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Author Topic: Annual Maintenance on an Epson 3880  (Read 6659 times)

JayWPage

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Annual Maintenance on an Epson 3880
« on: March 24, 2015, 01:39:52 pm »

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?
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Eric Myrvaagnes

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Re: Annual Maintenance on an Epson 3880
« Reply #1 on: March 24, 2015, 06:11:56 pm »

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.
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pluton

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Re: Annual Maintenance on an Epson 3880
« Reply #2 on: March 27, 2015, 03:58:17 am »

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.
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howardm

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Re: Annual Maintenance on an Epson 3880
« Reply #3 on: March 27, 2015, 07:44:32 am »

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

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Re: Annual Maintenance on an Epson 3880
« Reply #4 on: March 27, 2015, 11:24:03 am »

I can't find the video referred to here?
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howardm

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Re: Annual Maintenance on an Epson 3880
« Reply #5 on: March 27, 2015, 11:34:30 am »

This should be it...........

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iKzxAm9QtWo

I do store my extra 3880 carts in a box and have a reminder to flip the box upside-down every month but once they're in the printer, I dont remove them till it's time to replace them.  As I said, I just shake the printer or put a piece of thick dowel under it and see-saw :)

enduser

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Re: Annual Maintenance on an Epson 3880
« Reply #6 on: March 27, 2015, 07:14:29 pm »

The Canons have an elegant solution to ink settling.  If left on, they wake up now and then and check temperature and humidity.  They then will do a small ink "spit" and agitate the ink.  This is done by pulling and pushing ink out of the carts at a fast rate of many times a second.  All done automatically.  Canons have all blacks avaiable all the time.  Heads are simple user swapable. If only they didn't cost $400 - $500 each.

We also have a 24" three color, one black, HP Designjet T120 wireless dye printer for jobs of lower longevity.  It is astonishing in its ability to produce full color output, even greytone B & W looks good.  The printhead is designed to last the life of the machine.  If you ever did need a new head it's abouut $125, easily replaced.  New price is $900.  Now, if only dyes lasted for 50 75  years!
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Wayne Fox

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Re: Annual Maintenance on an Epson 3880
« Reply #7 on: March 27, 2015, 08:32:12 pm »

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.  
I've never seen anyone document or prove that the pigments settle out enough to be a concern so it's all theoretical, but if you are going to remove them and shake them, doing so energetically can damage the port and cause other issues, including things like sealing and leaking.  We've seen this a couple of times. But the pigments are suspended in a solution that is designed to keep them evenly distributed, so I'm not really sure it's that important to do so constantly.  A gentle agitation for new cartridges which has been nearly stationary for some time might be a good idea, but once in a printer there is some natural agitation going on.

I used to agitate them, but haven't done so in many years now. No real differences in nozzle dropouts, color shifts or anything.

If you want to agitate them, turn them on the side and rock them back and forth. You can pull several at a time and do them together.
« Last Edit: March 27, 2015, 11:02:38 pm by Wayne Fox »
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JayWPage

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Re: Annual Maintenance on an Epson 3880
« Reply #8 on: March 27, 2015, 08:38:53 pm »

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.

Eric, What type/weight of paper are you using to spray Windex on to clean the feed rollers? is this a heavy-weight fine art paper, i.e. a Photo Rag/300 gsm paper or something closer to the inexpensive Epson papers that are around 100 gsm? You wouldn't want the paper to fall apart in the printer, but I also don't want to waste my good paper if it's not necessary. You mentioned "letter-sized", is there just the one feed roller on the right hand side (that you can see) to worry about, or are there other feed rollers inside that get coated with paper dust too and need to be cleaned. Somewhere I read of someone using a rag with alcohol(?) to clean that roller, they just held it against the roller and pushed the paper advance button. But I'm not sure about trying that...

