After turning on R1800, print head moves right to left and returns. Then appears to go through a cycle where the head moves down, there is a whirling sound, the head comes back up and the power light goes out and ink and paper light blink rapidly. Ran Epson's ink pad rest tool and it said not needed. Epson's tech said it could be a waste ink problem. Took unit apart and waste ink pads are not nearly used up. Cleaned everything I could, not any of the sensors. When the two lights are blinking I don't seem to have communication with the printer.

Just because the Wiper blade is not visible when the carriage is off to the left it does not mean it is not there. Epson R1800 has automated retractable system that will pull the wiper out when needed and then hide it away.
You might be able to access it manually only at certain cycle point while unplugging the power in mid cycle. I saw the thing after removing the print head for cleaning. Have a snapshot of it. Covered in hardened gunk. My problem was that after cleaning and reassembly printer will initiate properly, park the head but when attempting to print on paper or CD it would shut off. In paper mode the carriage moves all the way to the left and turns off the moment it tries to pull paper in. The green light goes off, when power button is lightly touched it will recover, go through the cycle and repeat the same when another print job is sent to it. While in CD print mode it shuts of while the carriage is on the right side and is getting ready to pull the CD tray in. I'm thinking the data-ribbon was still moist from head soaking, drying and spraying it with compressed air was not sufficient. Somehow it screwed up the communication/head alignment procedure. Will get back to it and report if I'll get any positive results. Any input will be appreciated of course. Seen few post with the same exact result of a print head cleaning attempt. It seems Epson designed those things to fail one way or another. First you go through a set or two of cartridges just to get rid of the constant clogging, when that does not work and you try to clean it it will fail in some other fashion, unbelievable. Last Epson I ever bought. They will bleed you dry, while frustrating and annoying the hell out of you in the meantime. To those neah sayers, yes I am using OEM carts, and no R1800 is not some econo class printer you throw away after 1 yr. I have actually payed $560 for it, betting it will last. 8x$14 each time carts need to be replaced and more of them got drained in constant cleaning cycles then actually printing. Got few months of semi successful performance, then nothing but problems. Stay away people ! "Made in Japan" no longer stands for anything. Shame on you Epson !

Your User's Guide is available here:

http://files.support.epson.com/pdf/r1800_/r1800_ug.pdf

After leaving the printer inactive for a extended period you should expect the ink cartridges to be dried up and the print head 'gummed' in place.

You will need to refer to page 82 of the pdf, Cleaning the Printer.

As part of cleaning remove the existing ink cartridges and while the cartridges are removed try and clean the print head of any ink residue. Note that if the red light is on or flashing above an ink cartridge the printer sees it as empty (dried up).

The print head will not move if ink cartridges need replacement; replace ink cartridges according to the red lights, likely all. Press the ink button to see if the printer will begin the charging cycle. If all is well the green power light will stay on and the red ink light will go out.

If you do not get this desired outcome try Cleaning the Print Head, page 73 of the User Guide. Hold down the ink button when the red light is off for 3 seconds. Run a nozzle check pattern; if nozzels are not printing a clean pattern, repeat this process up to 3 or 4 times.

Run a nozzle check to see if all inks are printing out. Turn printer off, then hold down the paper button ( top ), while holding it down, press and hold the power button. When you see the power light flashing green, release both buttons. It should print a nozzle check pattern. You should see 7 columns of different colored lines and one checkered board pattern. There should be no gaps and breaks on the lines. If pattern is no good, you need to do head cleaning.Press the ink button for 3 seconds. Power light will flash and print head will move. This will take one to two minutes. After it is complete ( power light turns solid green ) you need to do a nozzle check pattern to verify if there is improvement or If head cleaning needs to be repeated.

Have a real good cleanup of the ink that was (presumably) leaking from the old black cartridge. Remove the cartridges from the cartridge carrier and use kitchen paper towel to soak up any ink in the bottom. Give the cartridge outlet holes a dab on the towel as well. Replace the cartridges promptly.

