I have lost count of the number of printers I have owned over the years. One thing is for sure, they don’t last forever. However, there are a number of things we can do to help extend their lives, to ensure they give us a good clean print. They are not cheap either, replacing a photo capable A3 machine, costs in the region of £600 now.

 

I have tried many different makes of printer but found the best for photography was Epson. One of the reasons for this, is Epson owns the patent on the piezo-electric head. These are highly efficient and keep relatively cool compared with thermal heads. All other printers use thermal heads. These are fine for a short while but need regular re-profiling as the head tires and finally wears out. Failure to re-profile results in flat prints, with low contrast, and no oomph!

 

HP printers solved this problem, by putting a print head on every cartridge, so you throw away a head every time you change a cartridge! However, you always have a fresh head to start with. This gives you consistent print quality, but unfortunately does put the cartridge price up.

 

HP have always printed well on cheap photo copier paper, using a pigment black ink, and dye colour inks. Sadly, they lacked the image quality we photographers want. I found total lack of highlight detail at the top end, (rendering of clouds for example} being the main problem. Also, last grey before black, rendered as black, on a 20-step grey scale. Profiling did not improve either of these problems. HP now seem to have got out of the photo printer race.

 

Epson is still not perfect, when printing gloss or matt paper. They have an annoying need to clear the black tube full of ink, that goes to the single black head. This costs you 5ml of wasted ink every time you switch paper types, when printing in either matt black, or glossy ink. Years have gone by, but Epson has never added that extra head for the 2 blacks.

 

Canon, however, has a head for each black ink. Canon also extend their printer lives, by having replaceable thermal heads, which cost dear! (£160 on a £1000 A2 printer) But being well made, {try and lift an A2 model, it takes 2 people!} It makes sense to extend the life with a new head.

 

Epson printers, have roughly a working design life of 5 years, get any more, and you are doing alright! The print heads on an Epson last the life of the printer with careful use, they don’t wear or tire like thermal heads. Replacing a head on them is not economic, costing £100 + on a small A4 printer.

 

The ink waste sump on smaller printers is an internal large felt pad across the base of the printer. This gradually fills up with regular automatic head cleans. When full, a sensor in the pad locks up the printer until it is replaced or serviced, (£100+) or just thrown it away. If it did not do this, you would end up with ink all over your desk, leaking out of the printer, not an easy mess to clean up!

 

On larger printers a waste cartridge is installed, which on my Epson P800, lasts about one and a quarter full sets of inks, thru’ the machine. When the waste tank is full, the printer locks up. They cost £23, but I removed the top, binned the soggy felt, and replaced it with folded kitchen paper towel, or an old vest cut up and folded, works quite well. I then reset the chip to a 100% again. I have been doing this for years, saving a fortune. It’s also very green, by recycling. I was doing this with my old Epson 3880 as it has the same waste tank cartridge. I just transferred it to the new printer!

 

Running costs, for my P800 is roughly £500 for a set of original Epson inks, this includes the waste tank. The ink cartridges are claimed to hold 80ml of ink each. This works out at around 70 pence per mil of ink. This asks the question, should I use alternative inks and refillable cartridges? I do and have never ever bought Epson cartridges for any of their printers, purely because of the cost. A complete refill costs me £75, a bit different from £500! Results when profiled, are very comparable with the original inks.

 

Alternatives? I buy sets of refillable carts from Fotospeed, who I have found very helpful over the years. Their alternative inks are a very good match to the Epson original inks. They work out at about 21p per ml. However, using a large printer, I have found by going to professional ink suppliers, if you are prepared to buy in bulk, this can be reduced to 10p per ml. For this ink, I use a company called “Advance Inkjet Systems”. They supply industry, architects, engineers, graphic design studios etc.

 

However, the minimum quantity of ink for each colour is 250ml. Unfortunately, their yellow ink is to light, so I use Fotospeed Epson compatible yellow. What people don’t realise, is that when Epson brought out the new “P” range of printers they changed the inks as well. The blacks are now roughly one shade darker on a 20-step grey scale. This does improve your prints punch or ping. However, I have noticed the extra carbon black or whatever they have added to the pigment matt black ink, has resulted in it not being absorbed properly by several papers. Some of it, sits on the surface, and rubs off under pressure. A good example is in a foot-high pile of prints! I now use A.I.S matt black inks.

