Use non-Epson cartridges and die!

[talkinggoat]

well, that clears it up then. our certification rep told us the exact
opposite. i'll have to correct him next time i see him.

 

[puss]

The reason why this works is indeed because it helps to remove old dried
ink that accumulates under the heads over time. My only concern would
be left over pieces of threads and link from the fabric. You need to
choose your fabric with some care.

The process does indeed work well, and is quite similar to that which I
suggest in the manual I've developed.

The manual covers lots of other issues that can come up with Epson
printers, and CISs, but you've got the basics down.

Art

Hi Art

How do I get a copy of your Manual..

 

[Arthur Entlich]

How do I get a copy of your Manual..



Just send me an email privately, requesting the Epson Cleaning manual,
at the same address you'll find on the header to my posts.

artistic(at)telus(dot)net

(at) = @
(dot) = .

IF YOU WISH TO RECEIVE A CURRENT COPY PLEASE READ THE FOLLOWING:
(if instructions are not followed, I cannot guarantee you will receive
the manual)

I try to respond as quickly as possible, but I respond to each manually,
and it takes some time. Since this is a service I do at absolutely no
cost to anyone (but me), and I dedicate my own time to it (and many
other causes) I do not take kindly to people who email me every few
hours (yes, it happens) asking "where is my d*mn manual, already".

Whenever I publicize the cleaning manual, I get a deluge of requests,
and it takes time for me to reply. If you do not get a reply within 72
HOURS, please ask again, it may have been lost or I may have gotten
sidetracked.

Please make sure you have given me an address I can reply back to
without editing it to remove tricky additions like "NOSPAM", and since
the manual comes via email and is about 60KB in size, make sure your
spam filter or other traps are lifted for my address so it doesn't bounce.

After you receive the manual PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE, do NOT send it back
to me as a quoted message to thank me. I do not mind getting feedback
(even thank yous) but I already know what the manual looks like and it
is long, and it fills up my mailbox if I get several quoted back to me
each day.

In order for me to best be able to serve you:

1) Do NOT make the request through this newsgroup. I will NOT reply to
them. If you reply to this message, make sure you use "reply all" and
REMOVE the newsgroup address, leaving just mine.

2) Please indicate which printer(s) you are needing the manual for, I
have some add-ons which I provide for certain printers.

3) If you use non-Epson inks, please let me know and let me know if you
use refilled cartridges. I have no affiliation with Epson and I
honestly don't care if you use non-OEM/Epson inks or not. I no longer
use Epson inks, so that would be pretty hypocritical. But this can help
me narrow down a problem.

===============
If you are just requesting the manual preventatively, that's all I
request of you. If you are having a specific printing problem, please
continue below:
===============

4) If you are having a specific problem, please try to describe it as
accurately as possible.

* if there is a stripe or band in the print, is it in the direction the
head moves in, or the direction the paper move in?

* is the strip white or a colored, if so is the color always the same or
does it change with image content?

* how thick is the stripe and how often does it occur (does it occur on
every page, intermittently, or only with certain types of paper and
setting?) (Does it occur regularly every 1/8th inch, every 1", etc.)

* does the stripe continue into margin areas?

* when did it start? On cartridge change? after the printer sat for a
week or more, after a paper jam?

* Is the printer making any strange noises or other strange actions,
like the head unit smacking into one end or noises when the head it is
over the cleaning station that are new or unusual?

5) If you have a problem, please do a nozzle check if you can, and
describe it

* are any color missing, or misplaced

* are any steps missing, weak, curved, spattered, or misplaced

6) If you are using a continuous inking system PLEASE tell me. I have
had several cases of people keeping this a secret from me for some
reason, and after many volleys back and forth trying to help them fix
their problem they then mention it. Well over 50% of the time, if you
have a CIS, something relating to it is at fault.


