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Avoiding dried up/clogged Epson heads, is it possible?

mark

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I am looking at printers. Epson is clearly, from my reading here and elsewhere at least, the easiest path into digital negatives for contact printing. On the downside it seems that the print heads clog up/dry up easily. I can attest to this because I used an epson all in one at my office that had constant clogging issues until I solved the issue by buying an HP laser printer and trashing the epson. I only needed to print stuff once a month in black and hardly ever in color. It did not take long for the colors heads to clog up so bad they would not work at all.

I do not have enough time to be printing everyday and may go a few weeks or a month without printing. I am sure my wife will use it for her stuff but there will be times it sits. Coming from the boat industry it was quite common to run a carburetor dry the outboard was going to sit for a while, and to run a winter mix with lubricating oil if it was going to sit for a few months. This reminds me that I did not do this to my chainsaw when I finished with it last summer. Oops.

So. My question is this, is there a way to avoid the print heads drying up or clogging if the printer sits for extended periods? I am willing to pull the inks and run the heads dry if that is a doable thing.
 

Andrew O'Neill

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My first printer was the Epson 4000. It made beautiful digital negs... but was prone to clogging. I was always able to unclog the nozzles with either a head cleaning, or sometimes the ink wasting, supersonic clean. If that didn't work, paper towels soaked in windex did the trick. After ten years, it died. I purchased a used 3800. Worked well for about a month then the magenta nozzle started clogging. Everything I did would not solve the problem. I made negative (using QTR) eliminating magenta. Negs looked great. I purchased a refurbished P400 last summer. Love it! Use it almost everyday. No clogging. Negatives look the best ever with with 1.5 drop size. I make negatives for carbon transfer, kallitype, cyanotype, gum bichromate, and gumoils.

I always turn the printer off, so that the head is kept in contact with the dock. I also run a nozzle check once a day.
 

mitch brown

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I have a p*00 that I love but use only from time to time . over the last 3 years I have never had a head clog or any other problem and in the summer it will sit for 2-3 months at a time unused with no problem. I think that most head clogs are caused by low humidity and down here in south Georgia that is not a problem .
Mitch
 

Alan9940

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I've owned Epson printers for digital work for 20 years now and not one could I leave sit for longer than 3 - 4 days without getting a clogged nozzle (or, a few.) But, I do live in the desert where it's extremely dry much of the year. That said, the best way I've heard to store an Epson printer for any extended length of time is to run PiezoFlush solution (https://shop.inkjetmall.com/PiezoFlush-Solution-220ml.html) through it via nozzle checks until no color is seen. Jose Rodriquez on YouTube just recently did a video about this so check it out, if you're interested.
 

jim10219

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I have an Epson 9880. It clogs if you print a lot at a time, or clogs if you let it sit for too long. However, if you keep the room it's in pretty humid, it seems to do okay. If it does clog to the point where a regular or power head cleaning won't fix it, just take a paper towel, spray it with some Windex or vinegar and fold it over a couple of times, and then drag the print head over it to soak in the Windex or vinegar for about twenty minutes. Then do a bunch of test prints, because it will drip and splatter ink everywhere. With that trick in my back pocket, I've kept it running for well over a decade, most of that time in heavy use (running 8 hours a day, 5 days a week). It's required very little maintenance.

I also have a newer Epson P9000. It's clogged two or three times in the three, maybe four years that I've owned it. And it always comes clean right away with a regular head cleaning when it does. So I can say that Epson pretty much solved the clogging issue with that model. However, I did have a head go bad after about two years, and that was an expensive repair. It could have been an outlier. But so far, it hasn't proven as reliable (outside of the clogging) as the old one.
 

Luckless

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So far I find the easiest way to deal with managing clogged heads has been to spend money by ordering prints... This however has felt like cheating with regards to solving that issue, and is probably not a great solution in a lot of cases.

One option that a few photographers I know are now using is having a script manage a 'long queue' of images they want to print. Haven't heard if they've gotten any firm data back on what frequency works 'best', but they keep a queue topped off so that their printer automatically runs once a day/every other day/whatever. Which works great if you can make a list of "I'll eventually want a copy of this image, but really don't care how soon..."

You could get really fancy with it and have a script poll your print queue and have it skip days where you've already printed something else.
 
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mark

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P800 is way out of my price range but the 400 and 600 are in it. That Piezoflush sounds just like what we did to winterize boat motors. Any idea what it does to the warranty?
 

mitch brown

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you will spend a ton of money on it and the Epson 4880 I had on cone inks still clogged all the time . and finally I could not get it to clean up no matter how much of the piezoflush I tried to run thru it . gave up on inkjet mall and went back to OEM inks
 

Roseha

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I've had an Epson P600 for about a year now and have had the occasional problem but generally it has worked well if I print a small page about once a week or so. Sometimes it's just a 4x6 or 5x7 page. I leave it unplugged when I am not using it. I haven't had to use any unusual solution for any clogging. Occasionally the colors have seemed off and I would run a head cleaning until they appeared normal again. Most recently I was printing two 13x19 color fine art prints for a show submission and the printer kept rejecting the paper and demanding "Epson" fine art paper (I was using Red River Palo Duro Soft Gloss) but I finally solved it by inserting the page above the surface of the fine art tray and then lining it up as normal (there are references to this method online). I mention this only to say that they can have their peculiarities but overall I am pleased with it. I normally print every week or two as I mentioned but I know someone who has an 800 and she doesn't worry about frequent printing at all. I don't go away for more than 2 or 3 weeks at a time at the most though. I only use the Epson inks, I don't print enough to consider anything else.
 

