A heater power of a heat-assisted magnetic recording head is set based on an initial head-medium clearance estimate in response to the heater power. For a plurality of iterations, an optimum laser power of the recording head is determined and a heater power is set for a next iteration that results in an optimum heater power for the optimum laser power. If differences in the heater and laser powers between two subsequent iterations are below thresholds, the iterations are stopped and the optimum heater power and the optimum laser power for one of the subsequent iterations are used as an operational heater power and an operational laser power.