My printer is pretty energetic when it's printing, it does get the desk and everything jiggling a bit when it's going. I suppose that must help keep the ink from settling out a bit. I have a few cartridges that are fairly low, when they are down a bit more I will take them out and experiment with shaking them and putting them back.
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Jeff-Grant

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Re: Annual Maintenance on an Epson 3880
« Reply #9 on: March 27, 2015, 08:54:25 pm »

Regular shaking of cartridges is recommended at Inkjetmall. I just give the printer a bit of a jiggle every few days. I'm hoping to avoid my 3880 going the way of my 3800.
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Wayne Fox

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Re: Annual Maintenance on an Epson 3880
« Reply #10 on: March 27, 2015, 11:37:22 pm »

Regular shaking of cartridges is recommended at Inkjetmall. I just give the printer a bit of a jiggle every few days. I'm hoping to avoid my 3880 going the way of my 3800.
If you don't print anything for 6 months or so then perhaps it's an issue and the inkjetartmall article has some merit, but really the printer has enough vibration to keep things sufficiently suspended.  If you use it so infrequently you need to shake it, you're going to have more problems than just pigments settling out.

As an aside I was curious about this once so I actually opened an expired two year old 3800 cartridge that had been sitting on the store shelf and carefully poured it out over a large sheet of plexi.  I assumed if the pigment's had settled out I would see some density or color shifts in the ink.  Could see no difference anywhere, no real sign of anything, and density and texture of the ink didn't appear to change at all.  Not very scientific and doesn't prove anything, but of course had I seen a difference then it would have. Additionally it might have just shown that just the movement of the cartridge and process of opening was enough agitation to resolve settling.

 I've never seen any documented proof the pigments settle out enough to cause a problem  as long as the printer gets some use. Other than Epson recommending gentle agitation before installing new cartridges (which could easily have been sitting motionless for 6 months to a year or more) there is no recommendation from Epson to do take them out and agitate them and despite the articles conspiracy theory that epson just wants to sell more ink, it could be they actually know it's not an issue.

But I have seen printers with problems with leaking and damaged ports from people who for some reason think they needed to take them out and shake them every couple of weeks.

I really think this is more of a myth that has stayed alive since the 76/9600 printer, sort of like the need to fully discharge a battery before you recharge it if you own a current laptop with high quality lithium ion batteries which is a leftover of nickel cadmium days.
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Eric Myrvaagnes

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Re: Annual Maintenance on an Epson 3880
« Reply #11 on: March 27, 2015, 11:53:45 pm »

Eric, What type/weight of paper are you using to spray Windex on to clean the feed rollers? is this a heavy-weight fine art paper, i.e. a Photo Rag/300 gsm paper or something closer to the inexpensive Epson papers that are around 100 gsm? You wouldn't want the paper to fall apart in the printer, but I also don't want to waste my good paper if it's not necessary. You mentioned "letter-sized", is there just the one feed roller on the right hand side (that you can see) to worry about, or are there other feed rollers inside that get coated with paper dust too and need to be cleaned. Somewhere I read of someone using a rag with alcohol(?) to clean that roller, they just held it against the roller and pushed the paper advance button. But I'm not sure about trying that...

My printer is pretty energetic when it's printing, it does get the desk and everything jiggling a bit when it's going. I suppose that must help keep the ink from settling out a bit. I have a few cartridges that are fairly low, when they are down a bit more I will take them out and experiment with shaking them and putting them back.

When I first started printing digitally (Epson 2200 at that time) I was using matte ink only and printing on Epson Enhanced Matte paper (formerly Archival Matte, and now  Ultra Premium Presentation Paper Matte). For several years I have printed mainly on glossy papers with PK ink, and I still have quite a pile of UPPP Matte paper left. It is fairly sturdy, and for roller cleaning I only spray the leading half of a sheet so the dry half will pick up most of the remaining Windex. I also then send another dry sheet through and that is usually enough.

I have never used more than a couple of sheets of double-sided paper larger than letter size, but I have run a few hundred sheets of letter-size sheets doing calendars, and the only problems I have ever had with paper feed have been with letter-size paper. So very likely, it's only the fist 8.5 inches of the roller that has gotten gummed up and needs cleaning.

If I ever have feed problems with larger sheets, I'll sacrifice some 13x19 sheets as needed. I think I even have some of the cheaper Epson matte paper in that size that I never use for prints any more.

