Digital BW, The Print

Last year I purchased an Epson R1800 for use as a "pure carbon"  
printer (3 MK).

Then about three months ago I splurged for an Epson 4880.

The R1800 sat unused for a month or so as I experimented with the  
4880, and when I came back to it, several colors were clogged.  No big  
deal, I thought. That happened with a 2200 as well, and a few cleaning  
cycles and/or Windex overnight and/or pigment-less cleaning cartridges  
always put it right.

With the R1800 I had a dreadful time cleaning the heads. It took me  
nearly two weeks of cleaning. soaking, sitting, cursing, threatening  
etc. to get it more-or-less working again.

The questions:

1)  Have others had unusual difficulties cleaning the heads with 1.5  
picoliter droplets?  I would *guess* that some of the difficulty is  
related to the smaller dot-size-possibility with the R1800 (in  
comparison with the 2200, C86 and similar "older" versions).

2) If you are using the 3-black version of printing, how do you test  
and clean the third black... the one in the "glop" position?  The  
usual head test does not print a test pattern of that position.   Does  
anyone have an efficient alternative head test?

3) Does anyone know whether the Epson cleaning cycles clean the "glop"  
position?

Myron