My printer spends a lot of time cycling every time I begin a print
job, and I wonder if it's cleaning itself each time. Is there a way
to see how much ink has been used in cleaning? There must be a
waste tank somewhere - can it be accessed?

Peabody wrote:
> My printer spends a lot of time cycling every time I begin a print
> job, and I wonder if it's cleaning itself each time. Is there a way
> to see how much ink has been used in cleaning? There must be a
> waste tank somewhere - can it be accessed?

In my i550 waste tank was a sponge at the bottom of the printer. But, my
i550 and also recent ip4000 also spends a lot of time doing "something"...

"Peabody" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:uVZxd.1897$Tf5.1171@lakeread03...
> My printer spends a lot of time cycling every time I begin a print
> job, and I wonder if it's cleaning itself each time. Is there a way
> to see how much ink has been used in cleaning? There must be a
> waste tank somewhere - can it be accessed?

I had an Epson that dumped the ink into a tray under the printer. I removed
the tray and found several layers of dense matting used to soak it up. I
washed them out in cold water - it took around 40 buckets to get them clean!

After a while, the printer will decide by counting cleaning cycles that the
ink tray is full and it will stop working, prompting an expensive visit to
the dealer to have the waste mat replaced and the counter reset. You can
reset it yourself if you know how. Try www.fixyourownprinter.com

Mike