Every time I want to print something the damn ink head is dried up. I don't print much. So I have to buy a $50.00 print cartridge every time I want to print 2 pages. I think I should get a rebate on the ink left in the old cartridge. The cleaning cycle most of the time don't clear it up. I'm thinking of going back to dot matrix. Do lasers have the same drying up problem from lack of use? I would call an ink jet printer a failed invention if it can't work on demand. Maybe they need a law suite slapped on them.
You should be able to improve the problem considerably by covering your printer with a plastic cover when you're not using it, which will slow down the humidity loss that's drying out your printer. The more airtight you can make the cover, the less it will clog up between uses.
--
W "Some people are alive only because it is illegal to kill them."
. | ,. w ,
\|/ \|/ Perna condita delenda est
---^----^---------------------------------------------------------------
"Snap Whipcrack.............." wrote in news:wz1Ih.11644$ig.2390@trndny01:
No. They can sit unused for weeks and print the next page perfectly.
I got a small laser printer (Brother HL 2040) two years ago and am completely satisfied. The cost of a new toner cartridge is somewhat higher than a new ink cartridge, although it lasts longer. But that is minor compared to having no ink problems!
Yup, Epsons are famous for this. I trashed a very nice Epson a couple weeks ago because of this problem. No amount of cleaning will help it, and I'm talking about much more aggressive cleaning than just running the CLEAN cycle.. The problem with Epson is that the print nozzles are part of the machine, and hence are not replaceable (in a practical sense). Other mfrs, including HP, put the print head in the cartridge. The nozzles can still dry out, but at least replacing the cartridge gets you clean new print heads.
I read somewhere - I think on the HP website - that if you are not going to use your printer for a while, you can prevent dried out nozzles by putting your cartridge in a zip-lock baggie with a piece of moist paper towel. Of course, some printers (is it Epson again?) won't let you reinsert a cartridge once you have pulled it ...
I had good luck cleaning the black cartridge on my old HP with isopropyl alcohol and paper towel. Didn't work so well for the color though. With the nozzles on the cartridge theirs nothing to lose.
I had the same problem. My solution was a cheap laser, it's not only cheaper per page than an inkjet (especially if you have to discard ink cartridges because they've dried up), but much faster. I have a Brother HL1440 which is nice because the toner is replaceable separately from the drum unit.
I too drop-kicked my second Epson down the garden a couple of weeks ago, after repeated clogging episodes and having to use a gallon of ink that's dearer than rocket fuel every time, to get them to clean. I have watched them clog whilst the piggin' thing is actually printing !! What really used to gall me, was that you could not run a clean / purge cycle on individual heads, which meant that sometimes you virtually emptied half full cartridges that were not even giving a problem. My take on the problem, is that Epsons don't go to sleep when they are not in use. I like to have my printer on
24/7 and ready to roll. I can't be doing with waiting half an hour whilst the printer grunts and wheezes and checks that it's on line and that it has ink and that it has paper and on and on and on ... I want to just hit "print", and 30 seconds later, have a piece of printed paper in my hand. But when you leave an Epson on, it just leaves the heads out where it finished, and that, I think, is where the problem lies. I have now gone back to an HP, as I always had in the early days of home PCs. This one, unlike my previous HPs, does not have the heads built into the cartridges - they are part of the printer itself. However, the trick is that when this printer detects that it has not been used for 20 minutes or so, it goes to sleep and parks the heads back up, presumably sealing them onto the purging station. This results in the printer being ready to go within seconds at all times, but without dried up heads.
This is not correct, all Epsons I know park the head in its sealed sleep place a few seconds after printing.
The fact that it sometimes clogs up while printing is not because it actually clogs but because there is insufficient ink pulled from the cartridge or air drops inside. This could indicate a weak or jammed pump or because you don't turn it off doesn't make enough pumping cycles to bring new ink to the reservoir inside its printing heads. Turning off overnight would be a good idea.
