Epson 3880 Ink Shelf Life

[Robert Boire]

Hello,

I am in the market for a new printer and have pretty much convinced myself on Epson 3880. Except I still have one nagging doubt on the huge ink cartridges. I know all about the lower cost per print, the lower cost/ml of ink vs say the 2880 etc etc. What concerns me is shelf life. The specificaiton says the shelf life is 6 months once the cartridge is open. I do not expect to do a huge amount of printing and so fully expect that I will still have ink in the cartridges after 6 months. Replacing them every six months will be hugely expensive. Of course I do not expect the ink will completely become useless after six months. Stil...

Sooo.. does anybody have any direct experience? Is shelf life really an issues?

Thanks for your input.

R

[jpegman]

This has been beaten to death on various forums (e.g. http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/forum.asp?forum=1003) , and the real world ink lifespan vs the OEM's "recommended" life span of every brand is always questioned. To my knowledge, no one has ever had a problem - even  several years after opening! No one throws expensive ink out although the OEM can suggest that the outdated ink is bad, and needs to be replaced with your $$$.
One very worthwhile suggestion is to gently shake the cartridges after several months or so to help keep the pigment particles in suspension. The OEM's even suggest it before you put a new cartridge into the printer for the first time - the store shelf storage vibrations are usually pretty benign.

[NigelC]

I also have been an infrequent user. My 3800 started up in April 2008 and most of the original inks are still in it. I do give them a shake every few months if I haven't been using it much.