Vetting a new printer

Unable to shake the banding problems with my first Epson 1500w I have bought another new one to see if that performs any better.

I neglected to vet the first with colour ink for banding problems prior to installing piezography inks.

Could I please have some help to identify if this new printer is free from problems?

The Knowledge Base page has some information but I would like clarification to ensure I’m doing things correctly.

Could you please define what ‘test prints’ are?
Would I print actual colour images or are there targets/patterns that can be used to verify?

How does one align the print head to uni-directional on an Epson 1500w?
Thanks