Avoiding cloggs in Epson 3800

I believe that it was "The Hat" who wrote that to avoid cloggings in the 3800 it suffices to print once a week a color photo.
That's what I am doing most of the time and indeed there are no cloggs!
Now and then I also make a non automatic nozzle check and what I then get is a very vague print of the 8 cartridges. I can hardly see the prints themselves.
I wonder, is this normal?
Or perhaps a sign that something is not as it should be, and if so, what?

I had a lot of trouble last time correcting some clogged nozzles and in the process of doing so,I lost quite a lot of ink. I like to avoid that by making the weekly print "The Hat" recommended. But hardly being able to distinguish the nozzle check prints makes me concerned that something might not be normal!

Just post a nozzle check, and the experts here will give you a definitive answer on it..

to increase visibility of inks in nozzle check printouts - specifically of light inks and yellow -
you may use a little battery operated UV flashlight which is typically used to check bank notes etc.
Such lamps are available e.g. via Amazon for a few Euros. That makes you independent of any
room light.

Yes, please post the nozzle check.

In what way do I post a nozzle check?
By making a scan of the paper on which the nozzle check has been printed?
Harry

That is correct Harry, or take a photo of it if you don’t have a scanner, it’s not ideal but it will do, then just use the Upload a file button.

Attached is the scan of the nozzle check you asked for.
Harry

Ok Harry,

Your nozzle print looks almost perfect now but you have filled up your waste cartridge in doing so, if you look closely at the first section you’ll see you still have a couple of blocked nozzles there.

Now it’s very wasteful to do head cleans just to unblock one little section like this and you’d be better off printing something that uses that black ink instead of just dumping all of that good ink.

Have a look at this Qimage video, it shows how to clear a clog a better way and save on ink at the same time, it might suite you better..

http://www.ddisoftware.com/qimage-u/videolinks/unclog.htm

The Hat said:

Ok Harry,

Your nozzle print looks almost perfect now but you have filled up your waste cartridge in doing so, if you look closely at the first section you’ll see you still have a couple of blocked nozzles there.
View attachment 2561
Now it’s very wasteful to do head cleans just to unblock one little section like this and you’d be better off printing something that uses that black ink instead of just dumping all of that good ink.

Have a look at this Qimage video, it shows how to clear a clog a better way and save on ink at the same time, it might suite you better..

http://www.ddisoftware.com/qimage-u/videolinks/unclog.htm

Click to expand...

If I don't print for a while I can see the odd nozzle missed, usually in magenta!!
At the start this drove me to do several nozzle checks then seeing no result I ended up doing a clean or even a power clean. It was not uncommon for this to fail to clear also!
One day I did this process early in the day ... Frustrated I turned the machine off and went out and spent the day working on the farm. Late afternoon I came back to the printer and ran a nozzle check! The offending nozzle was firing but very weak in colour, so I turned the machine off again. Later on in the evening I went back to try again. This time it was 100% ok.
So now I print a nozzle check, regardless of result, leave it 8 hours and print again and it is ALWAYS clear. I figure it is the pressure getting fresh ink to the blockage, allowing a good soak and the next print clears.

The Hat: thank you for directing me to Qimage unclog video.
It seems a nice additional way of fighting clogs.
How can I get this program?
In my PC years I used Qimage printing software, but since (as far as I know) there is no Qimage software for iMac, I no longer do.
In addition I feel that the Print part of Lightroom does a perfect job and there is no need for Qimage?
Do I have to purchase this software and does it run on iMac?

Harry,
Google qimage, have a read the answer is there. I found it in about 20 seconds.
Cheers,
Andrew