NozzleClogFree

Epson says: print regularly to avoid clogs. But who remembers?

After every long business trip, I always return to find my Epson color inkjet printer clogged. The only option is to run the built-in cleaning program, which consumes a lot of ink — more ink goes into cleaning than actual printing.
Living in Beijing probably doesn’t help — it's very dry here. Epson recommends printing regularly to keep the ink flowing, but I always forget.
After my last trip to Italy, the printhead was clogged again. That was the final straw. I decided to solve the problem once and for all.
With help from ChatGPT, I wrote a macOS utility called NozzleClogFree. It automatically prints a small test page at scheduled intervals to prevent nozzle clogging.
I just came back from another trip to Germany — this time, the printer worked perfectly. No clogs, no wasted ink.
Hopefully, it can save you the same trouble.

NozzleClogFree is a small tool to help keep your inkjet printer in good condition by preventing nozzle clogging.

Inkjet printer heads tend to clog if the printer isn’t used for a while. Built-in cleaning functions can clear the clogs, but they waste a lot of ink. Manual cleaning is even more inconvenient and error-prone.

A simple and efficient solution is to print a small page at regular intervals — but it’s easy to forget.

NozzleClogFree automates this for you.

• Set your own printing schedule and page, or use the default settings.
• The app will automatically print at the scheduled time.
• It can even wake your computer from sleep to complete the printing (as long as the machine is powered on and connected to the printer).

Features

• Customizable printing interval and page content
• Wake-from-sleep support (if system is still on and printer is connected)
• Minimal ink usage compared to built-in cleaning processes
• Smart Mode: Automatically adjusts the print schedule based on the last 30 days of humidity data

Permissions

When you first run NozzleClogFree, the system will request two permissions. These are essential for the app’s full functionality:

1. Authorization to install a privileged helper tool

   • This allows the app to schedule and perform print jobs even when your Mac is sleeping (as long as it is plugged in and the printer is connected).
   • The helper tool is installed using Apple's secure SMJobBless mechanism and runs with system privileges.

2. Location access

   • This is used to retrieve local humidity data based on your geographical location. The app uses this data in Smart Mode to intelligently adjust the print schedule.
   • No personal or identifiable location data is stored or transmitted — it's only used locally to request weather information from a public weather API.

You can choose to deny either permission, but certain features — like Smart Mode or printing while your Mac is asleep — will be unavailable.

Download

You can download the latest version of NozzleClogFree from the link below:

👉 NozzleClogFree (.dmg)