Use non-Epson cartridges and die!

On Tue, 23 Nov 2004 12:45:41 GMT, Arthur Entlich wrote:

There are some things you can do to lessen the risk of Epson head clogs.

1) Keep the printer in a low dust situation. Clean any paper dust out
regularly

2) If you live in a very dry region, consider placing a few drops of
water in the cleaning station pad before shutting down.

3) Clean under the head using the technique explained in my Cleaning guide

4) Occasionally use cleaning cartridges to purge the nozzles and other
head parts

5) Do not allow the printer to sit without a cartridge installed for
more than a few minutes.

6) Try to print something a few times a week, if possible

7) Do not shut the printer down via a power bar, use the on off switch
on the printer

8) Make sure the head unit sets in place to the far right of the
printer, sealed by the cleaning station .

9) Keep the head wiper and the cleaning station clean so the heads will
get purged properly during start up and other cleaning processes.

Art


Your advice is excellent. The point is, however, that such measures should
not be required to keep a printer working. My wife has been using two
Canon i550s for years. Aside from changing generic cartridges, she does
nothing. They just keep printing.

Anti-imperialist wrote:

William Bell wrote:

On Mon, 22 Nov 2004 22:15:22 -0800, Anti-imperialist
wrote:


Andrew Mayo wrote:

Recently my brand-new Epson C86 failed to print yellow. Although I had
used Epson cartridges (in fact the first set, supplied with the
printer), it just failed after 6 weeks.


snip

I just destroyed 2 different Epson printers (clogged the heads). I was
using 3rd party inks both times (Printpal). Seemed like I used Canon
with Printpal and no problems. I suspect that the PrintPal inks
destroyed the Epsons but I am not sure. I just said screw it and bought
a Laser printer.

Its users that cause Epsons to clog, learn to use your printer correctly then
it will not clog,


Excuse me, how am I not using my printer correctly? Clue me in. Also
tell me how "users clog their Epsons, not ink?"

Epson user now on my 3rd printer..

Also use better grade OEM Ink Tanks, not just the cheapest, or the ones made
in China


Ok.......I just bought a laser printer, hopefully this is all over with
for now.


--

On 2004-11-23, Arthur Entlich wrote:

4) Occasionally use cleaning cartridges to purge the nozzles and other
head parts

Epson printers now allow cartridge removal? The only Epy I owned (800
color) would permanently kill any cartridge removed, not matter how new.

nb

wrote:

On Tue, 23 Nov 2004 12:45:41 GMT, Arthur Entlich wrote:


There are some things you can do to lessen the risk of Epson head clogs.

1) Keep the printer in a low dust situation. Clean any paper dust out
regularly

2) If you live in a very dry region, consider placing a few drops of
water in the cleaning station pad before shutting down.

3) Clean under the head using the technique explained in my Cleaning guide

4) Occasionally use cleaning cartridges to purge the nozzles and other
head parts

5) Do not allow the printer to sit without a cartridge installed for
more than a few minutes.

6) Try to print something a few times a week, if possible

7) Do not shut the printer down via a power bar, use the on off switch
on the printer

8) Make sure the head unit sets in place to the far right of the
printer, sealed by the cleaning station .

9) Keep the head wiper and the cleaning station clean so the heads will
get purged properly during start up and other cleaning processes.

Art



Your advice is excellent. The point is, however, that such measures should
not be required to keep a printer working. My wife has been using two
Canon i550s for years. Aside from changing generic cartridges, she does
nothing. They just keep printing.




I am not trying to defend Epson, or any other company. Each have their
good and bad points. Recent Canon printers, with their newer designs,
have improved the reliability and quality of their printers.

I believe Canon still does not produces pigmented inks for their
printers. The pigmented inks Epson uses may be one of the causes of
less reliability and more clogs.

Some people have reported early head failures with Canon printers.

Art

As I stated many times before, Epson printers require some special
treatment. In part it is due to the pigmented inks in certain models.
In part it is due to the permanent heads. Before recently (last two
years perhaps) no other printer on the market offered the quality of
output Epson did, so that alone made the extra considerations worthwhile
to those demanding that type of quality.

Both HP and Canon have made great strides in quality output recently.
If it were not for Epson, I doubt either would be anywhere near where
they are today.

The piezo head technology is used by almost all professional inkjet
printer companies. It allows for many varied inks and a very long
lasting head with little if any loss of quality, should it be
maintained. That used to be a big plus in terms of cost per cartridge,
but the market forced Epson to follow a similar business model to other
companies.