I am getting ready to do tests on the R800 inks and gloss optimizer. If
I find special circumstances with them, I will announce it. It will
take a week or two for results, as I need to dry out some blobs (very
scientific, eh?) of ink for testing. I want to thank Darlene for kindly
providing me (and paying shipping!) with some "empty" cartridge sets to
get ink to test.

Thank you.

Art

 

[Bob Kos]

I was in a local computer store looking a color laser printers the other
day. A lady approached me and suggested that I consider buying an Epson
ink jet printer instead of a color laser printer. I told her that the
last ink jet printer that I bought was an Epson 750 Stylus Photo
printer, and that I have used more ink cleaning the damn thing than I
have used printing. She told me that the "new" Epson printers don't clog
up as much as the older printers did. All I can say is that I read this
group ot get a feel of what is happening in the printer market, and it
looks as if the Epson printers still clog easily.

There is nothing "special" a person should have to do to keep his or her
printer from clogging. Whether a person prints everyday or once a month
the printer should work without running two or three cleaning cycles. I
will NEVER buy another Epson printer until Epson learns to make a
printer that does not need to be cleaned every time one wants to print.

Having said that, I can say that my Epson 750 has never clogged to the
point where I had to more than just run a few cleaning cycles. I am very
happy with the prints I get from it, too. It is just a shame that a
company that makes printers cannot get it together and make a printer
that does not clog.

just my 2cents

Very late but here's my $.02 too.

I have had the opportunity in recent months to go through literally hundreds
of used IJ & laser printers. I found all kinds of HPs without cartridges.
I learned FAST not to buy HP cartridges to test an unknown printer. Caching
$$$!!! I walked over every lexmark I found because I could buy a new one
for the cost of a set of cartridges. Yuk... But then there were the
Epsons. I carefully selected about 8 or 10 printers of various pedigree.
Mostly C series models in exceptionally nice cosmetic condition. I gathered
sets of cartridges together. I downloaded files & drivers. You know that
EVERY stinking one of those printers had clogged print heads. Every one!!!
I disassembled, cleaned, scrubbed, peroxided, compressed aired, you name it
short of a complete submersion. I never got a single printer working right.
The closest I got was everything but red on a C82. On that one I spent an
unbelievable amount of time trying to get it running. No dice. So to me
the Epsons are a pretty useless item. I can't imagine that my 100% clogged
head rate is a far departure from the real world.

My keeper is a nice HP 2000C Professional that had cartridges and works well
despite very occasional use.

 

[Davy]

My Epson lasted about 6 months it clogged on the 2nd day, th
replacement, well that lasted a little longer, that clogged on th
4th day and that failed.

All that with genuine Epson ink, so how come since we don't gro
icicles and it's not used next to an oven in a bakery did one pos
suggest's it's the owner's fault

They both ended up in the trash, I went and bought a Canon this i
over 3 months old and not one single head clog

With the Epson's I had to check each print whther text or photo wit
the Canon I don't have to, I get 100% reliability to date and wit
each print, plus the fact its a darn sight more economical and don'
waste ink

What Epson do not tell you is that you must never do more than
continuous cleans as this will cause head damage - so say Epso
Technical

Also the reason for the chipped tank is not to fleece people out o
their hard earned cash, but to leave a substantial amount of ink i
the head chambers, Epson says ink bubbles, I take this to mean a
'air lock' will damage the heads

PC World claims that there is 20% of ink left in a C84 when the tan
say's empty....

http://www.pcworld.com/news/article/0,aid,114590,00.as

Here's a snip-

Quote-
The Stylus C84 on average stopped printing with 20 percent of the in
left in the cartridge, while the Canon i850 stopped printing with 1
percent of the ink left. Canon says that it generally strives t
leave 6 percent of a cartridge's ink as a safety margin. Epso
doesn't disclose its target residual ink levels, nor will the compan
comment on why so high a proportion of the total ink is unused whe
printing stops. The other printers we tested gave low-ink message
but never stopped functioning (see the test report for details)
Unquote

"Don't get clogged with an Epson

Dav

 

