this uneeded programmed function I’ll just continue the judicial use of the paper release lever during production days. After long idle times I always run a nozzle check before starting a new print and almost always find it perfect and can immediately begin the new print without any further waste of ink and cycle time.
Mark
Thanks for your input Mark. Yes, the printers are programmed to automatically clean at certain times, and I don’t know of any way to disable this auto clean cycle, though your suggestion of using the roll paper lever to stop the cycle is a good idea.
I leave our printers on all week, then turn them all off on Friday afternoon for the weekend. I know the printers will preform an auto cleaning cycle before printing a nozzle check in the beginning of the day, or after the printer has sat idle for a while, but I don’t recall ever hearing any of them randomly do cleaning cycles while sitting still during the day… Do mean your printers are doing auto cleaning cycles about every 30 minutes while sitting idle, or while printing? Do you also have the auto nozzle check turned off?
Happy printing~ Dana
Dana,
No I didn’t mean it does it on it’s own. just when , after the idle period, if you begin a new print job the printer will begin that cleaning cycle before it begins to actually starts to print. You will see after seeing Printing you then get a please wait message. the printer will then complete the purge cycle before actually starting the print. I’ve measured this cycle ink usage and I quite sure it’s virtually or close to a full manual head clean that you would get by pushing and holding down the cleaning button. clearly , if you had previously confirmed a perfect nozzle check , the printer doesn’t require this additional ink purging. Just watch your ink levels slowly run down just because your idling between print jobs. Because I don’t have an assistant there can be a idle time between prepping image files between print jobs even though I might be in production all day long. Anyway, this issue is about the only con I have with this very solid platform for K7 printing.
Cheers
Mark
Ok, I understand better what you’re explaining Mark. Yes, I experience this as well and don’t know of any way around this cleaning cycle (other that the paper lever workflow you use). All printers are programmed with this auto cleaning cycle, and overall the 7880/9880 are my absolute favorite printer models.
Best regards and happy printing~ Dana
thanks dana
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