Replace my 4900 with a 3880?

[Ned Bunnell]

Greetings, long time reader of this forum but I just registered and this is my first post. I’m hoping to get some advice on what to do with my Epson 4900.

I had a 4000 for years but didn’t experience the clogging problems that I’m having with the 4900. Being retired now, I’m taking more trips and therefore do not use the 4900 all the time. In many cases, it will sit for a month or more. Then when I come back home I’ll want to make quite a few prints. Normal cleaning never seems to unclog the heads and I have to resort to power cleaning (in some cases multiple times) which as we know drains the ink tanks and fills my maintenance tank. I’ve printed only 600 pages in just over a year and have already filled two and a half maintenance tanks.

Epson support has been as helpful as they probably can be. On a call this week they agreed to send me three ink tanks and a new maintenance tank.

However, I read that the 4900 is really intended to be a production printer and needs to be used all the time. Since I will continue to print sporadically, I’m thinking I should replace the 4900 with the 3880. I’m no longer using roll paper and typically print on 13x19” and 17x22” cut sheet paper.

Obviously I don’t want to make this switch if it turns out that the 3880 also has a clogging problem from non-use. I’m hoping someone here can share their experience with the 3880.

Thanks very much for any feedback you folks can offer.

Cheers,
Ned Bunnell

[Jim Kasson]

I had a 3880 before I "upgraded" to the 4900. Its lack of clogging was exemplary. I can't say that about the 4900.

Jim

[Alan Goldhammer]

Ned,

I think replacing with a 3880 is the way to go.  I print sporadically on my 3880 and have had it for almost three years now.  I've never had a single clog.  Longest sitting time was 3 months.

Alan

[Ned Bunnell]

Thanks Jim, very nice to hear this about the 3880. Just curious did you "upgrade" for the roll paper capability of the 4900?

Ned

[Ned Bunnell]

Alan,

Thanks! Based on our having similar usage patterns, it definitely sounds like the 3880 will be a far better choice for me.

Ned

[Jim Kasson]

Thanks Jim, very nice to hear this about the 3880. Just curious did you "upgrade" for the roll paper capability of the 4900?

Nope, for the better paper handling, for the extra colors, and for the big ink carts.

Jim

[Leszek Piotrowski]

I've had my 3880 for a year and a half and print sporadically,  with the longest time between use of 2 months. No clogs experienced to date. I also keep my 3880 powered down when not in use. I also keep it covered when not in use.

Les

[dseelig]

I had a 3880 it died in 2 1/2 years if you live in  a dry climate or overly wet climate get a canon printer . MY epson had a stuck valve and a blown head. Epson refused to do anything by me even after meeting with them at PHoto Plus stay away far away from Epson. Mine you I have ownd a epson 7600 it draink ink like a vampire a 2400 a 1900 and the 3880. I now own a hp z3100 great on ink and a canon pixma pro 1 and 100

[Some Guy]

I have two 3880's:  One for K7 ink and the other is dye ink for metallic and more vibrant color.

I try and run a nozzle check every week with them.  I also keep them under a vinyl cover too as I'm in a very dry climate with A/C which sucks the humidity out of the air and I will get a clog if I don't run them weekly.  If you live in high humidity area, it may rarely clog.  I'll also pull the tanks and agitate them at least once a month, preferably twice to keep them from separating out.

I'm somewhat leery of papers over 300gsm with them.  I had a very bad head strike and no doubt it caused some carriage damage.  The paper used is known to have a bad edge curl and when it hit, it actually shoved the paper sideways and I suspect that broke a plastic tab in the carriage assembly (The print head's carriage is in two pieces and the inner one slides up and down via two cams to set the height off the paper.).  Bad part is if one tab breaks, the head can tilt and it is then more likely to encounter another strike (and setting the head/platen distance will not matter as the head is now crooked in the inner carriage!) and do more damage.  Eventually the second plastic tab broke and the head began dragging across the paper leading to a very bad mess.  They sell the carriage unit out of China for $75, but it is a total pain to install.  Always set Wider than you suspect (Round "up" for paper thickness distance.).

When they work they are a nice printer though.  Having tore deep into mine to fix, I have a lot more respect for the designers who built it, although it is a total pain to fix when it does break.

SG

[tsjanik]

Ned:

I have a 4900 which is used very infrequently.  I've had many minor clogs which eventually cleared.  I had one major problem which caused me to try cleaning solutions which are placed in the head docking station.  It worked for me and I have been largely clog free since.  I used AIS cleaning solution, which is inexpensive.  I suspect others work as well.  Here's the link:

http://www.americaninkjetsystems2.com/store1/cleaning_fluid_for_all_inkjet_printers.html

I also used the service program for cleaning procedures not accessible from the Epson supplied software.  This may not be necessary, but it's cheap.

http://www.2manuals.com/product_info.php?products_id=1365

Good luck,

Tom

[free1000]

My 3800 has become very clogged and I've been considering a 4900 or a 3880 as a replacement

The reason I'm looking at the 4900 is that I've found my 3800 cannot print an A2 or A2+ sheet exactly straight.

This might influence the OP's decision to make this downward move.

Most of the life of my 3800 I've printed A3 or A3+, but I'm now embarking on more exhibition printing so its frustrating that at the first point I needed the A2 performance it isn't there.

At first I thought it was because I was making borderless prints, but on closer inspection I found that all A2 prints and A2+ prints are skewed 1-2 mm. A small but significant problem for the person mounting the prints, especially if making borderless styles of frame.

