B****y Epson printers!

if you download the prog from this site http://www.ssclg.com/epsone.shtml it will tell you the levels your ink carts are reporting. You can sometimes freeze the counter and when it says run out, you can reload the original settings.......this would let you continue to print in black :)

//Bod
 
the link is excellent if your printer says words to the effect that something needs replacing. It has something to do with the number of ink changes you have made. Regarding showing low ink, it`s a simple matter to recharge the cartridges.
 
I hate epsons and never recommended one to customers for general use with I was in that field
sounds like you have the R800 or the larger photo printers.

Epsons have a build in print head that dries up...also everytime you turn on your printer the head is cleaned. This uses ink. So if you use black only but turn on your printer 3 times a day, you'll run out of all of your ink eventually.
for example. 10 cycles of deep head cleaning on an epson once used about 1/3 to 1/4 of the ink in a cartridge as I recall.
HP, canons etc seem better, print heads on the cart or a removable/replacable print head.

Personally if you have to have an epson my advice would be, print a test page once a week or fortnight as print heads dry out and nothing can really unblock them in my experience (try 3-4 epson printers from work all on an ultrasonic cleaning process)
also for B&W bits and pieces, get a brother laser printer, like a 2030 if you're printing a lot. i will save you money on epson ink!
 
Thanks dizmatt.

This is my second R800; the first got clogged print heads and had to be replaced. To be fair to Epson, they sold me a "reconditioned" printer (with no ink carts) rather than have me pay to have the print head replaced.

You're absolutely right about cleaning the nozzles, it uses huge amounts of ink.

I didn't know that switching it on uses ink as well; that would explain why the colour inks run out.

These printers must have been designed to use as much ink as possible. What a ripoff!
 
The Canons aren't a lot better. I have a consumer unit, i560, wife has been printing set to B&W only for the last fortnight a couple of pages a day of text. The yellow cartidge has dropped from 1/4 full to saying it needs to be replaced.
The only 'good' thing is that the printer will allow you to over-ride it if it says it is out of ink (print anyway) and the software gives a [can I say good here?] indication of the amount of ink left
 
I have an ip4200 which I think is awesome for the money
I haven't noticed a great deal of issue with the cleaning process.
I would happily recommend the Pixma canon range to anyone. the i560 is quite old isn't it?? and they did the same sort of print/cart heads as HP, all built in. On my pixma the carts are wells only. the head is removable, cleanable, and replaceable. very nicely designed.

at least epson are looking after you
in the printer market printers cost very little. they want to sell you ink...60% or so mark up last time i looked retail.
I could easily safe my customers 40-50% on shop floor prices when I nailed the margin down for large orders.
the HP16 or something Black ink cartridge was daft. the lightest and most stingdy ink cart. The same as the HP56 but just 1/4 or less of the ink capacity. same size externally.
Their cheaper printers...guess what? take the smaller cart but not the larger.
anyway the Ink in the low cap HP black was, per gram, more expensive than rare snake anti-venom.
 
I had an R300. The printer said out of ink - replace - I took the seals etc off the old cartridge and there must have been nearly a quarter of a tank left in it. Spoke to Epson and they said this is normal to stop the printer running dry - I couldn't get across how is it normal to have nearly a quarter of a tank of ink left in and it says it's empty !

Apparently it's a counting system, rather than an actual measure of the ink in the tank. Needless to say, I swopped and now have a Canon iP4500 and apart from 2 ink tanks that the printer just stopped recognising (which Canon sent a replacement for) it's been great. And you can actually see the ink inthe containers as they are clear, so when it says empty, you know it is :thumbs:
 
I bought a Dell colour laser a couple of months ago for £99.99 delivered with a 2 year warranty. Complete with 4 toner cartridges. I only turn on the inkjet now when I need to print a proper photograph.

Funny it's cheaper to by a new colour laser with 4 toner cartridges than replace 3 toner cartridges.
 
I gave up on Epson's about a year ago... blocked heads and more blocked heads - cleaning them only emptied the little ink in them.

I decided that printing your own was a waste of time and money anyway, and get them done online now. Bought a wireless HP printer for basic printing and its fantastic; no more blocked heads to deal with and no more wires...
 
Yeah the i560 is old now. The head is part of the printer, the inks come in separate well-type cartridges.
Got to say, it is doing better than my last epson. That actually rusted to the extent where you could chip the flakes off
 
never used my R2400 for a month once and it was pefectly fine

DizMatt said:
I hate epsons and never recommended one to customers for general use with I was in that field
sounds like you have the R800 or the larger photo printers.

Epsons have a build in print head that dries up...also everytime you turn on your printer the head is cleaned. This uses ink. So if you use black only but turn on your printer 3 times a day, you'll run out of all of your ink eventually.
for example. 10 cycles of deep head cleaning on an epson once used about 1/3 to 1/4 of the ink in a cartridge as I recall.
HP, canons etc seem better, print heads on the cart or a removable/replacable print head.

Personally if you have to have an epson my advice would be, print a test page once a week or fortnight as print heads dry out and nothing can really unblock them in my experience (try 3-4 epson printers from work all on an ultrasonic cleaning process)
also for B&W bits and pieces, get a brother laser printer, like a 2030 if you're printing a lot. i will save you money on epson ink!
Click to expand...
 
DekHog said:
I gave up on Epson's about a year ago... blocked heads and more blocked heads - cleaning them only emptied the little ink in them.

I decided that printing your own was a waste of time and money anyway, and get them done online now. Bought a wireless HP printer for basic printing and its fantastic; no more blocked heads to deal with and no more wires...
Click to expand...

I bought an HP Wireless printer from Tesco when they had them on special and mines brilliant too.
 
My HP went bang last week, or rather it went "fizzzzz" and sprayed black ink all over the insides. I bought another HP (a B9180) and it's fab. Straight out of the box, really good reproduction and much closer to what I see on my calibrated screen than I ever got with the old one.

Like others I've also got a smaller A4 Canon that I got for £50 in tescos for printing letters/invoices etc. That one I'll happily bung in cheap ink. The HP is a tad pricey on ink!
 
DizMatt said:
also for B&W bits and pieces, get a brother laser printer, like a 2030 if you're printing a lot. i will save you money on epson ink!
Click to expand...

That's excellent advice, I bought a samsung izzy laser printer about 5 years ago , used regularly for text printing , I used the cart that came with it and one new one in 5 years , they print 1000s of pages before running out of ink, small footprint too
 
I seem to remember reading that Epson printers use all colours of ink to print black just so that the heads don't get gummed up.

I have a R220 which I use with bulk ink. Cheap and very reliable. Though the first bulk setup was a nightmare. It worked a treat for 6 months then I had to clean the heads every few days otherwise it went streaky with missed lines. But only on black. I asked SVP for advice and they gave me a few recommendations to try. I had already tried them but tried again with no success. They sent out a complete set of cartridges. Black was still streaky and still wouldn't work. Then they sent out a new unit which has worked flawlessly for a couple of years.

There are problems if you use bulk ink and don't do the 'mods'.

I don't think Epson are the best but there's not another printer that is as cheap to run with the level of quality of the R220. If I want a bigger print or one that will last I can always get them from one of the labs that specialise.
 
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