Epson clogging and weather

I bought an Epson 810 (820 in US) a month ago. I had read about the clogging issue, but my general impression was that this problem mainly seemed to affect people living in hot climates, and who used the printer infrequently.

In London on Saturday, it was unusually warm (90F) and my printer clogged even though I had been using it heavily in the past week. I ran three head cleaning cycles, before giving up for the day. However, on Sunday (temperature had dropped back to 80F) I ran a nozzle check and everything was back to normal without a head cleaning cycle.

I wouldn't have expected clogged printing heads to unclog themselves, so I was wondering if it was the case that the printer heads just didn't operate very well at above average temperatures? Anyone else with similar experiences?

I'm not fretting too much anyway, because we don't often see 90F in London

--
http://www.pbase.com/nw

nw said:

I bought an Epson 810 (820 in US) a month ago. I had read about the
clogging issue, but my general impression was that this problem
mainly seemed to affect people living in hot climates, and who used
the printer infrequently.

In London on Saturday, it was unusually warm (90F) and my printer
clogged even though I had been using it heavily in the past week. I
ran three head cleaning cycles, before giving up for the day.
However, on Sunday (temperature had dropped back to 80F) I ran a
nozzle check and everything was back to normal without a head
cleaning cycle.

I wouldn't have expected clogged printing heads to unclog
themselves, so I was wondering if it was the case that the printer
heads just didn't operate very well at above average temperatures?
Anyone else with similar experiences?

Click to expand...

Hello nw

I have an Epson 700 - getting rather tired now after 4 years hard work so we bought an Epson 890.

The 700 used to clog and even after 3- 4 cleanings it still didn't clear. Often I would then shut it down, say a few coice phrases you couldn't repeat to your grandma, and the next morning after startup it was OK. Can't explain it at all. However, it's now not reliable for photo colour as the heads are worn and it was more economical to replace it. It's still fine for text and rough colour work.

Hope this assists

JayO

nw said:

I'm not fretting too much anyway, because we don't often see 90F in
London

--
http://www.pbase.com/nw

Click to expand...

--
JayO

I believe this is a real issue even though Epson support doens't.

The room I use for my studio in my home has a westerly exposure and this summer with the heat waves here in Toronto, the room in the late day can easily go to 27-28C even with A/C running. I have had nothing but problems with my Epson printers and the Black ink clogging, even during a print job. 3-5 cleanings don't help. I sent one printer back to Epson under warrantee and it was replaced with a new but after not even going through the orginal inks, the black clogged on one hot and humid night. I think the inks are drying too fast as a result of the heat and cloggin the heads. After a cool down, the printer usually works fine. I don't know if this happens to the 2200 or not.

Don

nw said:

I bought an Epson 810 (820 in US) a month ago. I had read about the
clogging issue, but my general impression was that this problem
mainly seemed to affect people living in hot climates, and who used
the printer infrequently.

In London on Saturday, it was unusually warm (90F) and my printer
clogged even though I had been using it heavily in the past week. I
ran three head cleaning cycles, before giving up for the day.
However, on Sunday (temperature had dropped back to 80F) I ran a
nozzle check and everything was back to normal without a head
cleaning cycle.

I wouldn't have expected clogged printing heads to unclog
themselves, so I was wondering if it was the case that the printer
heads just didn't operate very well at above average temperatures?
Anyone else with similar experiences?

I'm not fretting too much anyway, because we don't often see 90F in
London

--
http://www.pbase.com/nw

Click to expand...

It was also the black inks that clogged up the worst on my printer, although the colours weren't perfect either.

Don Crawford said:

I believe this is a real issue even though Epson support doens't.

The room I use for my studio in my home has a westerly exposure and
this summer with the heat waves here in Toronto, the room in the
late day can easily go to 27-28C even with A/C running. I have had
nothing but problems with my Epson printers and the Black ink
clogging, even during a print job. 3-5 cleanings don't help. I sent
one printer back to Epson under warrantee and it was replaced with
a new but after not even going through the orginal inks, the black
clogged on one hot and humid night. I think the inks are drying too
fast as a result of the heat and cloggin the heads. After a cool
down, the printer usually works fine. I don't know if this happens
to the 2200 or not.

Click to expand...

How do you tell when your printhead is clogged??

Does that mean those living in a hot country(I am a Malaysian) shouldn't get an Epson? Temperature here is always above 30c. Day time usually 33c...

Don Crawford said:

The room I use for my studio in my home has a westerly exposure and
this summer with the heat waves here in Toronto, the room in the
late day can easily go to 27-28C even with A/C running. I have had
nothing but problems with my Epson printers and the Black ink
clogging, even during a print job. 3-5 cleanings don't help. I sent
one printer back to Epson under warrantee and it was replaced with
a new but after not even going through the orginal inks, the black
clogged on one hot and humid night. I think the inks are drying too
fast as a result of the heat and cloggin the heads. After a cool
down, the printer usually works fine. I don't know if this happens
to the 2200 or not.

