Epson 3800 longevity

[isaacsdad]

I've had my 3800 for little more than three years, and have gone through a total of 35 ink cartridges (all colors), in addition to the ones currently installed. Now I have experienced what is likely to be a print head failure--at least, this is the diagnosis by phone and e-mail with an authorized Epson repair facility. I'm bleeding black ink in eighth-inch wide lines onto my photos (alignment print attached). I'd like a sense of how common print head failures may be in these machines--or any other durability issues. Anyone else had an experience like this? Since I've owned several cheap desktop printers that have printed way more volume over way more time than this "Pro" printer and have never seen a print head failure before, I am rather dismayed by this outcome. 

[RFPhotography]

Even if the MTBF is longer than three years for the print head, that's still just an average.  It means there will be some that last longer and some that last less time.  You may just have one of those on the short end of the timespan.

35 cartridges is just about 4 full sets.  That's not a great deal in 3 years.  I've had mine about 2 1/2 yeras, probably gone through about 4 to 5 sets of ink and it's still going strong. 

[Peter McLennan]

My 4800 suffered a head failure, too.  Less than four sets of carts through it since new.  A new head is $500 and can only be installed by Epson techs who have the proprietary installation software. The printer's a throw-away.  Thank goodness it made such spectacular images.

[Farmer]

If it's actually a head failure, it's quite unusual.  I'd be more likely to sugges that you have something stuck/caught on the head (dust, hair, dried ink).  A clean of that and the capping station etc may well resolve the issue.

[isaacsdad]

The Epson tech I spoke with told me how to clean the head a couple of ways with wet paper towel strips. After several attempts, and being able to produce clean nozzle print patterns, I still have black seeping into yellow, and the alignment printout I've attached.

Everyone, thanks for your feedback. Also a big thank you to Rob at We Fix Printers in Redondo Beach.

[elliot_n]

The Epson tech I spoke with told me how to clean the head a couple of ways with wet paper towel strips. After several attempts, and being able to produce clean nozzle print patterns, I still have black seeping into yellow, and the alignment printout I've attached.

Everyone, thanks for your feedback. Also a big thank you to Rob at We Fix Printers in Redondo Beach.

My 3 year old Epson 3800 (approx 5 sets of inks) recently had similar problems - blotches of black ink on the edges of prints, and a nozzle test where the yellow area was always a muddy grey (black ink contamination, I guess).

Epson UK diagnosed a faulty capping station via their 'live chat' support.

An engineer visited to replace the capping station. He then ran his diagnostic tests and said I also had a faulty printhead and ink supply system. He returned a few weeks later to replace these. The print quality was terrible. The new printhead was diagnosed as faulty.

The printer was then taken to the service centre and the printhead was replaced. It seems to be working ok now, but the whole repair process took two months, and in retrospect I would have binned the 3800 and bought a 3880.

[isaacsdad]

Thanks for the report, Elliot. I hope your 3800 serves you well for many years to come. Here's an update on my situation. I wondered whether my problem would occur if I switched to Matte Black. Since the same line is used for PK and MK, you would think that the problem would be the same--same print head or same part of the print head in use, right? Guess what? So far, I'm printing in MK with no problems. But I've only done four letter-size prints, so if the issue is a slow leak that eventually gums up the print head, it may take a little while for the problem to recur.

Lest anyone think that the problem is with the PK cartridge, this is actually a second cartridge manifesting the problem. A month ago, the first time I called Epson, the person on the line diagnosed a faulty PK cartridge and sent me a replacement. For a while, it seemed the problem had been resolved, but only for a while.

So I will let my printer sit for a bit and try it out some more later in the week. If that works, I'll switch back to PK and give it a go. I'll post my results. Thanks again for the info, all. Cheerio!

[elliot_n]

You've reminded me of how my 3800's problems first presented - poor shadow detail. I eventually figured out that this was because the PK cartridge had ran out of ink, without the printer alerting me. At the time I figured it was a faulty cartridge. But then it happened with the next cartridge, and I started getting smears of black ink, and contaminated nozzle checks. Epson initially thought all this could be fixed by replacing the capping station.

[isaacsdad]

I had exactly the same experience with my PK cartridge. I initially thought it was a clogged nozzle, as my nozzle test patterns showed large gaps in PK, then went blank, all the while my printer and computer software were telling me I had three-fourths of a full tank of PK. It turned out that the cartridge was empty, which is why Epson sent me a replacement. I couldn't believe that I had used up the entire PK cartridge in little more than a month, so at first I thought it must be a leak somewhere. But then Epson called it a bad cartridge, so I thought maybe it was just that. I've come full circle.

Let's just see where this switching to MK might bring me.

[mfryd]

According to page 252 of the service manual (which is floating around the web for download), the Epson 3800 has a service life of 5 years, 12,000 pages (A2 sized plain paper), or 1,600,000 passes of the carriage; whichever comes first.

Do you know what your total page count is?

[isaacsdad]

I can only estimate the number of pages I've printed. The vast majority--like 90 percent-plus--would be at letter-size, 8-1/2 by 11 inches, borderless. Since I re-use the boxes of paper that I buy to store prints in, I have most of these containers still. By this count, I haven't reached 1,000 letter-size prints. I have also kept all the ink carts I've used, as I mentioned in the original post. I have 35 empties. My memory has failed me, though. I went back and discovered that I've had this printer for four years, not "little more than three" as I originally thought.

An update on my printing with Matte Black ink: I've done more than two dozen letter-size prints and they are all fine. According to my contact at We Fix Printers in Redondo Beach, Matte Black utilizes a different part of the print head. But the problem might be with the ink system rather than the head.

I will print matte for a few more days, then return to PK. Stay tuned...