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HP L26500 Extra Printhead Cleaning setting or not?
Just wondering what setting for this anybody who has one of these printers uses. Do you have it set to do "Extra head cleaning" or not & does it make much difference either way? What is the default?
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9 Replies
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I did have mine switched on and noticed I started to fly through printhead cleaning kits! I’ve since turned it off and not noticed any difference whatsoever other than the cleaning kit last twice as long!
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quote Luke Culpin:I did have mine switched on and noticed I started to fly through printhead cleaning kits! I’ve since turned it off and not noticed any difference whatsoever other than the cleaning kit last twice as long!Ha Ha! 😆 Yes I had a feeling that may have been the case alright Luke. Mine too was switched on & it was only when I just replaced the cleaning kit recently for the first time & then noticed only a couple of days later it was already up to 36% !!!! I nearly had a heart attack & thought i’d turn the extra cleaning off. It seems to have stayed at 36% since!! Could there really be that much difference? I wonder does the cleaning kit do a mad cleaning burst when it’s new & then settle down?
My worry is that with it being off it may reduce the life of the printheads? I’m sure I read that somewhere, or is it just scaremongering by HP to make you leave it on so you keep buying cleaning kits?
Whilst I think about it, what does anyone do with the waste ink when the container is full & does anyone re-use the containers? (i.e. empty it out & put it back)
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Perfect colours actually advised me to switch it off! I’ve never had any issues with it being switched off. I’ve done the odd extra clean here and there, but it seems to run perfectly! I would say you would of spent more on cleaning kits than print heads if you left it on!
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I guess that’s probably the best way to go, just keep an eye on print quality & do an extra clean if needed occasionally.
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Always had mine on off, and have also been advised by engineers to keep it off….. :thumbsup:
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I had mine turned off for the 3 years I had mine and found no problems, in fact the more you use the colour the longer the head lasted in my opinion as the yellow black lasted 4 times longer then the light colours.
One thing I found towards the end of my 26500 was to run a gutter print (all six colours) down the side of a long print once daily, this made sure ever colour was fed through the head and stopped a lot of the issues I had with the light colour heads from not being used and also only used a minimal amount of ink.
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Thanks chaps, seems off is definitely the way to go then.
That’s very interesting Kevin. How did you set that up exactly? Just like a 5mm wide full length stripe of each colour or something?
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Hi Miles
Its an option in the rip, in Onyx it comes under placement strategy and is called Printing Gutter, you just select the side you want it and choose the width and it will place the strip down that side of the print. I was told by an engineer that it helps speed as it fires every ink at the begging of the line (if you choose the correct side) and thus it makes sure the ink is ready when it comes to the print that needs that colour. I found I was going through light heads like every few weeks because the colours were not being used very much and by using this method it pushed ink through the head at least daily causing the cartridge to respond to a longer life period.
It might not be for that purpose and its not something I use now very often on the 310 but I certainly found it useful on the 26500 previously.
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Thanks Kevin, I actually have Flexi RIP but have just had a good look through & there is an option under labels & marks tab to "print colour bands" & gives options for which side so that’s it. Just about to send a print through now so will give it a try. :thumbsup:
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