---
title: Drum Cleaning
description: >-
  Learn how to enable Drum Cleaning on your printer to fix banding issues and
  extend drum life when substrate levels drop low.
keywords:
  - eq-9850
  - eq-9800
  - print
  - quality
  - drum
  - cleaning
  - clean
  - line
  - lines
  - splotch
  - splotches
  - splotchy
  - water
  - watermark
---

> **For AI agents:** the complete documentation index is at [llms.txt](/llms.txt). Append `.md` to any page URL for its markdown version.

After a period of use, it may become necessary to turn on a function called **Drum Cleaning**. This will perform a cleaning of the substrate on all of the drums in the printer when printing a job.

Good indicators for using Drum Cleaning are the following:

- Banding on the output
- When the Configuration Page shows ~60%-40% life left on average between all four drums (will vary greatly based on usage and coverage)
- As directed by the support team

Here are the steps to enable it:

- Press the **MENU** button on the Printer
- Using the LED screen on the printer, scroll down to ***Menus***, press **ENTER**
- Select ***System Adjust***, press **Enter**
- Scroll down (way down) until you see ***Drum Cleaning***, press **ENTER**
- Select ***On***, press **ENTER**
- Use the **BACK** button to get back to the Online/Ready to print screen.

Make sure to run at least several significant size jobs through the printer after changing this setting. Example: Four or more 20+ page 11x8.5/A4 books is a good benchmark to use.

Once you have let Drum Cleaning run for several significant jobs, please use the same directions above to turn it off again. Leaving Drum Cleaning on for an extended period of time beyond several large jobs will significantly shorten the life of the drum.