Grimaldi

A few years ago, I purchased a Canon Pro 1000 printer. Soon, it became evident that the printer was best at transferring ink from the cartridges to the maintenance container under the guise of "head cleaning" at rather noticeable expense. Finally, the paper pick-up became completely unreliable and no amount of roller cleaning would remedy that failure. In response, I gave up on that printer as an expensive lesson learned and, two years ago, bought an Epson P900. I am delighted with the performance of this machine. It has scarcely wasted a drop of ink in head cleaning and is reliable and economical. Also, it has sat unused for weeks at a time and I've had no problem with clogged jets.

An acquaintance had exactly the opposite experience. He owned an Epson P900 which was best at wasting ink. He gave up on that printer and bought a Canon Pro 1000 and is delighted with it. His does not waste ink. Additionally, I know a lady who owns a P900 and, while I don't know how much ink it uses to clean the heads, she complains consistently about ink blotting along the edges of her prints.

Finally, there is an organization that has a "print lab" containing several P900s. These are used heavily for brief periods of time and then sit idle for long periods. At least during the times they are used, there is no excessive head cleaning. It needs to be noted that this organization has established a practice of placing violin humidifiers in their printers when they are off.

My take-away from all this is that both companies have problems with quality consistency and, the performance of any given printer is a random function. My purpose in writing this post is to survey the readers of this page concerning their experience with these printers. Who among you have had problems or successes with either or both of them?

It must be noted that all these printers are located within about a 20 mile radius in a high elevation, low humidity environment. While I have purchased a violin humidifier, I do not use it because:
a. I haven't found it necessary.
b. They must be wetted and replaced every 2-3 days and my memory isn't that reliable.
c. I you turn the machine on with the humidifier in it, damage may result.
However, the use of a humidifier should alleviate any clogging problems.

Sidwalkastronomy Loc: New Jersey Shore

I bought an Epson ET8550 and in 7 months I had 5 yes 5 machines replaced by Epson due to ink smearing all o er. I bought it to have 11x14 prints and the only way to keep ink from going all over is to print with a white border and not borderless. Each time had a ridiculously long phone sessions with just trying to wear me down.

bsprague Loc: Lacey, WA, USA

I have had a Canon Pro 100 since they were introduced. It has been wonderful. There has been no trouble and the prints are fantastic.

Jrhoffman75 Loc: Conway, New Hampshire

That has also been my experience with the Pro-100.

David Martin Loc: Cary, NC

Ditto. Still going strong 8 years later.

jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

I suspect that printer companies make printers but don't actually use what they make.

Shellback Loc: North of Cheyenne Bottoms Wetlands - Kansas

I gave up on ink photo printers - tried them all - Canon, Epson, HP, Brother, and Kodak - they're all either high maintenance and high cost or just plain garbage. I don't print enough anymore to justify a color laser so I have all my work printed by print shops and save the headaches - plus, the options they offer are awesome - I have not been disappointed yet...

Picture Taker Loc: Michigan Thumb

IO had a Canon Pro 1000 with a cleaning problem (it eate up ink and filled the junk ink box) and Canon replaced it (under warranty) and it's been great now for several years. Love the quality and the machine.

cjc2 Loc: Hellertown PA

Knock on wood, my Epson P800 has been good to me. I absolutely DO NOT print to the edges of the paper, leaving a .12" border on all sides. I also TRY to remember to print one or two images a week, minimum. Best of luck.

colinc1 Loc: Goleta, California

I have had a Pro-100 for about 5 years now. Sits idle for weeks on end and when powered up works perfectly every time. No problem ever with clogged print head.

MJPerini

The truth is professional level pigment ink Printers thrive on use, and need to be used regularly.
I use mostly Epson printers, and for the last several years the Epson 5000 11 ink 10 channel printer.
The print quality is the best I have ever seen. As I have begun to use it less, I have also experienced clogged heads, in some cases bad enough to need the power cleaning cycle ,which does use lots of ink.
That didn't happen when I used it more.
But the quality I get and the ability to tweak prints exactly as I want them is also a huge benefit.
So if you do not print regularly, you may be better off working with a lab you like, because no one has yet been able to make a pigment printer that does not clog. Dye based printers suffer less from the problem, but Pigment on paper is at this time about the best quality available.
No one LIKES wasting ink, but since all large ink tanks are remote and feed the print head through tubes and each of the ten channels in my printer has a separate hose, all the ink in the ink tubes would have to be purged if you wanted to use head cleaning fluid to clean the head , then those tubes would have to be refilled with ink in order to print. I wish that weren't so, but until someone invents a better way, it is what we have.
I look at it as a cost of making the best prints I have ever made. So far it has been worth it to me. If I continue to print less it may no longer be worth it to me.
I have found if I can make about one good sized print or more a week I don't get clogs (in winter I humidify my print room) but life does sometimes 'get in the way' of proper printer maintenance........

amfoto1 Loc: San Jose, Calif. USA

Comedian/Engineer Don McMillan complains that printer ink is ridiculously expensive... twice as expensive as human blood! He says he now uses an IV to print with his own blood, using three cartridges: A, B and O.

You might think it's awfully expensive too... But there ARE liquids that cost MORE than printer ink, which is around $3000 a gallon:

- Insulin is NO LONGER one of them, but it was for a while. Vials that formerly cost $25 in the US suddenly rose to $350 ($9400 gal.), strongly suspected to be due to market manipulation by suppliers. After a lot of government pressure and threat of price controls, the price is back down to $35 a vial.

- Chanel #5 perfume: $26,000 per gal.

- Horseshoe crab blood (used to test medical products purity): $60,000 gal.

- King cobra venom (used to produce a pain killer, 20X stronger than morphine): $153,000 gal.

- Scorpion venom (also used to produce a pain killer, esp. for MS and arthritis): $39,000,000 gal.

So, next time you need to buy ink for your printer, keep this in mind to help alleviate the sticker shock.

coolhanduke Loc: Redondo Beach, CA

I have owned more printers than you can count. My findings are that unless you buy a "pro" version you are going to experience issues, especially if you do or don't use it a lot.

One of the biggest problems is the head clogs if you don't use it enough. You need to run head checks to keep the heads from drying out and inturn, use ink needlessly.

Most of the printers on the market are "throw aways". Once they break it costs more to fix so just throw it away.

Unless you are using your printer to make money with your work, I highly recommend trying to find an on-line service for your printing needs.

I am fortunate to have Paul's Photo near by that I sold my lab to years ago. They still use a silver halide printer and have top of the line wide format pricing capability.

Good luck!

Amadeus Loc: New York

Ditto that!

Sidwalkastronomy Loc: New Jersey Shore

My Epson et8550 has been a problem since day 1. Due to unexpected back injury the printer has sat idel for 3 months. Hope the nozzles can be cleaned if I do a head cleaner process.
This prints 11x14 but forget about borderless. It over prints and the ink goes into mat and eventually gets all over the prints