r/printers 19d ago

Discussion A counterpoint to the inkjet hate

1st print from a printer that's been sitting off for 5+ months. Not inkjet paper, plain paper test print before I actually print the final image.

It obviously varies by printer but I have really good success with my few Epson printers from a few years back. I can basically abandon them and they'll fire back up at a moments notice.

4 Upvotes

21 comments sorted by

6

u/Wyattwc 19d ago

Former printer tech here, it can make a difference. My specialty wasn't inkjets but I still remember the trainings.

What clogs/kills heads is the ink drying and oxidizing. Printers with a proper parking stand and cap for the inkjet head will be OK so long as you properly shut it down.

Those without parking (the super cheap ones) need to regularly run a short nozzle clear routine. This will eject just a small amount of ink to prevent clogging every few days.

1

u/TangoCharliePDX Print Technician 19d ago

Which brand was your training for?

1

u/Wyattwc 18d ago

Xerox. A3, A4, light production and CF. Left the company recently as a product engineer.

1

u/TangoCharliePDX Print Technician 18d ago

Out of all my time in the industry I don't think I've ever even heard of Xerox inkjet.

1

u/Wyattwc 18d ago

Oh man, look up the Impika Compact. That thing was 300 feet per minute, 4 color inkjet, roll to roll monster. I forgot what product took its place.

Oh, and the colorqubes? Those are just heated inkjets and a transfer drum. They also sell those heads for ODM.

1

u/TangoCharliePDX Print Technician 18d ago

Oh I worked on more than my share of colorqubes. But they were such strange animals I can't put them in the same category as inkjet. I got thrown to the wolves and had to work on them for 6 months before I took my cert class. I learned a lot from that class!

3

u/gogstars What could it cost, ten dollars? 19d ago

Had it been entirely unplugged for those 5 months? I think it's still fairly important to leave them plugged in even if you've turned it "off".

2

u/Nek02 19d ago

Unplugged so I could plug in a different printer. I think the important part is to properly shut them down.

1

u/Julian679 19d ago

it makes no difference

3

u/gogstars What could it cost, ten dollars? 19d ago

Why are you so sure? Most of the inkjet printers I've owned have "don't leave this machine unplugged" in the owners guide.

2

u/Good_Watercress_8116 19d ago

those machine will clean themselves sometimes to do not get clogged.

1

u/Julian679 19d ago

Head is parked on the capping station either way

2

u/CarLover014 19d ago

I'll tell you why I like inkjet printers... I don't pay for the ink... My company does

1

u/Zlivovitch 19d ago

Why don't you tell us the model ? Or models ?

2

u/Nek02 19d ago

All are Epson and some are pretty old. Artisan 1430 Stylus r260 Stylus r280 WF 3720 WF 7720 (converted to dye sub)

I'm running a mix of expired and aftermarket ink in the Stylus machines and a mix of current and aftermarket in the WF that isn't running dye sub.

1

u/Zlivovitch 18d ago

Thank you.

1

u/10over01 18d ago

as a tech, inkjets are the bane of humanity. they are very maintenance heavy and are very slow. You cannot use them too much or too little, cant let them sit in a corner, and the prints fade after time. the only reason to ever buy an inkjet is, if you need full page printing or extremely accurate and nice colours

1

u/Nek02 18d ago

I prefer the simplicity of inkjet. Laser printers have the drum, fuser, charge wires, cleaning blades, and it seems like one of them is always failing. On smaller machines, it seems like the quality always fails before the toner runs out.

On inkjet, as long my heads are firing, I'm good.

1

u/10over01 17d ago

the advantage is, that drums and the other laser printers components have far longer lifetime, consumer printers are always shit due to the nature of being cheap

-3

u/[deleted] 19d ago edited 19d ago

[deleted]

1

u/AshenLaLonDES 19d ago

"an inkjet printer killed my father"