[SLLD]

I have been using non epson carts for over 4 years
Good ones are not a problem
PS I buy from printpal.com

 

[Blair]

I have been using non epson carts for over 4 years
Good ones are not a problem
PS I buy from printpal.com

For information I buy my compatibles from Choice Stationary Supplies. I also
get my photographic paper
from them.
Blair

 

[ian lincoln]

For information I buy my compatibles from Choice Stationary Supplies. I
also
get my photographic paper
from them.
Blair

That would be www.choicestationery.com

I have been using them for 2 years with canon i850. Never had a problem til
i tried 7dayshop. Now its clog clog clog. Irretreivably so. Mind you i
know someone who has gone through a bj330 and a i250. Clogged up. That too
from choicestationery. It may be because they are pigment ink printers. I
tried cartridge world but the colour accuracy was way off.

On one of the sites (I think it is steves digicams or maybe its the iphoto
one) there is a testprint of colour squares, a buck house guardsman, an
array of dyed cotton spools and a smiling baby. I have used that as the
benchmark for all my printers inks and papers. Its a 900kb jpeg. I managed
to grab it off the site. It was a review of a canon i9950 i believe. There
is also a highly saturated picture of a really professionally done graffiti
wall. It is used to highlight the extra red and blue now found in 8 colour
printers.

 

[Arthur Entlich]

Tis a real pity you didn't bother going on a Google search for clogged
Epson printers and came up with my name and email address, since I have
a cleaning manual for clogged Epson print heads, which works over 98% of
the time, and has saved literally thousands of Epson printers from the
dump by bringing them back to perfect use.

The manual is free, the cost of the materials to clean is under $2 and
the time involved varies from 15 minutes to several days (mainly of
waiting for the cleaners to do their job) depending upon how clogged the
heads are.

Any printer with permanent heads which is left with old cartridges or
no cartridges is bound to have badly clogged heads.

If your description is even partially accurate, you made some grave
errors in your attempts and it is no wonder you couldn't get them working.

Art

 

[Arthur Entlich]

Davy is understandably upset with the experience he had with his two low
end Epson printers.

However, he makes an assumption that because he came across two bad
printers, probably both from the same manufacturing run, that he can
generalize to all printers made by a company and this is a tremendous
oversimplification, and basically wrong.

Further his experience is tainted by some very poor customer service he
received from Epson UK or their contracted service depot.

The whole incident ends up being over generalized, and therefore is
unfairly lopsided.

Literally millions of people use Epson printers in all sorts of consumer
and commercial applications and do so for a reason. They also have
access to Canon, Lexmark, HP and other brands, but continue to choose
Epson, because of the ink characteristics, the color management and the
reliability of the printers.

I am not promoting Epson printers. They do require extra maintenance to
produce consistently good prints. To some, the extra effort is well
worth it, while others are more accepting of printers with other
limitations to have a printer with less upkeep.

It's up to you.

Art

 

[Stick Stickus]

That would be www.choicestationery.com

I have been using them for 2 years with canon i850. Never had a problem
til i tried 7dayshop. Now its clog clog clog. Irretreivably so. Mind
you i know someone who has gone through a bj330 and a i250. Clogged up.
That too from choicestationery. It may be because they are pigment ink
printers. I tried cartridge world but the colour accuracy was way off.

I too use Cartridge World Compats and refills, never had a problem with
colour accuracy, maybe the paper your using?

 

[Bob Kos]

OK - I'll admit that I could have screwed the print heads up. My approach
was to remove the head from the machine and set it on a paper towel
saturated with windex till I could see ink bleed. Then reassemble. If that
failed, I would continue along various logical paths till I felt that the
attempt was in vain then move on.

Could you post your information or the means to obtain it?

Or e-mail me - bobkos at earthlink dot net ?

I still have access to Epson printers. They get thrown away by the bundle.
I still have cartridges. I'll try again.

Thanks for your reply..