Kilgallb

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I gave up on Epson and switched to Canon. As long as a print once every week to two weeks, even a test image everything is good. I have left it for a month with no issue.

I have a Canon PIXMA Pro 10. Print quality is as good as my form Epson.
 

Patrick Robert James

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If you want to avoid a clogging Epson, get a Canon. Life is too short to bother with Epson. If you want to avail yourself of a monochrome inkset, then you have to get an Epson and deal with it. There are all kinds of writeups out there about how to use an Epson to make digital negs which is a plus. Not any that I am aware of for Canon, though I will probably do one myself one of these days. It is too bad HP stopped making smaller printers. Their large format printers are excellent.
 

Ko.Fe.

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I don’t use Epson for office, this might be source of the problem.
I use it for photography. As long as I print twice per week or more, where are zero problems. Even post card size photos will do.
 

David Brown

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Kilgallb said:
I gave up on Epson and switched to Canon. As long as a print once every week to two weeks, even a test image everything is good. I have left it for a month with no issue.

I have a Canon PIXMA Pro 10. Print quality is as good as my form Epson.
Click to expand...


I've had similar experience. Three Epsons over many years. Finally (on the advice of a colleague) bought a Canon Pixma Pro-100. I print infrequently, but every time I turn it on, it just works. Yes they are not pigment inks, but I'm beginning the think those inks aren't worth the trouble. And, someday, someone will solve the digital negative issue with non-pigment inks.
 

Serg Lavrenchuk

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We have 2 Epsons P8000 in the lab working on daily basis and I could also prove that these machines made really nice so they do not clog at all (once in month of so).
But also we had already 2 dead heads for the 2 machines. First head died in 1year+1 month and second in 1year+3 month (warranty is 1 year).
Other labs in our city who had these machines also had died heads.

Service guys told us that almost all new machines of this model died in 1 year and 1to6 month.

Epson made nice job in constructing heads that die in just +little bit to 1 year of warranty. Service guy said that had not proven info that keeping high humidity in the room with machine makes this time for head to dry (and split layers) longer than 1year. So now we use air humidifier all the time in room with Epsons. Maybe that would help somebody.
 

Alan9940

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I have a Canon Pro-100, too. Great printer that doesn't need anywhere near the maintenance my Epson R2880 requires. But, I keep the Epson running mainly for digital negatives. Had an Epson 3880 that died in <3 years! That's a horror story best left untold.
 
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mark

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I appreciate the thoughts. The p400 uses pigment ink, according to the website. What is the difference between 8 colors in the p400 and the 9 colors in the P600 when it comes to digital negatives.

Since I will be the main user, and the main reason for this purchase is to do digital negatives, and there is NO tried and true digital negative method published and explained to be used with canon printers, and the fact that I am only going this route because I want to contact print bigger than 8x10 in the near future, and the fact I do not want to waste money on something that that might or might not work, I will not be buying a canon. I am sure the color prints are great but the main purpose of this is not color prints.
 

jtk

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My guess is that CANON Pro 100 which is an ink printer, not pigment printer like my Pro 10, would serve for big negs. No company is worse than Epson. Epson re-packages some fine papers under it's accursed brand...probably an overlooked opportunity to get worse. If I wanted big contact negs I'd make them with a small enlarger from Salvation Army.
 

Andrew O'Neill

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The reason why I have stuck with Epson is the ability to use QTR... which allows me to profile, and control how much ink is laid down. Pick what works for you. I don't use Epson inks either. I prefer refillable cartridges, and an all black set (expect one yellow).
 
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mark

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As I said there is no tried and true method of making digital negatives such as QTR for canon so I will not be buying a canon. I have neither the time or inclination to invent/make do/deal with inconsistencies and make my way in the dark. NOT BUYING A CANON. What I am willing to do is follow instructions, test according to those instructions, and get to the art of the matter quicker.

Optically enlarging the negatives? In 2020? Are you insane? Before you make any assumptions, I have done this, I was paid to do it, I was really good at it, and I would not even consider doing it now, assuming you can get the right materials and had what would amount to unlimited funds.



You and I have been around here for about the same amount of time. I have appreciated your knowledge and talent over the years. If you are ok with the P400 doing QTR I honestly feel pretty comfortable about it. Mind if I ask what refillable carts you use, and are they pigment inks?
 

nmp

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P400 actually has 7 colors and the 8th is the Gloss Optimizer (GO). It has completely different set of inks (older technology) than P600 which is based on the newer Ultrachrome HD technology. The latter has 2 gray inks that the former does not allowing presumably better B&W printing. In P400, PK and MK have their separate heads so no switching is required as it is in P600. P600 K's are denser than those in the P400. Additionally, P600 driver allows for dialing up the ink loading independently while P400 does not. Depending on the process you are working on the density provided by P400 may just be fine. Otherwise P600 is the way to go. In my case, it was not sufficient which I only learned after I had the printer.

Good luck.

:Niranjan.
 
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mark

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p400
Ink: 8-color UltraChrome HG2 pigment ink

p600
Ink: 9-color Epson UltraChrome HD inks

I can't find the difference between the two inks. Can someone say what that is? In my mind pigment is pigment but this is all new to me. bwmastery.com talks about K3 ink which neither the 400 or 600 have.
 
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