New Printer Help | What to buy ...

[Karen_jarodsafehouse71]

Hi!

I have an Epson Workforce 610 that is in good condition but it's rarely used so each time I use it, I have to use an enormous amount of ink to clean it. (My sister told me this was synonymous with Epson printers.) Do other brand printers do this too or is this primarily an Epson problem?

I just went through half of a high-capacity ink cartridge just trying to get it to print a decent quick page but it still needs an enormous amount of cleaning and that will require new ink cartridges and will probably take the bulk of the new cartridge to clean it and get it ready to print normally, with this being the case, it would be cheaper for me to buy a brand-new printer.

Can someone recommend a good (preferably photo printer that will also print on card-stock) printer that I can use on occasion and not have to worry about the excessive use of ink to clean heads each time I need to print?

Thanks!

 

[fotofreek]

I have an Epson Workforce 610 that is in good condition but it's rarely used so each time I use it, I have to use an enormous amount of ink to clean it. (My sister told me this was synonymous with Epson printers.) Do other brand printers do this too or is this primarily an Epson problem?

Karen - all inkjet printers use ink to keep the printhead from clogging. Although Epsons seem to have the reputation for using more ink than some, I can't confirm this and it may just be anecdotal.

Can someone recommend a good (preferably photo printer that will also print on card-stock) printer that I can use on occasion and not have to worry about the excessive use of ink to clean heads each time I need to print?

Depends on what you mean by using it on occasion. If any inkjet printer sits unused for long the nozzles can tend to clog.

If you are happy with your printer and you can get the printhead cleaned to produce a good print you can do the simple maintenance of running a nozzle check every week or so. That may keep nozzles clean without doing extensive printing. All inkjets will also automatically run cleaning cycles periodically and use ink in the process. Probably less in the long run than if you have to do cleaning cycles to clear print head clogs from disuse.

 

[Smudger]

I learned here the One Great Truth about running ink through the machine once a week, so I stab the 'copy' button on my scanner/printer every Saturday.

If you can't get your Epson clean try a Canon. Some say that they are more tolerant of intermittent use.

Canon have changed their A4 home models to front feed which means that media has to do a 180 degree shuffle. If you want rear feed for thicker card stock and no scanner, the Canon IX6850 A3 printer has rear feed and photo output.

Otherwise the choice is wide, my cheaper MG series photo printer and scanner/copier works for me, and does feed 210 gsm card (wedding invites) without problems, does auto-duplexing and Android printing and WiFi scanning. Cheap compat. ink tanks around £1.60 each.

It's an MG5650, £69.50.

 

[Ink stained Fingers]

the maintenance use of ink is the big unknown, technically it is necessary, but nobody, Canon, Epson etc talks about the cost of it. I'm not aware of any tests in this respect so far, there was one pretty prelim attempt of a test by a German non-profit test institute Warentest, keeping several inkjet printers on test, turning them on once a week, but no printing, and measuring the consumed ink in a particular period - I think 6 weeks . The result was not that Canon or Epson was consuming more or less overall, it varied very much between models, one Canon unit using less ink than a particular Epson model, but the opposite as well, and this with featurewise comparable models. Discussions show that the felt maintenance ink consumption is always too high, so the only practical way to reduce that cost is the use of 3rd party consumables. I only can recommend to select the printer by its options and performance, tests and user critiques of particular characteristics, and then look after the options for 3rd party ink or refill. Otherwise you won't be happy with the printer itself during its usage life. When it comes to photo printing you should be aware that photo prints at home are most likely more expensive than prints by a digital photo lab via the internet.