 

[Arthur Entlich]

Just email me at my email address as shown in the header and request it.

Art

 

[Davy]

Arthur Entlichwrote:

Davy is understandably upset with the
experience he had with his two low

end Epson printers.

HFurther his experience is tainted by some very poor customer service he
received from Epson UK

Just to clarify,
Epson UK was the one who provided me with poor service, customer
services had me doing cleaning test's, when technical department came
on they had me doing even more cleaning test's.

It was from this I learned that you must never do more than 6 nozzle
cleans on a trot , by the time the phone call had ended what was new
tanks were now empty.

No mention of this damaging the heads in the manual is there?

The service agent literally (I say literally) threw the C62 into a
nearby waste bin, a short while after I learned he kicked Epson into
touch, the service agent was more helpful than Epson themselves.

You only need to look at the amount of problems in these pages alone,
maybe that was the reason.

If I had been using 3rd party ink I would have accepted that being
root of the problem - but I was using Epson inks, I don't grow
icicles and I don't have it next to an oven in a bakery ...!

Yes the C62 is a low end printer but it was certainly not reliable
enough to be placed on the market except for the purpose of wasting
ink.

Yes indeed I accept I'm painting all Epson printers with the same
brush which is wrong, but judging by the amounts of 'clogging' going
on with Epson printers then I have a point.


Davy.

 

[Marky]

Very late but here's my $.02 too.

I have had the opportunity in recent months to go through literally hundreds
of used IJ & laser printers. I found all kinds of HPs without cartridges.
I learned FAST not to buy HP cartridges to test an unknown printer. Caching
$$$!!! I walked over every lexmark I found because I could buy a new one
for the cost of a set of cartridges. Yuk... But then there were the
Epsons. I carefully selected about 8 or 10 printers of various pedigree.
Mostly C series models in exceptionally nice cosmetic condition. I gathered
sets of cartridges together. I downloaded files & drivers. You know that
EVERY stinking one of those printers had clogged print heads. Every one!!!
I disassembled, cleaned, scrubbed, peroxided, compressed aired, you name it
short of a complete submersion. I never got a single printer working right.
The closest I got was everything but red on a C82. On that one I spent an
unbelievable amount of time trying to get it running. No dice. So to me
the Epsons are a pretty useless item. I can't imagine that my 100% clogged
head rate is a far departure from the real world.

My keeper is a nice HP 2000C Professional that had cartridges and works well
despite very occasional use.

Not that it matters much at this point, but where did you get all these
printers?

I would think that if you had access to them, they were scrapped for
whatever reason (probably head clogging) and were probably there for the
very reason you couldn't get them to work.

UP until recently I had worked for Epson and I own several Epson
printers...in the last five years not one of them has had a serious issue
with head clogging...

My old C60 (that is currently offsite and printing dozens of photos for a
relative) has gone through at least ten cartridge changes and only skipped a
beat once when it wouldn't print some of the black...

The C series *80* models had problems...and I wouldn't own one of them (even
though my CX5200 is, in fact, an *80*) for this reason, but my experience
tells me that not every one of them had clogging problems...the 5200 has a
nasty habit of going off-line when I'm trying to print, but that is easily
corrected by turning the unit off and back on again (still haven't figured
that out though)...

Nice to see that you've found a good printer out of that bunch you tested...

 

[Marky]

I bought an Epson Stylus Color 880 4 years ago and it is in almost daily use
and I always use compatible cartridges and have never had a clog!
I do print a lot of photographs as well as normal typing.
The 880 has only two cartridges one for black and one for colour.
Am I lucky or is it because the printer is used a lot ?
Blair

No, the 880 was/is a great printer...mine has served me well and only has
problems if it is not shut down properly...

 

[Marky]

Arthur Entlichwrote:

Davy is understandably upset with the
experience he had with his two low

end Epson printers.

HFurther his experience is tainted by some very poor customer service he
received from Epson UK

Just to clarify,
Epson UK was the one who provided me with poor service, customer
services had me doing cleaning test's, when technical department came
on they had me doing even more cleaning test's.

