Has anyone gotten a working refurbished Epson 3880?

[mfryd]

Has anyone gotten a refurbished Epson 3880 that worked?

Back on Feb 2010 I bought a new 3880 with Epson's extended warranty (good through Feb of 2013).  Recently it started dripping black ink.  Epson offered to overnight me a refurbished unit as a replacement.

Refurb #1 arrived, but it wasn't packed as well as a new unit.  The front door that hides the output paper tray wasn't connected, but this was easy to snap on.  More importantly, the output tray wouldn't stay locked in position.  Epson offered to overnight me a replacement.

Refurb #2 arrived, and this time the paper tray was good.  This unit got as far as charging the inks, and doing a manual and automatic nozzle check.  I started an automatic alignment.  Half way through the printer stopped, and put up an error telling me to call Epson Service.  Epson Service said the error was not recoverable, and put in an order to overnight me a replacement.

Refurb #3 arrived today.  At least this one has a working paper tray, and doesn't display an error message.  Unfortunately, it drips black ink onto the paper, and an automated nozzle check, shows black ink in some of the yellow nozzles (the checkerboard pattern that is supposed to be yellow, has some black squares).  A test print of a photo with a bright yellow background gives me a print with a muddy yellowish background.  To be fair, refurb #3 has a low serial number, and arrived with over 4,800 prints on the meter.  A printer that used shouldn't be expected to perform perfectly.


Has anyone ever gotten a working refurbished unit from Epson?   Am I just having a run of bad luck, or is this typical?

[RawheaD]

I bought my first 3880 as a manufacturer refurb unit last July. It's been working fine for over a year now. ymmv :-)

[chichornio]

After reading your awful experiencie and because I´m willing to buy a second hand Epson 3880, in your opinion, what should I look at very carefully when I have a second hand Epson 3880 in front of me? Should I make a nozzle test? Printhead test? Any suggestions will be very welcome.

[mfryd]

After reading your awful experiencie and because I´m willing to buy a second hand Epson 3880, in your opinion, what should I look at very carefully when I have a second hand Epson 3880 in front of me? Should I make a nozzle test? Printhead test? Any suggestions will be very welcome.

If you are considering a used Epson 3880, you should make sure the printer works, determine how much useful life it has left, and make sure you are getting a reasonable deal compared to a new unit.


To verify current operation, you want to see both an automatic and a manual nozzle check.  All nozzles should be working.  If there are cloged nozzles, they may be fixed with a simple cleaning, or you might run through a hundred dollars of ink without success.  Make sure all nozzles work before buying.

You should also print a selection of your typical photos to make sure that the printer is working overall.

My understanding is that the Epson Style Pro 3880 has a rated service life of 5 years, 12,000 A2 sized (about 16"x20") pages, or 1.6 million carriage movements.  Whichever comes first.  To determine the expected remaining life you need to see a printer status sheet, which lists total pages printed.  You should also ask when the printer was first put into service, so you know how much of the 5 year service life is left.  Obviously, some printers will last much longer than the rated life, and some won't.


To determine a fair price you need to keep in mind that a new 3880 is currently running about $900 after rebate. A new printer includes a one year warranty, and about $450 worth of ink.  About 20% of that ink is used in the initial ink charge of the system.  The way I look at it, a brand new Epson 3880 print engine costs about $450, and comes bundled with another $450 worth of ink ($900 total).

To be fair, about 20% of that ink is used in the initial setup of the printer.  Once the printer has been setup, there is only $360 worth of ink in cartridges, and $90 worth of ink in various tubes and waste tanks.


Thus, a used printer, with empty cartridges should be worth less than the new price of $540 ($450 for the print engine, $90 for the ink charge).  Add to this the value of any ink remaining in the cartridges, or in cartridges bundled with the printer.  You can get a rough estimate of the remaining ink in each cartridge from the status page.

Keep in mind that Epson says that ink should be used with 2 years of manufacturer, or with 6 month of being opened (whichever comes first).  Many people report that there are no problems exceeding these limits.  The status sheet will give you the expiration date for all installed cartridges, as well as how long they have been in use.

Good luck with your purchase.  The 3880 is a great printer and produces excellent results.

[chichornio]

Thanks mfryd for your detailed description. Actually I own a Hp z3200ps (44") and an Hp 130nr (24") and I´m very happy with them. But I feel I need a second A3plus pigment printer for back up and printing portfolios, so I consider the 3880 a very good choice.