I did have an Epson 4xxx (forget which) before the 3800 and I would ideally have loved to just keep a 3xxx series printer as it has a number of advantages, but this skewing appears to be a common problem that has no reproducible solution and there are no design changes to fix this on the 3880 the same problem exists. One blogger suggested making a stout support for the left edge of the paper which I did from 5mm millboard, but in my case this did not cure the problem.

Does anyone have any experience with printing A2 or greater, e.g.: 17" wide sheets on the 4900 and know if it can handle large sheets without skew?

Can it do good borderless prints.

I have about 6 rolls of paper from my 4xxx days so there's a financial positive to getting a 4900 as well as I'd get free proofing for few hundred prints.
 

[alain]

My 3800 has become very clogged and I've been considering a 4900 or a 3880 as a replacement

The reason I'm looking at the 4900 is that I've found my 3800 cannot print an A2 or A2+ sheet exactly straight.

This might influence the OP's decision to make this downward move.

Most of the life of my 3800 I've printed A3 or A3+, but I'm now embarking on more exhibition printing so its frustrating that at the first point I needed the A2 performance it isn't there.

At first I thought it was because I was making borderless prints, but on closer inspection I found that all A2 prints and A2+ prints are skewed 1-2 mm. A small but significant problem for the person mounting the prints, especially if making borderless styles of frame.

I did have an Epson 4xxx (forget which) before the 3800 and I would ideally have loved to just keep a 3xxx series printer as it has a number of advantages, but this skewing appears to be a common problem that has no reproducible solution and there are no design changes to fix this on the 3880 the same problem exists. One blogger suggested making a stout support for the left edge of the paper which I did from 5mm millboard, but in my case this did not cure the problem.

Does anyone have any experience with printing A2 or greater, e.g.: 17" wide sheets on the 4900 and know if it can handle large sheets without skew?

Can it do good borderless prints.

I have about 6 rolls of paper from my 4xxx days so there's a financial positive to getting a 4900 as well as I'd get free proofing for few hundred prints.
 

There's a small plastic "stop" for the paper on the right side of the first "transarant" paper support (on the back).  On my 3800 it's a little bit to the right, adding 1mm plastic (removable to be able to close the "stop") fixed that.  I have now less than 1mm skew on 94cm prints.
Keeping the one roller very clean is also a help (in the bottom off the back feeder), this one pulls the paper.
   

[Stefan Ohlsson]

I also used the service program for cleaning procedures not accessible from the Epson supplied software.  This may not be necessary, but it's cheap.

http://www.2manuals.com/product_info.php?products_id=1365

This service program has helped us several times. A friend of mine had a printer where almost all nozzles had clogged. It took some work, but we managed to get rid of all the clogged nozzles and it is still printing OK.
The reason for the clogs were that the printer had been standing still for a couple of months during the winter. As the room had an extremely low humidity, the nozzles dried out.

[Ken Bennett]

I've been using my 3800 for about five years. I'm definitely a "sporadic" printer -- I'll go months without making a print, then make dozens in a weekend.

I've had only two major clogs, both of them when I left the printer turned on for more than a week without printing. As long as I turn it off, I don't have any problems with it.

[Jim Kasson]

Does anyone have any experience with printing A2 or greater, e.g.: 17" wide sheets on the 4900 and know if it can handle large sheets without skew?

I've never had a problem with skew on C-size sheets with the 4900, and that is my preferred output size.

Jim

[free1000]

There's a small plastic "stop" for the paper on the right side of the first "transarant" paper support (on the back).  On my 3800 it's a little bit to the right, adding 1mm plastic (removable to be able to close the "stop") fixed that.  I have now less than 1mm skew on 94cm prints.
Keeping the one roller very clean is also a help (in the bottom off the back feeder), this one pulls the paper.
   

Thank you, I'll have a look into that.

[Some Guy]

There's a small plastic "stop" for the paper on the right side of the first "transarant" paper support (on the back).  On my 3800 it's a little bit to the right, adding 1mm plastic (removable to be able to close the "stop") fixed that.  I have now less than 1mm skew on 94cm prints.
Keeping the one roller very clean is also a help (in the bottom off the back feeder), this one pulls the paper.
   

I've made the same modification to mine as I sometime print to the max. length of 35-36 inches on the 3880.  I just squeezed a round piece of brass hobby store tubing to slip down and wrapped it with the appropriate amount of vinyl tape to minimize the lengthwise skew.  Border is very even that way, even though it is a bit of trial and error in the number of tape wraps.

I also place a plastic clothespin on the left side on the pull-up paper tray, against the left paper's edge (looking at the machine), to keep both sides aligned when it feeds.  That way the large pick-up roller cannot jerk it crooked, or away from the little plastic pull-down lever, on the feeding.

SG

[free1000]

Any chance of a cellphone snap to illustrate this? It sounds like a brass tube would increase the width of the stop a lot, so I'm probably not understanding right.

[Ned Bunnell]

Nope, for the better paper handling, for the extra colors, and for the big ink carts.

Jim

Jim,

Despite my clogging issues, your reasons are also why I like the 4900 and make me want to stick with it if I can just minimize the clogging when I don't use it.

Ned

[Ned Bunnell]

I've had my 3880 for a year and a half and print sporadically,  with the longest time between use of 2 months. No clogs experienced to date. I also keep my 3880 powered down when not in use. I also keep it covered when not in use.

Les

Les,

Thanks for your feedback. I'm near the ocean in SoCal so not in a dry climate and I keep the 4900 covered when not in use. Maybe my cure is just to print more:)

Ned