Raw & Post Processing, Printing > Printing: Printers, Papers and Inks

Annual Maintenance on an Epson 3880

(1/4) > >>

JayWPage:
My Epson 3880 printer is coming up on it's first anniversary and I was wondering what sort of annual maintenance some of the readers on this forum do with their printers.

I'm not a heavy printer by any means, I probably average several test strips and maybe 1 or 2 larger prints a week. I do make an effort to print at least something once a week to prevent clogs and so far so good. And I am able to maintain a relative humidity of around 50% using a large, clear tub placed over the printer when it's turned off with a wet sponge on a tray inside. The tub also works well as a dust cover.

I have cleaned the purge pad and wiper as shown by the Jose Rodriguez on his YouTube movie (well worth watching), and certainly mine needed cleaning after 6 months.

I have read somewhere about people taking the ink cartridges out and gently shaking them to keep the pigment particles from settling out. Does anyone here actually do this? Do you take them out and re-insert them with the printer turned on or off?

What about cleaning the feed rollers?

Is there anything else that could be done to keep the printer trouble free for the next few years?

Eric Myrvaagnes:
My 3800 (not the 2880) is six years old, and my usage is similar to yours. The only maintenance I have ever done (aside from a nozzle check every couple of months) has been to clean the feed rollers, which I have done maybe three times, starting about three years ago.

When printing on the second side of double-sided papers (I make a bunch of calendars every year), I have found that the rollers get coated pretty quickly and need to be cleaned. When the printer starts misfeeding, I spray Windex on half of a sheet of letter-sized paper and run it through the printer, wet edge first, followed by a dry sheet or two to pick up the left over wetness.

I shake the ink carts gently before first inserting them, but never after that. In six years I've probably only done about one nozzle cleaning each year on average.

When my 3800 does finally die, I will get a 3880 or whatever the closest Epson is by then.

pluton:
Many, including one of the Epson support people I had on the phone once, advocate shaking carts every once in a while.  I shook them very energetically (not gently) on several occasions and never saw an issue. 
They say to remove/replace them with the printer switched on.

howardm:
I'm not a big fan of removing the carts any more than required as it can cause issues w/ the seal degrading and/or wear on the little contacts that talk to the chip on the cart.  I just lift the machine and rock it back and forth.  Probably doesn't actually do anything other than 'feel good'.

Other things:

blow out the carriage w/ compressed air to remove paper dust
clean the rollers w/ Windex soaked sheets
Watch the YouTube video on cleaning the capping station & wiper blade.

disneytoy:
I can't find the video referred to here?

Navigation

[0] Message Index

[#] Next page