[I.T. Supplies]

Details of refurb printers are pretty close to what you were referring.  I've heard some customers that purchased a refurb instead of a new one and have been using it for years without issues.  And some have had issues.  Probably not like yours as many times as you've had.

Our printer after rebate is below $900 and free shipping.  We sell only new printers for the best possibly quality, but it is guaranteed under warranty like you had once you purchased it from the manufacturer.

I would also recommend the Epson 4900 which is a better model and larger inks with better printheads if you decided to get a new printer.  Granite it is bigger and heavier, but it does the same size printing, plus larger on rolls.

[mfryd]

..
I would also recommend the Epson 4900 which is a better model and larger inks with better printheads if you decided to get a new printer.  Granite it is bigger and heavier, but it does the same size printing, plus larger on rolls.

I know that the 4900 is cheaper to operate (lower cost ink), but I thought it lacked some of the cut sheets abilities of the 3880.

I was under the impression that the 4900 does not print borderless on cut sheets, nor will it print on cut sheets smaller then 8 x 10 inches.  Will the 4900 take a stack of cut sheets or do you need to manually feed them one at a time?

Do you have information on the expected service life of the 4900?

I suspect that depending on one's needs, the 3880 might be a better fit.

[I.T. Supplies]

Both models have their pros and cons again each other.  The 4900 can print borderless:
Complete borderless printing on the following roll media sizes: 8", 10", 11", 13", 14", 16", 16.5", 17"
Top and bottom edges can be automatically cut to any length when printing on roll media

Cut-sheet size    8" x 10" up to 17" x 24" media

Yet, the 3880 doesn't have the ability to print rolls, but you can if you make a way to have the roll sit still while the printer prints on it.
And from what I've heard from our tech, that the printer needs to feed sheets one at a time.
This model has only been out for a little over a year now, but I'm not really sure on the service life.
http://www.epson.com/cgi-bin/Store/jsp/Pro/SeriesStylusPro4900/Overview.do?BV_UseBVCookie=yes

The 3880 would be better for the printing that you do.  If you start doing larger prints (bigger than 17x22) the 4900 would be the next model to get as well as the ability to print more with the 200ml tanks.  We've had a few customers that have both printers for these types of prints and it's been doing a great job.  One prints multiple sheets and border-less while the other prints rolls.

[mfryd]

...
This model has only been out for a little over a year now, but I'm not really sure on the service life.
...

Epson's design service life estimates can be found in the service manuals for the printer.  As a dealer with service techs, do you have access to the service manuals?

[Lisa Nikodym]

Back to the original poster's question...

I had a printer under warranty with paper skew & paper feed problems (due to a stuck part in the paper feed), and got a clearly used & refurbished printer to replace it.  The replacement printer wasn't great either, and also had paper skew problems and a finicky paper feed, though considerably better than the original one.  I figured that many of them must have similar problems, and gave up and kept it, though I am somewhat limited in my paper feed options and have learned to accept skew.

The ironic thing is that I replaced my trusty old 3800 with a new 3880 because the former developed paper skew issues after a few years.  I didn't know that the new one would be even worse, and while brand new.  It's enough to make me think about replacing my 3880 eventually with a different line, or different brand, of printer....

So you're not the only one to get flaky refurbished printers as warranty replacements....

Lisa

[StuNY]

FWIW
I bought a new 3880 I guess about a couple years ago now. It worked well for a while, then gave me an error message and wouldn't print. I called Epson and they gave me the choice of sending it in and fixing, or they would ship out a refurb printer with a full set of inks that day. I took the refurb option. I am using this unit for about 1.5 years now and it has been flawless. No issues with paper loading. If I neglect it for a few months I do have to do the nozzle test/clean cycle a couple times but then it continues to work perfectly as I need it. The refurb unit I got looked brand new, was prepped just the same as my new unit was and I was printing within 48 hours of having the problem. They even told me to prime the new printer with my old ink cartridges, and send my old printer back with any old/empty cartridges I had laying around. Keep trying to remember to make a print every week or so but my reality is that sometime I don't get around to printing for a month or two but a little extra ink to do the cleaning cycle is ok with me vs. having to worry about printing a lot. I am pretty happy with their customer service and love the prints I get with this printer!