It was from this I learned that you must never do more than 6 nozzle
cleans on a trot , by the time the phone call had ended what was new
tanks were now empty.

No mention of this damaging the heads in the manual is there?

The service agent literally (I say literally) threw the C62 into a
nearby waste bin, a short while after I learned he kicked Epson into
touch, the service agent was more helpful than Epson themselves.

You only need to look at the amount of problems in these pages alone,
maybe that was the reason.

If I had been using 3rd party ink I would have accepted that being
root of the problem - but I was using Epson inks, I don't grow
icicles and I don't have it next to an oven in a bakery ...!

Yes the C62 is a low end printer but it was certainly not reliable
enough to be placed on the market except for the purpose of wasting
ink.

Yes indeed I accept I'm painting all Epson printers with the same
brush which is wrong, but judging by the amounts of 'clogging' going
on with Epson printers then I have a point.


Davy.

Well, Davy, I'm not sure why they told you that more than 6 cleanings would
damage the heads because it simply isn't true. Doing more than 6 cleanings
will use up ink and that is why they say this, not the damage to the heads.
Maybe you were speaking with a scripted tech, but that serves the same purpo
se if you are under warranty...Epson replaces the printer...no cost to you,
end of story...sometimes they even send you extra ink if it the
circumstances require, but they usually replace the printer with new
inks...or don't they do that in the UK?

You seem to have had more than one printer clog up so maybe the refurb they
sent you was on the ropes too...or, perhaps, the printer was left on all the
time...that will clog heads faster than you can imagine...but, again, not
all Epson C62s suffer the same fate...my C60 has performed flawlessly for
almost four years and has been through about ten cartridge changes...

Good to hear your new printer is still working good...my experience with
Canon printers (it was a BJ200 or something like that) was not so
great...$60 (Canadian, eh) worth of ink into the dumpster with the
printer...

I guess the world is round to go around...

 

[measekite]

*AFTERMARKET INK CLOG THE PRINTHEAD*

Arthur Entlichwrote:

Davy is understandably upset with the
experience he had with his two low

end Epson printers.

HFurther his experience is tainted by some very poor customer

service he

received from Epson UK

Just to clarify,
Epson UK was the one who provided me with poor service, customer
services had me doing cleaning test's, when technical department came
on they had me doing even more cleaning test's.

It was from this I learned that you must never do more than 6 nozzle
cleans on a trot , by the time the phone call had ended what was new
tanks were now empty.

No mention of this damaging the heads in the manual is there?

The service agent literally (I say literally) threw the C62 into a
nearby waste bin, a short while after I learned he kicked Epson into
touch, the service agent was more helpful than Epson themselves.

You only need to look at the amount of problems in these pages alone,
maybe that was the reason.

If I had been using 3rd party ink I would have accepted that being
root of the problem - but I was using Epson inks, I don't grow
icicles and I don't have it next to an oven in a bakery ...!

Yes the C62 is a low end printer but it was certainly not reliable
enough to be placed on the market except for the purpose of wasting
ink.

Yes indeed I accept I'm painting all Epson printers with the same
brush which is wrong, but judging by the amounts of 'clogging' going
on with Epson printers then I have a point.


Davy.

Well, Davy, I'm not sure why they told you that more than 6 cleanings would
damage the heads because it simply isn't true. Doing more than 6 cleanings
will use up ink and that is why they say this, not the damage to the heads.
Maybe you were speaking with a scripted tech, but that serves the same purpo
se if you are under warranty...Epson replaces the printer...no cost to you,
end of story...sometimes they even send you extra ink if it the
circumstances require, but they usually replace the printer with new
inks...or don't they do that in the UK?

You seem to have had more than one printer clog up so maybe the refurb they
sent you was on the ropes too...or, perhaps, the printer was left on all the
time...that will clog heads faster than you can imagine...but, again, not
all Epson C62s suffer the same fate...my C60 has performed flawlessly for
almost four years and has been through about ten cartridge changes...

