Compared to the other smaller printers there is a saving with bigger ink tanks, but is that saving waisted away with daily nozzle maintenance? Do smaller printers go through the same nozzles exercise as the bigger printers? Since they both share the same technology I would assume so, but from reading all the reviews I get the impression as if ink waste is no issue with smaller printers like the B9180. Is this a false impression?
Flushing ink through the nozzles of the print head to prevent clogs is part of the self-cleaning regimen of all makes of printers, so far as I know. My Epson 4000 have an automatic scheduled process that kicks in roughly once a week. My son's little all-in-one has a cleaning routine that kicks in every single day.
The following is some background info that may be of use, with the caveat that it's based my totally non-technical understanding of the technology:
Nozzle clogging has become a serious issue due to
- the extremely narrow nozzle bore used to achieve high print resolutions, and
- the use of pigment inks instead of dye inks. Pigments are now used in pro-level printers for print longevity but pigment particles are much bigger than dye particles.
The combination of narrow nozzles together with large particles means that the slightest evaporation of solvent within a nozzle results in a clog. There are many factors that can contribute to solvent evaporation, but the only practical approach seems to be to frequently replace the ink in the nozzles with new ink whenever the printer is sitting idle.
Based on the above, it shouldn't matter whether a printer is 13" or 17", what matters is the combination of nozzle bore, pigment vs. dye, plus the specific solvent used to make the pigment ink.
Anecdotally, the humidity of the room in which the printer lives can be another major contributing factor. By increasing the room humidity to 70%, combined with making at least one print per day, I've seen a dramatic reduction in clogging with my Epson 4000. And, yes, I understand that many people in dry climates have no problem with clogs. This is certainly a multi-dimensional issue.
BTW: if you're researching printers, one of the critical factors you won't see much report upon in amateur fora and mass media equipment reviews is profilability. It doesn't do you much good to have a printer with a large gamut, great resolution, zero clogging, etc., if you can't get a match between what you see on your monitor and what comes out of the printer. This may be changing in recent years, but one of the things you pay more for in a pro printer is minimal unit-to-unit variance combined with minimal variance over time for any given unit. My understanding is that all the current 17" and wider printers have excellent pedigrees in this regard. What I don't know is whether this is now also true for the current generation of 13" machines, but it certainly wasn't the case when I switched two or three years ago.
