I refurb'd these printers, they are -not- factory refurbs. I've been an electronics technician for many years, worked on stuff from arcade games and pinballs to pro audio to high speed cassette duplicators to VCRs and TVs.
I clean out the printers, especially in and around the park pads, wipe the bottoms of the heads, clean the heads and make sure all nozzles are working, clean the bearing surfaces that the head assembly slides on and relube with the requisite oil/grease, clean out the paper dust, clean the rollers (including the offset paperfeed rollers), wipe down the outside. I run a lot of cleaning/flush fluid through the heads and inspect the dampers in printers that have them (3000, 5000, etc) and flush out if necessary. I take a look at the waste ink "tank" (it's really a big felt pad) and see if it needs cleaning/replacement. I don't worry too much about non-important things like stickers unless they look especially bad or get in the way. Then I print loads of test prints. Color bars, text, pictures. I think running half a ream of paper through a printer after it's clean to detect possible intermittents is cheap insurance.
I've found quite a few printers have several relatively minor problems. Paper dust clogging sensors, paper dust on rollers causing misfeeds, ink and paper "mud" on the bottom of the heads, dry or dirty oil/grease causing head chattering and sticking which can show as subtle vertical artifacts or it just grinds the heads and quits printing. Ink and paper dust "mud" build-up on the park pad, lint laying over the edge of the park pad which breaks the seal and can cause head drying or ink wicking. Dried ink built up in the park pad, blocking head cleanings.
Printers with tanks get purged before shipment as per Epson instructions. Printers with cartridges have the cartridges removed and I insert distilled water filled tubing stubs over the ink spike to prevent drying out.
BTW, never use a Qtip or cotton to wipe the sponge in the park pad. It is really a hard plastic foam, it will grab cotton fibers which will then cause problems with wicking or head drying.
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Thanks, Alien Steve Home