[tonyptony]

I've been using Epson Photo dye inkjet printers for years and have been pretty pleased. But my printing now is only occasional (maybe half a dozen times per year), and at this low rate I've been running more and more often into the clogged nozzle problem. Cleaning takes care of it, but at the rate I print I've been finding I wind up wasting as much or more ink on cleaning rather than printing. The time has come for me to look for a printer that works better for my use.

I know that if I do a print every week etc I can keep this from cropping up, but I'd rather find a very good photo quality printer that will work whenever I decide to turn it on. Does such a thing exist?

Just to keep the flaming down, I have loved using my Epsons over the years and have never been disappointed with the output. But with watermarking to take care of the electronic distribution and the ease with which images can be shown nowadays (I do most of my displaying on DLNA compliant calibrated plasma monitors) I just don't print that often. Having said that I'd rather have the ability to do this at home instead of using a service.

[Wind Chaser]

IMO ink Jets are too costly to operate, you're better off having a 'lab' handle the printing, but since you want to 'do it' home, I'm guessing HP might be a better bet since the print head is built into the cartridge.  For the record, I never had problems with any of the HP printers I've owned, except for the cost of printing.

Another thing about HP cartridges, they have expiry dates.  I asked a manager at Staples why that is; he told me that unlike milk, the ink doesn't go bad, but that the cartridge shuts down upon expiry.

[srb]

Another thing about HP cartridges, they have expiry dates.  I asked a manager at Staples why that is; he told me that unlike milk, the ink doesn't go bad, but that the cartridge shuts down upon expiry.

That's basically untrue (yes they have expire dates, but there isn't a mechanism that makes them shut down).  Just like foods have expiration dates, that doesn't mean it automatically goes bad after that date.  All inks can start to coagulate after a number of years.  I have some HP cartridges I'm using that are about 2 years past their expiration date.
 
Steve

[Wind Chaser]

...there isn't a mechanism that makes them shut down....

Besides there would have to be a clock built into the cartridge for that to happen. You'd think based on the cost of these things, they could include a nice little travel alarm or something.

Ink jets are such a turn off, imagine buying a Dodge Ram that would only run on Dodge Ram fuel. 

[srb]

Besides there would have to be a clock built into the cartridge for that to happen. You'd think based on the cost of these things, they could include a nice little travel alarm or something.

Ink jets are such a turn off, imagine buying a Dodge Ram that would only run on Dodge Ram fuel.

If they wanted to do it, they could have expiration date data on a magnetic strip or such that could be read by circuitry in the printer, but why bother?  The expiration date on the package serves to:
- Let you know that the ink could start to change viscosity
- If you have several with different dates, let you figure out which one to use next
- And of course the manufacturer can only hope you'll throw it away and buy another!
 
As far as proprietary ink cartridges, unwilling to give up on my old HP Deskjet 930C printer, I have recently tried some remanufactured cartridges (less than a third of the retail price).  I would probably only try this with an all-in-one cartridge with integral print head, to avoid the possibility of clogging separate print heads with substandard ink.  So far the couple I have tried work fine, but other people have had mixed results with remanufactured cartridges.
 
On the plus side, the remanufactured cartridge shell is recycled, and the vendor sends along a prepaid mailer to return the empty one.
 
Steve

[tonyptony]

IMO ink Jets are too costly to operate, you're better off having a 'lab' handle the printing, but since you want to 'do it' home, I'm guessing HP might be a better bet since the print head is built into the cartridge.

Oh I agree with you completely. Even more so if it's not used that often and you wind up bleeding off a ton of ink just to clear the heads But I do like being able to occasionally shoot off a print of one of my images to send to my non-connected friends and relatives or put into a frame.

The HPs defintely have an advantage in this area. I've looked them over online but I'm not suer which is the best quality for the dollar.

[srb]

Oh I agree with you completely. Even more so if it's not used that often and you wind up bleeding off a ton of ink just to clear the heads But I do like being able to occasionally shoot off a print of one of my images to send to my non-connected friends and relatives or put into a frame.

I have a "cleaning" document saved that consists of half a dozen lines of text followed by 3 small filled rectangles of ink colors (for my printer, 3 colors - Cyan, Yellow & Magenta).
 
Then I print it once a week or so.  It's minimal ink use, but enough to keep the print heads clean without using the large quantity of ink that might be consumed in a cleaning or priming procedure.
 
Steve

[tonyptony]

Steve, yes that's the standard upkeep for the Epsons. Did that for years but I was also printing more often back then. With long stretches between printing jobs nowadays - and just being busier in general - I often find weeks go by before I remember that I'm supposed to keep doing that. My time is up with that sort of care and feeding.

[WerTicus]

i was looking into a new wide format printer the canon ipf5100 and one of the features it has is that you don't turn it off at all, it only draws 2w to idle and it will do a head clean every day but not an ordinary half your ink gone clean but a special very tiny amount of ink clean fractions of a ml.

according to reviews this printer is amazingly efficient with ink by doing it this way. Never needs checking, and is always ready to go.

Beats the Epson method of checking heads before a print job and finding a major block and needing to to a major clean that uses 2ml or more of ink.

maybe this feature is on smaller printers now....