The piezo head is being used to print on pills and to make OLED screens.
It doesn't get used up and requires no heating process.

Epson printers still produce beautiful results, albeit, usually slower
than the top speed models.

I do not believe any of the suggestions I made required dismantling of
the printer.

Art



Bill wrote:

Arthur Entlich wrote:


There are some things you can do to lessen the risk of Epson head clogs.


While I think several of your suggestions are good, for most users the
others are not only more difficult, they're beyond what is reasonably
expected of a consumer.

Anything that requires disassembly or some mechanical knowledge is
beyond expectations. A printer is supposed to print when you turn it on,
plain and simple. If it needs new ink, you stick in new cartridges.
Pretty much anything else is extraordinary requirements.

In spite of Epson's warnings, my experience (and I own many Epson
printers of different vintages) is this is not the case. At worse, one
simply has to add a few drops of water to the ink outlet before
reinserting the cartridge.

Further, yes, since the chipped Intelledge cartridge was designed with a
spring loaded valve on each ink outlet, the cartridges and printers are
designed to allow for cartridge removal and reinstallation. In fact, it
was under this ploy that Epson introduced these newly featured
cartridges with the chip. Of course, the real reason for them was to
make the cartridges impossible to use again with a reprogrammer for the
chip.


Art

notbob wrote:

On 2004-11-23, Arthur Entlich wrote:


4) Occasionally use cleaning cartridges to purge the nozzles and other
head parts


Epson printers now allow cartridge removal? The only Epy I owned (800
color) would permanently kill any cartridge removed, not matter how new.

nb

On 2004-11-24, Arthur Entlich wrote:

Further, yes, since the chipped Intelledge cartridge was designed with a
spring loaded valve on each ink outlet, the cartridges and printers are
designed to allow for cartridge removal and reinstallation. In fact, it
was under this ploy that Epson introduced these newly featured
cartridges with the chip. Of course, the real reason for them was to
make the cartridges impossible to use again with a reprogrammer for the
chip.

The bottom line is still that Epson will employ every dirty trick in the
book ...pig ink, nonreusable carts, chip controlled carts, etc.... to force
owners into buying ever more insanely overpriced ink cartridges. Fine. If
you want to keep paying, be my guest.

nb

notbob wrote:

On 2004-11-24, Arthur Entlich wrote:


Further, yes, since the chipped Intelledge cartridge was designed with a
spring loaded valve on each ink outlet, the cartridges and printers are
designed to allow for cartridge removal and reinstallation. In fact, it
was under this ploy that Epson introduced these newly featured
cartridges with the chip. Of course, the real reason for them was to
make the cartridges impossible to use again with a reprogrammer for the
chip.


That last line was supposed to read:

make the cartridges impossible to use again withOUT a reprogrammer for
the chip.

Yes, Epson and most other manufacturers of ink cartridges make their
money mainly on consumables and go out of their way to make it difficult
to use other brands of ink or to refill the old cartridges.

Art


The bottom line is still that Epson will employ every dirty trick in the
book ...pig ink, nonreusable carts, chip controlled carts, etc.... to force
owners into buying ever more insanely overpriced ink cartridges. Fine. If
you want to keep paying, be my guest.

nb

On 2004-11-25, Arthur Entlich wrote:

Yes, Epson and most other manufacturers of ink cartridges make their
money mainly on consumables and go out of their way to make it difficult
to use other brands of ink or to refill the old cartridges.

I don't mind paying for the consumables, but Epson's blatant greed is just
too much to endure. $35 for plain black cartridge in a $90 printer! Mamma
notbob didn't raise no fools.

nb ...gone to laser

On Thu, 25 Nov 2004 16:01:21 GMT, notbob wrote:


nb ...gone to laser

A new expression?

Gone postal: shot the people he considered guilty.
Gone laser: .... ?

Geo

On 2004-11-25, "GEO" wrote:
On Thu, 25 Nov 2004 16:01:21 GMT, notbob wrote:


nb ...gone to laser

A new expression?

Gone postal: shot the people he considered guilty.
Gone laser: .... ?

Gone to an toner cartridge that will provide 3000 pages (if the drum lasts)
for the same price as Epson's 300 page (if it don't clog) inkjet cartridge.

I've discovered one truism for all home printers ...use it or lose it!

nb