Epsons are a good design but they fail on their princes, they should sell their ink cheaper. I have an old Epson Stylus color Pro and am very happy with it, cheap and big cartridges (the compatible ones of course) and never clogs.
I was actually told that the heads didn't park on the Epsons by someone who was involved a lot with the sales / service side, and as I don't believe that I ever heard either of the two Epsons that I owned do anything after they finished printing, I just accepted what he said, and took it to be a valid reason for the continual problems that I had, right from day one, on both of them. You might ask why, having had problems with the first one, I went and bought another. Weeelll.... you see there was this very good salesman who assured me that the design had moved on since the first one I had, and the latest model had all sorts of bells and whistles and really did represent exceptionally good value for money especially as they had them on offer and well, stupidly, out came my wallet ... I really had gone to the shop with every intention of buying an HP, but a nice new model really couldn't be as bad as the previous one, could it ?
Within a couple of weeks, I was regretting ever having heard of Epson. I had much e-mail exchange with the monkeys that they have trained as technical advisors, and got nowhere. They don't even seem to understand the most basic fundamentals of problems with their products, and just trot out form replies. Anyway, a few weeks back, I got really mad on the back of yet another head clog, and went and bought an HP. I use it in exactly the same way - that is it's powered and in standby 24/7. So far, it hasn't missed a beat. Whether or not it is actually any different from the Epson in what it does after it's finished printing, I don't know for sure, but some minutes after a print is finished, there is a brief flurry of internal mechanical activity which sure *sounds* like the heads parking, before the LCD goes dark, and it all goes to sleep. I never heard either of the Epsons do this. Whatever, anyway, on the HP the standby mode does not cause a problem. On the Epson, it does.
The print quality is superior to the Epson. The ink useage is superior. The cartridges are cheaper, and best of the lot, it's a network printer. The software that came with it, particularly that for controlling the scanner, is better in every way. I am really glad that I went back to an HP. I will never EVER buy an Epson again.
I've had some with this problem, the HP 840C I have now has been on the same cartridge for almost a year now and occasionally goes for months of disuse.
No, lasers don't dry out, color lasers are expensive but if you do mostly B&W printing they're great.
Yeah, I've got an Epson C-80 that's partially jammed up!! It won't do black @ all and is iffy on the magenta! Seems that cyan & yellow are OK. No amount of cleaning cycles do anything except use up the new cartridges I installed.
The printer I'm using now that works is an old HP Deskjet 420 I bought @ Goodwill. Other than having to replace the carts here & there, it hasn't missed a beat (although the setup of using only one cart @ a time -- black or tri-color -- is a bit odd; I use it only for text, BTW).
Repairs: All Epson Stylus printers (except for the C64-C86, CX4600-CX6400 series) which don't print, or print choppy in black or color. For the other printers, as well as Canon BJCs, use the other repair kit.
Description: This is the same chemical used by Epson in their service department Easy to use, no disassembly required Gently dissolves even the most stubborn clogs and restores output to dried out print nozzles and clogged printheads In our testing on an Epson 600 that sat unused for several months, it 100% restored a head that had no output, with one application (Individual results may vary)
Note: This is not alcohol or Windex; it is an ink-specific solvent that has proven to be safe and effective for use on Epson printheads. Do not use alcohol or Windex, they will very likely ruin your printer.
Kit Includes:
1 oz bottle Epson Stylus Head Cleaning Solution (enough to fix several printers)
1 syringe applicator for dispensing solution
Windex is really good for removing dried inkjet ink. If your printer has been clogged for any length of time, you should also squirt the cleaning mechanism, because they clog up as well, & prevent the cleaning cycles from working.
--
W "Some people are alive only because it is illegal to kill them."
. | ,. w ,
\|/ \|/ Perna condita delenda est
---^----^---------------------------------------------------------------
ElectronDepot website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here.
All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.