As above - another victim of the Epson head dying on me
Got stung twice...will never buy another.
My Canon on the other hand (i865) has been going for years, has survived many moves to and from uni. Its solid...Always recommend Canon stuff, never had an issue.
Even if the heads do get clogged in a Canon - you can remove the heads and replace them.
Originally Posted by Saracen
HiAs above - another victim of the Epson head dying on me
Got stung twice...will never buy another.
My Canon on the other hand (i865) has been going for years, has survived many moves to and from uni. Its solid...Always recommend Canon stuff, never had an issue.
Even if the heads do get clogged in a Canon - you can remove the heads and replace them.
Where did you get the heads for your i865 from?? My old i845 needs new ones and it would be a shame to throw it away!
aren't the cannons still bubble jets, rather than ink yets too?
throw new ArgumentException (String, String, Exception)
I have never needed to replace them yet, although I've seen them on Ebay before
Yes. They could use transubstantiation as far as I'm concerned, as long as they do a good job...
One thing I've experienced with my current Epson R200 which produces great photos when using proper photo paper is that the heads really do clog up if you don't use them regularly.
However, this is due to leaving the printer on. If you turn it off properly, the printer will park the heads so that it's relatively air tight preventing the cloggin up an awful lot.
I have tried cleaning my printer head taking it to pieces with some IPA with mixed results, but that's still using a cheap CIS bought from SVP which worked great until I left the printer on and unused for a month by which time the inks and print heads clogged up.
I reckon if you were to get a similar Epson nowadays and fit it with a CIS assuming one is available for R285 or whatever number they're up to, it may be fine as long as you religiously turn it off in between uses. It's a pain having to wait for it to prepare itself and use up ink in the cleaning and all that, but if you're with a CIS, it's cheap and saves blocking up the heads
I also use some very high end HP colour laser printers at work and had an old HP4500 colour laser and recently bought my old man an HP 2605n which is fantasticly cheap colour laser with networking and duplex built in! It produces fantastic colour documents (pie charts, simple vector graphics) but for photos, it's not that good and proper photo printers are still miles ahead IMHO if you use good thick photo paper.
Whilst i'd take my printer out on the lash if that was the tech, my point was that bubblejets should actually be harder to damage.Yes. They could use transubstantiation as far as I'm concerned, as long as they do a good job...
Have a look at:
http://computer.howstuffworks.com/inkjet-printer3.htm
Notice the shape of the peizoelectric, its actually more complicated and i'd guess easyer to get blocked. This is why we've got 2 dead Epsons at my parents, but a working Canon bubblejet 600!
However, given the very low cost, i think it was an R200 i bought 3 years ago, it lasted for a fair few thousand pages. I bought it for £50, sold the original inks for £25, bought a CIS for £35.
For £65 that did well over 6,000 pages, before i didn't use it, moved and it broke. Even with just the 6,000 pages its not a *bad* price.
throw new ArgumentException (String, String, Exception)
I'm guessing that CIS stands for continuous ink supply. Am I right? Sorry to be dense.
If so please could you point me in the direction of a supplier?
"Free speech includes not only the inoffensive but the irritating, the contentious, the eccentric, the heretical, the unwelcome and the provocative provided it does not tend to provoke violence. Freedom only to speak inoffensively is not worth having."
Continuous Ink System, but yes, essentially that's what it is. It uses large external bottles with thin tubes running a continuous supply of ink to the heads, so you never need to charge cartridges. But you do end up using third-party inks. Just how good they are is a very contentious subject. CIS suppliers will tell you they're as good as manufacturer's originals. I've even seen some claims that they use the same ink. Epson, however, will tell you that they develop their own ink, in their own labs, and that NOBODY else uses Epson inks. And even if they did, there are issues like the absorption of air into the inks that can cause nozzle blockages, and that Epson to to great lengths, including vacuum-packing cartridges at the factory, precisely to ensure that little or no air can get into the cartridge. They will also tell you about problems with pigment particles settling in ink in their pigment printers, and how their cartridge design goes to great lengths to prevent that.
