Are Epson R200 printers worth restoring?

[RWP]

I was killing time the other day and took a stroll through a local Goodwill store, only to discover a couple of R200s for about $5 each. They apparently are guaranteed to print and still have OEM carts in them.

I already have an R220 and enough IS ink to last several years and it would be great to have more printers that use the economical TO48 refillable carts or a CIS system. I've read the R200 is actually better constructed than the 220 and won't have the carraige superstructure become misaligned once much of the exterior plastic is removed for servicing, whereas later models used the plastic case as the main superstructure.

Both printers *appear* to have the type of light use and heavy dust accumulation a typical home office envinronment may produce, where maybe 50 prints per year are done and eventually the nozzles start getting clogged from non-use and then the printer is discarded or donated... I have no doubt that the print heads can be successfully cleaned if there are some clogged jets; my main concern is the effective removal of heavy dust in the carraige area and cleaning out the park area/purge pump assembly if need be. If the R200 can stand that type of service and disassembly without parts falling out of alignment, I might just buy them -- for spare parts if nothing else. I would expect at least the print head and purge pump, etc. would work for my R220 if the need should arise.

 

[msmart]

If you've got the time, you can't go wrong for 5 bucks. I still have my R200 and R220 printers out in the garage (and the CISS).

I'm sure you can find better links but here you go:

http://www.scribd.com/doc/13865793/Epson-R200-Service-Manual

 

[RWP]

Wow - thanks for the link to that service manual! It has all the info I could possibly need.

I found CD/DVD trays are still available for this model at a reasonable price (the only thing missing from these printers) so will probably buy them tomorrow if they are still available...

Thanks again.

 

[websnail]

Hell yes... The quality of the newer models is getting worse and there are people out there who want to continue using their reliable CIS and waste kits, etc... because it just works (and usually has done for 5+ years!).

You could make a little profit out of it, assuming you don't get sucked in and keep them yourself

 

[RWP]

Hell yes... The quality of the newer models is getting worse and there are people out there who want to continue using their reliable CIS and waste kits, etc... because it just works (and usually has done for 5+ years!).

You could make a little profit out of it, assuming you don't get sucked in and keep them yourself

I think it already too late... I'm thinking of additional sources of inexpensive used Epson R-series printers and I want them ALL for my... collection.

 

[Ron350]

RWP wish you lived closer I have an R200 I bought at a thrift store I will never use. Local thrift store gets several Epson printers in each month that just sit there with the Lexmarks and the HPs.

 

[RWP]

RWP wish you lived closer I have an R200 I bought at a thrift store I will never use. Local thrift store gets several Epson printers in each month that just sit there with the Lexmarks and the HPs.

I'd hang onto it anyway -- you never know when you might need it. And I'm not aware of a more economical 6-color printer; last time I bought bulk IS ink for my R220 the cost per refill of the entire set was under $1.75...

 

[RWP]

So I returned to the Goodwill store and both R200s were still there -- along with new arrivals: Canon i850 and 1-each Lexmark Z-43/Z-53 (I used to have a Z-43 and liked its integrated printhead design -- I wonder if they can be easily refilled?)

Found an outlet in the store to plug some printers in to test power-on cart movement/purge cycle performance/check ink status and error codes:

One Epson had the carriage in the unparked position and I suspected damage; sure enough, when powered-on the carraige did not make the normal movements and never landed in the park position. Had double alternating red lights which probably indicated a serious error code. Good printer to avoid...

The other Epson was correctly parked and went through the normal power-on carraige movements and purge sounds -- even had ink in all the carts with no "low ink" warning light or "low" cartridge positioning in front of pointer behavior. A keeper!

The Canon looked pretty good and uses BCI-3eBK pigment and BCI-3e c/m/y dye carts. Power-on testing indicated all the carts were empty, but for $6.99 I was willing to gamble the print head was okay. I have some ink for the newer BCI-6 dye carts and although the older 3e dye carts take a different ink, most reports indicate they are "close enough" -- at least for testing. The print head is the same as my i560 which uses the newer BCI-6 dye inks so I'm not concerned about the wrecking the head.

In light of all the printer manufacturers building less durable printers today, which also incorporate smaller carts and harder-to-crack chips, I'm really inclined to stock up on a lot of these older printers for myself and numerous business associates who do a lot of printing and don't need to be spending many hundreds/year on ink. Now, the only other problem is getting drivers for these printers to support Vista and Win 7 -- 32- and 64-bit... hopefully Microsoft have included basic legacy drivers for these types of easily refillable printers.

Oh well... in a few more years the Canon iP4500s should start showing up at thrift stores and these will be fully compatible with the latest and near future OSes.