Which printer brand clogs least?

I know there are a lot of Epson users in this forum, but my Epson

seems to have clogged heads all the time.

 

Is this a problem mainly with Epsons? Or do all the inkjet printers

clog up like this. I'd be interested in hearing from Canon and HP

photo printer users.

 

(Notes: I'm a home user, using an older Epson Stylus Photo 780 with

Epson inks and Epson paper. I print batches of photos a couple of

times a month. I know my lack of constant use has something to do

with the clogs, but that's why this is an issue for me.)

 

Jim

Jim, The newer Epsons are less prone to this problem provided that you switch them off when not in use. We have an 820 which gets sporadic use and does not clog. I am sure that other recent models are also OK.

Epsons still seem to clog more than other <u>top</u> brand printers. <p>

 

All printers will clog more often when not used daily. <p>

 

All printers will clog more often in dry environments. In the winter, humidity levels

can drop to as low as 5% -- drier than many deserts -- and definitely benefit from

having a humidifier run 24 hours/day where the printer is situated.

As long as Epson continues to use piezo printhead it will be more

likely to clog than thermo bubble jet printhead. Thermo bubble jet

printhead produces ink droplet by heating the ink which produces much

greater force to push the ink droplet out of the nozzle toward the

paper. Piezo printhead on the other hand produces ink droplet by

electrostatic force which is much smaller. As a result the head is

more likely to clog. Just imagine that if the ink is partially dried

and becomes heavier. It becomes too heavy to be forced out of the nozzle

by the electrostatic force. The consequence is head clogging.

I have 2 clogged Epson Stylus printers that are now useless. I have an HP that gets

used very sporadically, and I've never had a problem. All were used with manufacturer

brand inks.

My previous 2 inkjet printers were Epsons and they both gave me fits with their tendency to clog-up (and I never used anything other than Epson inks)! One of them, a Stylus 800 clogged up so badly, nothing I tried (including the infamous Windex method) would unclog it. So I finally decided to go with Canon (an i950) and I have not had any problems whatsoever in the 6 months I've owned it.

I've had zero head clogging and have run zero cleaning cycles on my Canon S9000 (1-1/2 years) and i950 (six months). Both are used sporadically (can go weeks at a time between uses; absolutely no problems.

I replaced my Epson 820 with a Canon i9100 and have no clogging problems yet, two

months with 2-3 times per week usage. The Epson 820 where I work gets daily use

and still clogs frequently.

I have owned, I think, five Epson inkjet printers and they all clogged. I went through so many Epson printers that I can't remember now if there were four or five. Each printer was a replacement for a previous Epson printer that clogged. Some were replaced under warranty. I never used anything but Epson inks.

 

I've had an HP 5550 for nearly 16 months. So far it hasn't clogged and I have never needed to run a cleaning cycle. It gets such light use that I haven't replaced any ink cartridges yet. Sometimes, after a few weeks of no use, it will automatically print a test page when I turn it on or swap the photo-ink cartridge. This is annoying if I have already inserted a sheet of photo-quality paper, so now I make sure the printer is loaded with plain paper if I think it's going to automatically print a test page after weeks of idle time.

 

I have never owned a Canon-branded printer, although years ago I had a couple of Apple-branded inkjet printers (StyleWriter and StyleWriter II) that I think were made by Canon. They never clogged.

 

The only Epson printer I've owned that never clogged was an MX-80 purchased in 1981. But it was a dot-matrix printer, so it used ribbons instead of inkjets.

 

Just my two cents...

I've an Epson 1200, and it's been a continous frustrating struggle against clogging. With the time spent on declogging it, I could have

easily bought another printer.

In general the print engines change enough with each major revision that you can't know how good or bad they are about clogging between models. Epson printers do clog, but if you use them often enough it's not severe and tends to be quick to fix. Within Epson where my experience lies some printers are better than others in this matter. I dealt witht the 780 since it first came out and it was a love/hate relationship. It may have had great photo output but the design flaws in it were maddening.

 

In general on an Epson printer if you can't use it for more than a couple weeks, you should try to print just a little like some web pages. You don't need to print a glossy photo just to keep the ink flowing. The piezo print heads of Epson printers are both their primary benefactor and their nemesis. In general the mid-high range Epson printers seem to be a little bit better about not getting clogs and getting rid of them. But as always, the sooner you remove a clog the easier it will be to get out. In one extreme case I have seen a long-neglected floor model c82 develop clogs that became permanent.

 

As for Canon and HP, HP replaces the print head with every cartridge so they don't bother making a process to recover it really, Canon I hear differing things on exactly how much they do or do not have a functioning cleaning cycle.

My Epson 1200 must be the outlier here; I print sporadically - sometimes not for several months - and it rarely clogs. I do turn it off between sessions. On the rare times when the head check shows skips, one cleaning cycle cures it. I used two cartridges of MIS ink a couple of years ago, but the rest have been Epson. No problem going into or out of MIS.

Jim

My Canon S520 never clogs. Ever. My Epson 2200, on the other hand, does on occasion. Software is also rather sketchy for the latter.

 

But of course the Epson does far superior prints.

 

DI

".... But of course the Epson (2200) does far superior prints (than the Canon S520)".

 

David: As you must realize, that's trully an unfair comparison! The S520 is readily available for under $100, whereas one would be hard pressed to find a new Epson 2200 for under $625. If you want to compare the Epson 2200 to a Canon printer, try it against the $425 i9100. ;)

While the Epson 2200 does offer the archival benefits of pigmented inks, I don't find its color-prints nearly as vivid as those from a Canon i950 or i9100.

My Epson Stylus Photo 820 clogs repeatedly, so much so that I'm about ready to drop

kick it through the goalposts of life. My HP never clogs.

What else is there to say?

I use the least expensive brand that I can get. I experimented with alot of techneques before I found something that would work. I found that if I inject a milileter of walmart window cleaner into each chamber befor I install the cartridge. Then they rarely clog.

 

John