Is there any truth behind the concept of old indestructible printers?

[schpongo]

Hey I just buried out an Epson Stylus Color 880.
The printer hadn't been in use for at least 8 years.
So I simply replaced the ink cartridges and the printer was good to go.
I would have thought that the ink in the print head would be all dried up and that I would have to clean the print head.

That got me thinking.
Our household has had about 2 printers in the last 5 years and all of the seem to work "ok" (they always had some Problems).
But it would seem to me that this old printer is almost indestructible.
And the ink for the printer is so cheap. Amazon.de sells a black and color mix for less than 2$.
I mean the printer is in no way perfect. It's kinda loud and looks plain awful.
Is there any truth behind the concept of old indestructible printers which will take any cheap ink and not die?
And if so I would be interested to know what used old printers are secret top tips.

Greetings from Germany
Daniel

 

[Lucas28]

The Epson 880 is an all dye ink printer. So in the dried out print head there is only a residue of color salts that dissolves easily in new ink. Fill a new printer with dye ink and the result will be the same.

The Epsons were strong in those days, but had a reputation of often nozzle clogging. Newer Epsons are much better on that part.

Old printers don't have a chip in the cartridges, which is an advantage. But the interface (parallel?), the speed and the driver compatibility are superannuated.

 

[schpongo]

Hey thank you for you reply.
So I haven't yest read enough in the forum.

But from what I gathered in your post is:
- I will achieve equal reliability form modern printers by refilling with dye ink
- gain better speed and compatibility
- but have to work with chips form the cartridge most of the time?

Is that about right.

Greeting form Germany
Daniel

 

[Lucas28]

That is correct, Daniel.
The chips on the cartridges is a nuisance for refillers. First you have to pay €1 extra per cartridge for the chip, then the printer stops working when the chip says the ink is finished.

So if you go for an old Epson or Canon check the cartridges, do they have chips?

The only 'geheimtip' I can give you is: Brother still sells printers with no chips on the cartridges. The newer models do have chips, but last year's models are still in the stores. So check for the chips here as well.

photo: chip on an old Epson cartridge

 

[stratman]

Hey I just buried out an Epson Stylus Color 880.
The printer hadn't been in use for at least 8 years.
So I simply replaced the ink cartridges and the printer was good to go.
I would have thought that the ink in the print head would be all dried up and that I would have to clean the print head.

Is the print head on the cartridge? From what I see in the install manual and the cartridges themselves, the print head is built into the cartridge instead of being a separate part. If so, then this explains why a couple new cartridges worked a charm.

 

[turbguy]

In general, a inkjet printer's "weakest" point is the print head.

A thermal print head has a significant "duty cycle" during operation.

A piezo print head has a less significant "duty cycle" during operation.

The slower a printer prints, the less duty to the print head.

A printer that utilizes a cart that CONTAINS the print head (these are mostly thermal print heads) will be the most reliable of all, as you get a new print head with every new cart.