I have once or twice tried the alcohol on a paper towel technique while pushing the paper advance button, but it didn't seem as effective as the Windex on paper treatment.
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disneytoy

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Re: Annual Maintenance on an Epson 3880
« Reply #12 on: March 28, 2015, 12:32:27 am »



As an aside I was curious about this once so I actually opened an expired two year old 3800 cartridge that had been sitting on the store shelf and carefully poured it out over a large sheet of plexi.  I assumed if the pigment's had settled out I would see some density or color shifts in the ink.  Could see no difference anywhere, no real sign of anything, and density and texture of the ink didn't appear to change at all.  Not very scientific and doesn't prove anything, but of course had I seen a difference then it would have. Additionally it might have just shown that just the movement of the cartridge and process of opening was enough agitation to resolve settling.


I was given an r2400, and about a $1,000 worth of expired in. Some as far back as 2008. I can tell you I used it all and had no printing issues. So don't be too scared of expired inks.
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Jeff-Grant

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Re: Annual Maintenance on an Epson 3880
« Reply #13 on: March 28, 2015, 12:42:18 am »

Wayne,

IJM are obviously talking about their own inks, and I don't want to start an argument about a subject that probably ha a lot of urban myth in it.  Anyway here's the link: http://www.inkjetmall.com/tech/content.php?133-Printer-Cleaning-and-Preventative-Maintenance

IJM are pretty savvy with this stuff, YMMV
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Wayne Fox

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Re: Annual Maintenance on an Epson 3880
« Reply #14 on: March 28, 2015, 12:55:33 am »

Wayne,

IJM are obviously talking about their own inks, and I don't want to start an argument about a subject that probably ha a lot of urban myth in it.  Anyway here's the link: http://www.inkjetmall.com/tech/content.php?133-Printer-Cleaning-and-Preventative-Maintenance

IJM are pretty savvy with this stuff, YMMV
yep, they are pretty savvy,  or at least they find savvy people to help them with their material. But so are many others.  I"m not a rookie at this and I think most feel I'm pretty good and knowledgable at it as well.

And if they are speaking of their own inks, well this thread isn't about that and certainly it may be true.  But there is absolutely no reason to agitate Epson ink cartridges every one to two weeks as they suggest.
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Jeff-Grant

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Re: Annual Maintenance on an Epson 3880
« Reply #15 on: March 28, 2015, 01:01:28 am »

yep, they are pretty savvy,  or at least they find savvy people to help them with their material. But so are many others.  I"m not a rookie at this and I think most feel I'm pretty good and knowledgable at it as well.

And if they are speaking of their own inks, well this thread isn't about that and certainly it may be true.  But there is absolutely no reason to agitate Epson ink cartridges every one to two weeks as they suggest.

Wayne, I hear you loud and clear, and I know that you are well versed in the topic. I assumed that Epson inks would be the same as the IJM, and I did not mention it until someone else had.
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JayWPage

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Re: Annual Maintenance on an Epson 3880
« Reply #16 on: March 29, 2015, 02:56:03 pm »

Thanks to everyone who posted for their suggestions.

I really didn't know what to think about taking the ink cartridges out and shaking them. It sounds like it's not worth bothering with.

Jay
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BobShaw

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Re: Annual Maintenance on an Epson 3880
« Reply #17 on: March 29, 2015, 08:36:55 pm »

If you don't print anything for 6 months or so then perhaps it's an issue and the inkjetartmall article has some merit, but really the printer has enough vibration to keep things sufficiently suspended.  If you use it so infrequently you need to shake it, you're going to have more problems than just pigments settling out.
Agree. The printer shakes the table when it prints. Using it is the best maintenance you can do.
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Some Guy

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Re: Annual Maintenance on an Epson 3880
« Reply #18 on: March 29, 2015, 09:14:42 pm »

I believe the 3880 OEM carts use a collapsible bladder that can stir up the ink a bit whenever the printer's air pump pressurizes the carts.

The refillables don't have that bladder, just a plain tank, so ink could settle and maybe why IJM recommends shaking them a bit.  I have some old ink in bottles and can see the separation line in those.  Good shake and they seem as good as new, but who knows?  Some clump may get in the line and then what becomes of the head if the dampner doesn't filter it?  Rocking the printer may work well enough.

SG
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