Digital BW, The Print

Anyone new or having idle printer clogs should read this! 
Thanks for the excellent input Jim. RH of 45+% sounds like it would 
keep most people printing without too many problems. I'm surprised 
suppliers aren't providing help tips along this line when they ship 
supplies. Or at least on the websites. But I guess that's one or the 
reasons why this group exists :) It would be nice to have an program 
that automatically ran a small maintenance print everyday. Maybe 
these Epson printers prefer "Organic" humidity :)

Thanks, 
Jeff     

> > Hello everyone,
> 
> Excellent post, you're reading my mind. I'll add a couple of 
> thoughts...
> 
> 
> > 2. Store your printer in a humidity controlled room-not really 
> > feasable and I don't have a recommeded min/max humidity, sorry.
> 
> 
> The humidity where I am is about 20%-25% in winter and about 35%-
50% 
> in summer. I added a warm mist humidifier, made by Slant/Fin. This 
is 
> one of the few models that has a UV germicidal light to kill 
bacteria. 
> I set it so the two hygrometers in the room average 38-44%RH and I 
run 
> a draft quick 20 second purge print twice a day. If the humidity 
goes 
> below 40%, it tends to have more bad nozzle checks. If below 35%RH, 
it 
> gets much worse. Now that spring is here, my clogging issues are 
> dissapearing, and my printer works much better. It seems to prefer 
> "natural" humidity to humidifier generated RH.
> 
> > 3. Prime or print often. It can't dry out in the head if it's on 
> > the paper.
> 
> I find I actually SAVE ink by running my two purge prints/day, as I 
> don't have to do nearly as many cleaning cycles.
> 
> > 4. Some CIS users have also run into this problem. Especially in 
> > the two darkest inks. The problem here is that water will 
evaporate 
> > right through the tubing leaving the cosolvents and pigments 
behind 
> > to start the film cascade that's supposed to happen on the paper. 
> The 
> > dryer climate the CIS/printer system is in the faster this will 
> > happen. If your going to store your printer for long time remove 
the 
> > inks from the tubing.
> 
> This is why I'm leaning towards a MIS CFS system, after experiences 
> with two nomorecarts systems. Not because the tubing is more or 
less 
> permeable, but because it's so cheap, I can throw it away with 
every 
> set of bottles I buy. It only costs $35 to replace the cart/tubing, 
> $25 if you assemble it yourself from parts. So I'm figuring a four 
> month duty for each CFS, then toss it all out.
> Jim H.
> 
> > I hope this helps and if anyone would like to add something 
> > please let me know.
> > 
> > Jeff