Epson L800 Experience

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I'm late to this despite having had an L800 on the bench for the last 5 months or so but hopefully some insights to add to the encyclopaedic info already shared..

First up... the thing about printing borderless, I've not seen it recommended except in relation to reducing the amount of waste ink that hits the Platen pads (that one that collect the overspray ink from borderless printing). That's about the only reason to consider avoiding borderless altogether.

I'll not go into everything here but just wanted to note that we had a bad experience with the L800 we grabbed for testing as we found that the printhead was already suffering from de-lamination and we missed the signs before we switched to a pigment ink which really showed up the issue.

However I digress... Our experience (barring the above printhead issue) has mirrored @Ink stained Fingers one in that the printers just work. They're no frills, easy to install and when you compare to the P50 you realise just how annoying the small cartridge volumes and particularly how much ink was wasted with ARC resets or cartridge swapping.

One thing that hasn't been mentioned yet, but which I've noticed with all the Ecotank series is that the build quality on some of these things is not great. The protective internal packaging on the L1300 and L1800 models in particular was incorrectly sized for the box they were in. Almost every printer I've received from the L800, L1300 and L1800 series shows signs of lower quality assembly, poorer moulded parts and slip-shod handling. So if you are buying one of these, you will want to be sure you check it thoroughly for any damage before you start filling the thing up because returning these things with ink in is likely to result in a box of ink spattered printer by the time it arrives back at an Epson service facility.

A common issue I've seen with 10 or so L800's we've looked at is that the rear paper tray, hinged cover is often popped out of alignment, which is a sure sign of rough handling in transit.

In terms of availability, we've noticed that Epson continues to try selling identical printer designs under different model references and pricing structures. The L1300 is the ET14000, the L565 is the same as the ET4550 to all intents and purposes and so on. We can get some models in for UK folks but the warranty is our own, rather than Epsons. Epson disown anything that is purchased outside of "official" channels.

One critical point to note though is that where the models differ is that L series equivalents seem to be following a reservoir approach that allows the reservoir to be upright. The ET series are predominantly using a static, moulded in reservoir which increases the printer width and critically (for us at least) makes the job of fitting a waste kit to a filled printer, an "interesting" experience.

Oh and finally, Epson decided to do away with the shutoff valves on their newer models so the L355 has the shut-off valve, the L365 doesn't... ET series printers don't have them at all. Not a major thing but if you're wanting to move your printer around a lot you might want to keep that in mind.

Just as an aside, for folks in the UK who are wanting any of these Ecotank printers we'll be having a rather large sale of Printer Potty pre-fitted printers in about a week to two weeks time so let me know if you want a heads up on those.

 

[Ink stained Fingers]

thanks for your additional input, market segregation, gray market issues , transportation problems, missing warranty etc are an issue on its own and should be considered when buying such model. And I'm glad that I didn't have problems with the printhead so far or with a paper guide dislocation. The L series models are Epson's first generation of such CISS type models, available since quite some years in the Far East. The ET Ecotank models are the 2nd generation models with some improvements related to the tank assembly.
The L800 would be perfectly capable to handle 1500 A4 photo prints, I did between 12000 to 18000 A4 prints with R265 units - per unit.
I would like to raise some questions about the RX520 - is that unit still in good working condition ? What inks are used - refill, 3rd party cartridges ? You can read the status of the waste ink container and the total number of printed pages via the status report with the WICReset utility .
The RX520 is not using the Epson Claria inks, but is a 4 color dye printer with 2pl droplets like the Canon IP4000 at that time on photo paper, that should give pretty decent photo prints overall. The RX520 is missing the pigment black for normal paper. It may be possible to use refill with decent inks - like the L800 bottled inks - and just do the A4 photos on that unit - but even if I repeat myself - you only get the best results when profiling the printer specifically for the inks and paper actually used.

 

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Just to note the paper guide issue was an easy fix but worth considering it as a "canary" indicator.
ie: something that encourages you to check that nothing else is loose, broken.

 

[Ionlab]

Thank you all for your invaluable info.

@Ink stained Fingers Yes the RX520 is still in (very) good condition. Only Epson inks were used and as a result has not printed much. Will check with the WIC Utility. I am planning on getting Epson L800 refill ink and refillable cartridges for the Rx520. Since I have no access to profiling equipment or have ever "profiled" a printer I will print as is and hope for the best.

If results are not satisfactory I think I will get the 1500w and install either CISS or refillable ink cartridges and again use the L800 inks. Someone (on dpreview i think) said that he was very satisfied with the results so I am willing to take a gamble. Since I am not too fussy I think/hope that the results will be good enough. With this solution I get everything I (think) I will ever need 13x43inch panos, A3+ printing without having to fork out an extra 350EUR to Epson for the L1800 (or if you look at it from another perspective for the same cost of the L800 I get a format bump from A4 to A3+). If i go the 1500w route I plan on attaching an external ink reservoir right away in order to avoid having waste ink drying out on the pads.

 

[Ink stained Fingers]

if you think you are interested to print A3 then that's just fine, A3 prints really look good. But I'm not clear to understand why an A4 print on an 1500W should be better in any (whatever) regard than a print on a L800

 

[Ionlab]

No of course it will not be better. I did not imply anything like that. From a cost perspective only it will cost almost the same and the 1500w has the advantage of being able to print on a3+ papers.

If anything (withiut profiling) the prints coming from the 1500w should be worse than or equal to the l800, since i intend to use the same inks (from the l800). I just hope we are closer to the equal part.....

 

[Ink stained Fingers]

I would ask you to get familiar with the basics of color management, there is no assurance that the L800 and 1500W inks are colorwise identical, the printer firmware/driver and inks are arranged such that you get a standardized color output as long as you use genuine materials - inks and papers, but as soon as you start using something else - non -Epson papers, other inks you most likely get color differences, and the profiling process is the systematic approach to counteract such variances with an icm-profile, a kind of color correction table individually calculated for the materials in use. There are plenty of service providers for this service everywhere.

 

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Thinking out of the box, there's a school of thought that was talking about installing mainboards from Ecotank models like the L800 into non-ET versions with CIS systems installed and thus creating a sort of hybrid.

Would this be something to consider on a Photo 1500W? (or the Artisan 1430).

http://www.aliexpress.com/item/L180...rd-For-Epson-L1800-Mainboard/32535299755.html

 

[Nozzle]

Very interesting thread. Got me at first interested in the L range of Epson printers, even checked prices for them on ebay. We don't have the L's in Australia - only all-in-ones, which I don't like since they are bulky and nothing that handles A3. Anyway L1300 on eBay goes for ~$750AU - the cheapest I could find, shipped from South Korea. Asked the seller about L1800, they don't have these over there, so I found some sellers from Singapore, the closest country where Epson sells these printers and at present am waiting for them to get back to me with the price. I expect it to be around $1000-$1200AU shipped. At this price I wonder who would buy such printer if there are plenty of used 3800 and 3880 out there for less? Right now I'm thinking about getting a second 3880 for only ~$600AU with minimal use (600 pages, on the second set of carts). I know the situation is similar in the states, not sure if in Europe there's a big market of s/h printers, but otherwise is seems like a no brainer.

 

[Ink stained Fingers]

Yes, Epson is very much restricting sales of the L series printers to particular regions only, and pricing is not very attractive. You may want to check the L1300 - Epson has removed the borderless printing option on most of the L-models and left it only with the 6-color units like the L800, 855, 1800. The L1300 is based on the discontinued B1100 which offered borderless printing, but I can't find that mentioned in the technical data for the L1300.