Turn the printer on, and as soon as the print head moves, pull the power cord out of the back. You should now be able to (carefully) move the print head by hand. Place a layer of paper towel on the printer track, and move the print head across it to mop up any surplus ink. Move the print head across to the left out of the way and use kitchen towel to mop up surplus ink in the Print Head parking area.

Now turn the printer on and carry out a cleaning cycle (right click the little printer icon in the bottom right corner of the screen and select clean). Now run a nozzle check (right click the little printer icon in the bottom right corner of the screen and select nozzle check). Are there any extra black lines in evidence now? If so, try another 1 or 2 cleaning cycles and nozzle check. Black lines gone now?

If you still have the black lines, come back with a new comment.

If this information is useful to you, please rate it.

Have you carried out 2 or 3 head cleaning cycles? If not, do it. Is there ink on paper now after this cleaning? If so, but it is streaky, leave the printer for 24 hours and repeat the head cleaning. If not, you must soak the heads for at least 24 hours - use print head cleaning fluid or distilled water NOT TAP WATER. Proceed as follows:

Turn the printer on, and as soon as the print head starts to move, pull the power lead out of the printer, or turn it off at the mains. The print head should now be free to move by hand. Move it out of the way to the left. On the right you should see the print head parking area. There is a rubber cup that is designed to fit under the print head to keep the ink from drying out. Using a syringe or dropper, fill this cup with print head cleaning fluid. Then gently move the print head as far as it will go to the right. The print nozzles are now bathed in print head cleaner. Leave it for at least 24 hours, then repeat the cleaning cycle process.

I have been plagued by the same problem - the nozzles don't appear clogged - yet on heavier media there is a definite abrasive sound - and its leaving horizontal bands. After many cleanings with no luck I tried cleaning the heads with a bunch of Q-Tips lightly coated in Windex. After removing a ton of black deposits - it didn't immediately fix the problem; frustrated I turned the printer off. The next morning when the clean-heads-on-power-up kicked in - I noticed a large amount of ink collected in the vacuum sponge. It seams the bit of reside left over from the cleaning may have finally dissolved what I can only guess was a large ink deposit that had hardened and was striking the media when heavier stock was loaded. At any rate - no more abrasive sounds - and more importantly no more horizontal banding.

To clean I disconnected the power when the head was traveling. Then the head was free to move as I gently tried using the Q-Tips to clean the heads.

Hope this helps.

Did you check to see if the ink was low in the printer? Epson wont let you print if the ink is low, happened to me before!

Hi-

Nope you dont need one. Just turn the printer off while not in use or if youre planning not to use it for a long time, run some head cleaning cycles as well and print a nozzle check before printing photos. have the same printer and love them so much.

Thanks for using fixya!

Hi-

Try running a head cleaning from your computer, if you are using XP go to printers and faxes under control panel and right click on your printer icon then go to printing preferences then go to maintenance and run head cleaning cycles for 3x then print a nozzle again. if all fails cal epson and check for the warranty so that you can have it replace, coz chances are the nozzle for magenta is clog.

Hope this helps

Had the same problem - but the print head is actually easy to remove.

1) Remove ink cartridges
2) Remove 3 Phillips head screws at the bottom of the cartridge housing. (looking down from the printer front - top left, bottom left, top right).
3) There are 2 small plastic tabs on a plastic bracket that secure the flex cable on the right hand side of the cartridge housing. Gently release the tabs with a small flat head screw driver.
4) Lift the print head straight up (don't pull on the flex).

There may be a release for the flex to separate from the print head. But I did not see one. Instead I poured 1/4" of Windex in the bottom of a small plastic container and soaked my print head for about 15 minutes (occasionally agitating).

Then put back in reverse order - be sure to seat the flex in the guide (top-back-right) of the cartridge housing before screwing down. Then run a cleaning or two to flush the cleaning fluid out of the print head. (I have a waste ink tank installed so I am not worried about dumping excessive ink into the waste sponges).

The differences was remarkable - though there was still slight banding - maybe should have soaked longer (1 hr perhaps?) - I may repeat if it remains an issue.

Additionally there were large solid deposits on the left side of the print head which were responsible for scraping heavier weight photo paper. These dissolved in the Windex too.