Good to hear your new printer is still working good...my experience with
Canon printers (it was a BJ200 or something like that) was not so
great...$60 (Canadian, eh) worth of ink into the dumpster with the
printer...

I guess the world is round to go around...

 

[Arthur Entlich]

Much of the quoted material below is misattributed to me, so I want to
reply.

To the person, whomever it is who was speaking about the graveyard of
printer he went through and found "all the Epson printers had clogged
heads" well, guess what? Every Epson printer left without cartridges,
or allowed to dry out due to lack of use (which might be expected since
they were all in some printer graveyard), will indeed have clogged
heads, because they have permanent head which require they have
relatively fresh cartridges filled with ink installed to prevent
clogging. No rocket science here.

Secondly, whatever it is you did to try to repair the printers... well,
you obviously didn't do it correctly, because I have helped now close to
tens of thousands of people to unclog their Epson printer heads when
required, and it is usually a simple process that requires about 15
minutes of maintenance a few times a year. Yes, a neglected printer
takes more time, but still the success rate is very high.

Could Epson print heads be better designed... very likely. Do their
printer still offer the best print quality and color accuracy ? Yes,
likely they do..

Your experience is simply not typical, and to me shows you did not
understand enough about how Epson print heads work and how they can be
cleaned, if you had such a failure rate with them.

Art

 

[Arthur Entlich]

I too will confirm (although I have told Davy this at least six times
already, so what's the point) that doing six cleanings will not damage
the heads. Davy wants to believe this, so be it.

As you stated, cleaning the heads that many times just wastes ink and
gums up the parking cleaning pad and waste ink pads.

Art

Arthur Entlichwrote:

Davy is understandably upset with the
experience he had with his two low

end Epson printers.

HFurther his experience is tainted by some very poor customer

service he

received from Epson UK

Just to clarify,
Epson UK was the one who provided me with poor service, customer
services had me doing cleaning test's, when technical department came
on they had me doing even more cleaning test's.

It was from this I learned that you must never do more than 6 nozzle
cleans on a trot , by the time the phone call had ended what was new
tanks were now empty.

No mention of this damaging the heads in the manual is there?

The service agent literally (I say literally) threw the C62 into a
nearby waste bin, a short while after I learned he kicked Epson into
touch, the service agent was more helpful than Epson themselves.

You only need to look at the amount of problems in these pages alone,
maybe that was the reason.

If I had been using 3rd party ink I would have accepted that being
root of the problem - but I was using Epson inks, I don't grow
icicles and I don't have it next to an oven in a bakery ...!

Yes the C62 is a low end printer but it was certainly not reliable
enough to be placed on the market except for the purpose of wasting
ink.

Yes indeed I accept I'm painting all Epson printers with the same
brush which is wrong, but judging by the amounts of 'clogging' going
on with Epson printers then I have a point.


Davy.

Well, Davy, I'm not sure why they told you that more than 6 cleanings would
damage the heads because it simply isn't true. Doing more than 6 cleanings
will use up ink and that is why they say this, not the damage to the heads.
Maybe you were speaking with a scripted tech, but that serves the same purpo
se if you are under warranty...Epson replaces the printer...no cost to you,
end of story...sometimes they even send you extra ink if it the
circumstances require, but they usually replace the printer with new
inks...or don't they do that in the UK?

You seem to have had more than one printer clog up so maybe the refurb they
sent you was on the ropes too...or, perhaps, the printer was left on all the
time...that will clog heads faster than you can imagine...but, again, not
all Epson C62s suffer the same fate...my C60 has performed flawlessly for
almost four years and has been through about ten cartridge changes...

Good to hear your new printer is still working good...my experience with
Canon printers (it was a BJ200 or something like that) was not so
great...$60 (Canadian, eh) worth of ink into the dumpster with the
printer...

I guess the world is round to go around...