 

Head Alignment is very important for good sharp prints. This should be done when you very first set up your printer, and also if you go moving or transporting it around. Head alignment can be selected from under the printers Maintenance menu on the machine, it will use a couple of sheets of A4 paper to do this. It prints a dozen or so sets of small filled rectangles, asking you which square is contains least No of lines in it, along with a number beside it. You then enter this number in the menu and move onto the next line of nozzles.

 

Siting your printer, it goes without saying do not locate it near any sources of heat, from radiators, fires, air conditioning units etc. It will just dry out the nozzles in the head double quick! Also make sure it is on a rock solid and level surface, so that it is not swaying left to right, as the head goes back and forth.

 

Paper not transported properly, or slipping? After some considerable use, paper is not dragged into the machine properly from the paper shoot. This can often be fixed quite simply. The paper is usually dragged into the printer, by an eccentric soft rubber cam on a rotating shaft. This is just above the paper. The cam is located about a third of the way across the paper (A4} on its shaft.

 

Solution - Unfortunately, the soft rubber cam gets coated with chalk that’s in ordinary paper combined with household dust, making it quite slippery, the opposite of what it’s supposed to be, high friction! I have found by taking a small cloth and soaking it with a little meths, then wiping the drag surface of the rubber cam, sorts the problem out. It’s a fiddly job shoving your fingers into where the paper enters the printer, make sure the printer is off before attempting this!

 

Blocked head nozzles are a direct result of not using an inkjet printer enough. If you are not printing at least once a week, switch the printer on and allow it to boot up, then turn it off again. During the boot up process, the printer will do a mini head clean, using a small amount of ink. This keeps the nozzles in the head freed up. If leaving your printer for weeks on holiday, I place a dampened wad of folded kitchen towel next to where the head parks, to keep the air moist around it. Don’t forget to remove it on your return, or printer damage will result!

 

Sometimes it is wise to do a nozzle check via the program within the printer menu system under “Maintenance”. This will print a pattern of sloping lines, any gaps or missing bits and a head clean is required. Do this from the computer, in the printer “Utilities menu”.

 

“Power Clean” under Maintenance menu on the printer, can be used, to remove stubborn blocked nozzles, due to a printer being left idle for months. It will cost you in ink though, it uses a lot of ink. Best not to let it get to this state in the first place!

 

From what I have noticed, there appear to be 3 levels of head cleaning, a mini clean on boot up, a standard clean from the menu on your computer printer utilities menu, and a power clean actually on the printer’s screen. This is activated from within the printer’s own maintenance menu actually on the machine. They progressively use more ink, the power clean being the worst.

 

Annual Maintenance, obtain some Head Cleaning Fluid, it is possible to buy this product online in small 150ml bottles or so from most ink suppliers. It is very good for general maintenance which I do once a year. Switch your printer on and allow it to boot up, as the head moves out of the parking bay quickly pull the power plug out. You can now move the head to one side to access the parking bay.

 

Do not leave the printer like this for long, or the head will dry out! Use a small syringe to Squirt a small amount of head cleaning fluid onto the pads where the head parks. I use a small 10ml surgical syringe. There is also a small rubber strop that swings out to wipe the underside of the head free of any ink, each time it parks. Clean this as well, it will be covered with dried ink. The strop also wipes itself, on a felt pad nearby, in order to clean itself as well. Squirt cleaning fluid on this pad as well.

 

You may need to do this wiping with a cotton bud dipped in the cleaner, as these areas are not easy to access. Good lighting helps while you do this. Finally, and this is important, move the head back into its parking bay, before turning the power back on. Failure to do this may damage the head belt transport system. When power is restored, the head moves back and forth to auto re-calibrate its location, since power loss. 

 

The head moves up and down a precision, highly polished chrome bar in order to print, this is lubricated by a felt pad soaked in light oil on the print head, that rests on the bar. However, it can dry out after 2 years use or so. I use a little WD40 squirted on a sheet of toilet paper and rub the bar with it.

 

Remember “Love Your Printer” and it will reward you with good prints for years.

 

Happy Printing,