Agent has had bad experiences with Epson printers. I've had good experiences. I currently have five Epson machines here (two photo A3 printers, a photo A4 machine, a high speed printer for business documents and an old A2 machine). The ONLY time I've ever had a head block with an Epson was when I tried third-party inks.
And one of those photo A3's had been sitting, unused, as my spare. It hadn't been out of the box in, oh, three years. A friend borrowed it, plugged in in, got a few blocked nozzles, ran two cleaning cycles and had it working perfectly. Three YEARS!
I'm not suggesting Epson machines don't break down. They do. But while you'll get some people that won't buy another one, you'll get people like me that, unless something revolutionary comes along, won't buy anything else for photo work because I've yet to see any other brand that matches photo prints .... though they do now get pretty close.
As for CIS, well, you can save a lot of money, but you are taking a chance, and if photo quality is the object of the exercise, research what you're buying VERY carefully before buying it.
Betty_Swallocks (01-10-2008)
i fix epsons, at the training courses there always rambling on about the millions spent per year in ink development, you cant beat the genuine inks.
all the design studios i visit swear by them..
and swear at them when they go wrong, but thats through constant use, day in day out..
next must spend a couple of grand a week on genuine inks for there fleet of pro 4000's
if your not going to use an epson its always a good idea to print a small black square once a week as it uses all the colours if you dont select grayscale
that or run a head check
Betty_Swallocks (01-10-2008)
That's basic care for any inkjets. The instruction manual will tell you to switch off the printer before removing power, so the heads can park correctly. In my experience, Epson inkjets will take longer to "boot up" after having been switched off "at the wall" instead of correctly powered down, as they automatically run a purge of some sort, thus wasting more ink and filling up the reserve quicker. Most inkjets will dry up when left for long periods. But this is definitely worse with 3rd party cartridges.One thing I've experienced with my current Epson R200 which produces great photos when using proper photo paper is that the heads really do clog up if you don't use them regularly.
However, this is due to leaving the printer on. If you turn it off properly, the printer will park the heads so that it's relatively air tight preventing the cloggin up an awful lot.
I have tried cleaning my printer head taking it to pieces with some IPA with mixed results, but that's still using a cheap CIS bought from SVP which worked great until I left the printer on and unused for a month by which time the inks and print heads clogged up.
I reckon if you were to get a similar Epson nowadays and fit it with a CIS assuming one is available for R285 or whatever number they're up to, it may be fine as long as you religiously turn it off in between uses. It's a pain having to wait for it to prepare itself and use up ink in the cleaning and all that, but if you're with a CIS, it's cheap and saves blocking up the heads
The one question mark I have over a CIS is the quality of the inks supplied. Many people swear by Lyson etc. but I'd probably avoid cheaper CIS.
Although not meeting the sub £100 requirement in the original post, I would strongly suggest looking at the results some lasers can achieve. I have been very happy with the photo printing quality I get from my Magicolor 2550, and often use it in preference to my Canon inkjet. And it is almost certainly cheaper in the long term - a complete set of Canon refills is £80 at RRP.
I'd hazard a guess that he's bought a printer by now.
Agreed, but you never know when a forum search might lead someone to this thread, and then more up-to-date information might be of use; otherwise, why have a search function in forums..........?
Actually, no I haven't!!! I really lost momentum on that one and decided to attempt to disassemble my Epson 1200 to clean it. Got it done to the point where it will now print text comfortably enough for business use but still leaves roller dirt lines after one or two photos are printed. As the business use was the only desperate thing, that's where I stopped. I got into the habit of sending my photos away to be printed, and not doing enlargements.I'd hazard a guess that he's bought a printer by now.
In the end I simply couldn't choose, but am now looking again as it happens, am I'm waiting to find the Epson PX650 (same Claria inks as the PX710W and PX810W etc.) at a decent price.
There are currently 1 users browsing this thread. (0 members and 1 guests)
Posting Permissions
LinkBack URL
About LinkBacks
Reply With Quote