3800,Will Pressurized cartridridges be the answer

[holmherzer]

I have been printing with an Epson 4000 for a while, I loved the output but I'm very tired of spending up to an hour solving clogs or bubbles. I don't print on a regular basis. I was getting ready to upgrade to a 4800 when news of the Canon ipf5000 came out. Now I'm reading about the Epson 3800 and was just wondering what the over all opinion is about the pressurized carts and how much they will solve the clogging or at least the prolonged cleaning process. After what I have been thru I wouldn't mind if I had to do one head cleaning, but its very frustrating with channels coming and going during the cleaning.

Thanks,

David

[michael]

The larger 7800 and 9800 use pressurized carts so I don't think that it's going to be the magic bullet.

Michael

[Brian Gilkes]

Correct. Pressurised cartridges do not reduce clogging. The concept of differing charges in ink and nozzle looks like a good one, but no sign of that in an Epson printer yet.
I have found clogging is worse with rolls than sheets, due to the cutter introducing bits of coatings and paper. Cotton papers are worse than wood pulp.
 If , say 4 standard cleans do nor work try an auto clean. That often does the trick. If that fails ad the crud just moves to another (previously clean) set of nozzles then bite the power clean bullet. According to the local Epson rep. it only uses 3-4 ml off ink and the nozzles are physically wiped, which does not occur with a standard clean. I assume 3-4 ml is each ink, but that's not as bad as hinted at when the 220 ml containers are 1/3 full, an an attempt at power clean results in a "Not enough ink" screen warning.
Roll on next genereration printers. If HP can do something about this Epson will have to. The ink loss is one thing, the down time is another. Try a 1x2M print, just about out of the machine and a sudden block occurs.
Where is that axe?
Cheers,
Brian,
www.pharoseditions.com.au

[Marty C]

With pressurized carts I have found clogging to be very minimal and it is taken care of with the intial startup cleaning with minimal ink loss. The whole purpose of using pressurized carts is to keep the heads wet while being in the capped position, this reduces the nozzle clogs.
I had a 9600 prior to getting the 9800 and I can tell you nozzle clogs have been reduced and as Michael says " Its no magic bullet" but it is a very big improvement. I have yet to use the powerful clean cycle. I also take the time to clean the printer bi weekly with air to remove the lint and paper dust.  

[Nick Rains]

According to the local Epson rep. it (power clean) only uses 3-4 ml...
Brian,
www.pharoseditions.com.au
[a href=\"index.php?act=findpost&pid=81849\"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a]

If you are talking about the Ep4000 then this is not correct. A power clean uses about 90ml of ink in total - this is the figure reported by the actual printer after the clean, not info from a rep.

Thought you should know...

[Brian Gilkes]

Thanks Nick, The (tech, not sales ) rep was referring to the 9800. 4ml x 8inks would be 36ml.
All the same , that figure is disturbing. I'll have another go at him.
So far I have been able to avoid power cleans but have been assured (not by reps) that they work in difficult situations.
Marty, I have both 4000 (unpressurised) and 9800 (pressurised) printers and find they clog at about the same rate. I do use the big printer a lot more, so that could be an explanation. There are a lot of factors at work. The more startups, the more minor cleans. The more cutting of cotton papers the more crud. I seem to remember Mark DS finding less clogs on a 4800 than a 4000. Both are unpressurised, but inks (except MK) are different. Perhaps it's the ink difference, but the K3 inks are denser, so maybe its the heads or differing firmware, or or or?
I'll just be glad when inks don't clog and still dry quickly.
The air clean is a good idea. I'm a bit wary of squirting bottled stuff in the printer though. Perhaps you use a compressor with an oil filter? I've considered vacuuming with one of those little car units.
I, and I'm sure others, would  be interested in any cleaning techniques that avoid litres of ink in the bin.
Anyone?
Cheers,
Brian.
www.pharoseditions.com.au

[Greg_E]

With pressurized carts I have found clogging to be very minimal and it is taken care of with the intial startup cleaning with minimal ink loss. The whole purpose of using pressurized carts is to keep the heads wet while being in the capped position, this reduces the nozzle clogs.
I had a 9600 prior to getting the 9800 and I can tell you nozzle clogs have been reduced and as Michael says " Its no magic bullet" but it is a very big improvement. I have yet to use the powerful clean cycle. I also take the time to clean the printer bi weekly with air to remove the lint and paper dust. 
[a href=\"index.php?act=findpost&pid=81870\"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a]

Clean the little rubber wiper while you are at it.