bsprague Loc: Lacey, WA, USA

That may be true for some printers. I've bought two Canon Pro-100 printers in the last 4 years and they both came with a full set of standard ink cartridges. The boxing, labeling and part numbers are exactly the same as the retail replacements.

I bought an Epson all-in-one. It came with small tanks. When I buy replacements, there is a choice between "small" and "large".

I bought a Brother laser printer. Like the Epson, it came with a "small" toner cartridge. Replacements come in two sizes.

A retailer may not be able to determine with brands and which models have partial tanks and which do not.

fetzler Loc: North West PA

If you can clean the heads with a bit of water and isopropanol then OK. Otherwise just get a new one.

Acountry330 Loc: Dothan,Ala USA

Why not just get another cheap printer. This will probably save time and money. Happy Printing.

jeep_daddy Loc: Prescott AZ

Many 4-1 printers can be had new or refurbished cheap. I'd just get a new one.

The Watcher

What you are describing is usually the paper coming in contact with the printer head. This often happens with thicker stiffer paper and the marks are usually at the bottom of the sheet. When the thicker paper leaves the back rollers it can jump up and hit the printhead due to its stiffness. You can stop this by making sure the front paper tray is supporting the weight of the paper. Or you might even have to add more tension to the paper by lifting it a little more, so it doesn't bounce up when it comes out of the rear rollers. If the marks and smears are elsewhere on the paper, they are likely caused by thick wet ink that contacted a rubbing surface as the paper exited the printer. Under that assumption your problem would start with a smear at the bottom of the sheet and the next sheet would have vertical ink lines and maybe another smear at the bottom.

Another thing to consider is the paper profile. They tell the printer where to set the head for different thicknesses of paper.

An example would be; Epson glossy paper @ 8.1 mil.
Epson Premium glossy @ 10.4 mil.
Epson Ultra Premium glossy @ 11.8 mil.

Say you have been printing documents and now want to do a photo. Without the proper profile, the colors could be off and the thicker photo paper could come in contact with the head.

rook2c4 Loc: Philadelphia, PA USA

From my experience, definitely true with the very cheapest printers.

appealnow Loc: Dallas, Texas

The manufacturers sell the printers for practically nothing; the business model is to make their money on the toner and ink cartridges. If cleaning doesn't work, buy new.

bdk Loc: Sanibel Fl.

My old epson, I had the same problems before it died. I took the cover off, and used aquarium tubing, attached it over the little jet holes and ran alcohol thru them.
Then cleaned everything else with alcohol. Then printed a few pages to get rid of all the excess ink and alcohol and it worked fine.
then about a month later it completely died. oh well.

ecurb1105

Junk it and get an HP or Canon. After my experience with an Epson C66, I vowed never to buy another Epson printer.

cambriaman Loc: Central CA Coast

A new printer is in order here, I am sure you will agree after you seriously consider the costs of straightening out your Epson.

John_F Loc: Minneapolis, MN

Epson printers come with a utility app where you can run clean heads. If you can get access to the business side of the print head you might be able sop up any excess ink globs. I was never able to figure out how to do that.

The Watcher

Here's one hard core method used to clean an Epson printhead.

Open up the printer so that you can watch the printhead.

Turn the printer on or if it’s already on wait for the head to move from its docking area. When the head moves into the center, kill all power to the printer.

This should make it where you can slide the print head by hand. Now move the printhead back into the docking area. Cut a paper towel in thirds and fold one into a long narrow strip, the width of the area below the print head when it’s printing. Lay the strip in the tray and carefully see if the printhead will pass over it. You may have to cut back on the folds. When the printhead can pass over the towel freely move the head back into the docking position. Now with an eyedropper apply window cleaner with Ammonia to the length of the towel. Move the head to the center of the towel. Get a hold of both ends of the towel and lift it where it’s in full contact with the head. Now slide the towel back and forth over the head about ten times. Move the head to the docking area and remove the towel. Place another towel in the tray and move the head over it. Don’t apply cleaner to the towel. Lift the towel as before and carefully blot the ink from the head, no sliding. Return the head to the docking area. Remove the towel; close the lid and power up the printer.

The printer will do an ink purge and the head will make several trips across the printing area. This is the printer cleaning the head with a pop-up rubber wiper just to the left of the docking station.

Run a nozzle check and see how it looks.

Lundberg02

Junk it and get an Epson 1430.

John_F Loc: Minneapolis, MN

That's one dynamite idea. Thanks Watcher.

10MPlayer Loc: California

If you imagine yourself a printer repair tech how much would you need to charge to make a living. So if you live in California as I do you pay your federal income tax, your state income tax, social security tax, Medicare tax etc. When you're done you pay about 50%. So double whatever you need to "make your nut" to figure out what you need to live on. If you want to be in the middle of middle class in California you need $100K. So figure you need $200K gross income to make your nut.

How many $104 printers would you have to repair to make $200,000 gross income? Say you charged $25 to fix one. That's only a mere 8000 printers. Hmmm. So if you repair 40 printers a day and you charge $25 each you can make your nut. (40 printers x 200 days work /year = 8000 repaired. Kind of sounds like a pipe dream. Maybe if a guy was willing to work for $20,000 a year and live in a single wide trailer and ride a bike wherever he went he could live on that kind of money but not here in CA.

What I'm getting at is that it's not worth the time and money to fix a cheap printer. Better to pop for a brand spanking new one every 5 years. Helps the Chinese economy.