Don

nw said:

I bought an Epson 810 (820 in US) a month ago. I had read about the
clogging issue, but my general impression was that this problem
mainly seemed to affect people living in hot climates, and who used
the printer infrequently.

In London on Saturday, it was unusually warm (90F) and my printer
clogged even though I had been using it heavily in the past week. I
ran three head cleaning cycles, before giving up for the day.
However, on Sunday (temperature had dropped back to 80F) I ran a
nozzle check and everything was back to normal without a head
cleaning cycle.

I wouldn't have expected clogged printing heads to unclog
themselves, so I was wondering if it was the case that the printer
heads just didn't operate very well at above average temperatures?
Anyone else with similar experiences?

I'm not fretting too much anyway, because we don't often see 90F in
London

--
http://www.pbase.com/nw

Click to expand...

Click to expand...

Hi,

When I first read this I thought mmmmmm but, on reflection there may be some truth in this theory.

I did a long run of colour printing on my epson about 200 A4s standard type paper and after about 50 sheets it went on the blink.

Let it cool down it was ok again and so-on, so its either the ink drying because of the heat or the minute nozzles expanding and restricting flow, nevertheless it did happen
Bryan

Don Crawford said:

The room I use for my studio in my home has a westerly exposure and
this summer with the heat waves here in Toronto, the room in the
late day can easily go to 27-28C even with A/C running. I have had
nothing but problems with my Epson printers and the Black ink
clogging, even during a print job. 3-5 cleanings don't help. I sent
one printer back to Epson under warrantee and it was replaced with
a new but after not even going through the orginal inks, the black
clogged on one hot and humid night. I think the inks are drying too
fast as a result of the heat and cloggin the heads. After a cool
down, the printer usually works fine. I don't know if this happens
to the 2200 or not.

Don

nw said:

I bought an Epson 810 (820 in US) a month ago. I had read about the
clogging issue, but my general impression was that this problem
mainly seemed to affect people living in hot climates, and who used
the printer infrequently.

In London on Saturday, it was unusually warm (90F) and my printer
clogged even though I had been using it heavily in the past week. I
ran three head cleaning cycles, before giving up for the day.
However, on Sunday (temperature had dropped back to 80F) I ran a
nozzle check and everything was back to normal without a head
cleaning cycle.

I wouldn't have expected clogged printing heads to unclog
themselves, so I was wondering if it was the case that the printer
heads just didn't operate very well at above average temperatures?
Anyone else with similar experiences?

I'm not fretting too much anyway, because we don't often see 90F in
London

--
http://www.pbase.com/nw

Click to expand...

Click to expand...

They have one thing in common - completely unpredictable!

RW

I've had an Epson 1200 for a couple of years in the UK. There seems to be a strong correlation between hot & humid weather and the heads clogging. Hot weather causes occasional problems but when the humidity goes up they become more frequent. I've no idea why.

FWIW, I've found that putting a dust cover over the printer when it's not in use helps to reduce clogs. The print heads seem to pick up dust like a magnet and these cause problems such as random ink specks on the paper as well as errors in the nozzle check pattern.

I've got into the habit of running a nozzle check pattern every time I switch the printer on. It's much cheaper than printing an A4 sized photo & discovering it's ruined by blocked nozzles. Most of the time the nozzles are OK.

Apart from it's little quirks, I've been quite pleased with my 1200 and intend getting a 2100 if they ever appear in the UK again. No doubt its pigment-based inks have different characteristics to my current dye-based 1200 inks in terms of clogging (or not).

See this page for some trouble-shooting tips re Epson printers:
http://home.att.net/~arwomack01/

Regards,

Alan Rew

nw said:

I bought an Epson 810 (820 in US) a month ago. I had read about the
clogging issue, but my general impression was that this problem
mainly seemed to affect people living in hot climates, and who used
the printer infrequently.

In London on Saturday, it was unusually warm (90F) and my printer
clogged even though I had been using it heavily in the past week. I
ran three head cleaning cycles, before giving up for the day.
However, on Sunday (temperature had dropped back to 80F) I ran a
nozzle check and everything was back to normal without a head
cleaning cycle.

I wouldn't have expected clogged printing heads to unclog
themselves, so I was wondering if it was the case that the printer
heads just didn't operate very well at above average temperatures?
Anyone else with similar experiences?

I'm not fretting too much anyway, because we don't often see 90F in
London

--
http://www.pbase.com/nw

Click to expand...

Alan Rew said:

I've had an Epson 1200 for a couple of years in the UK. There seems
to be a strong correlation between hot & humid weather and the
heads clogging. Hot weather causes occasional problems but when the
humidity goes up they become more frequent. I've no idea why.

Click to expand...

This is also my findings. Our summers here in Toronto Canada can get really hot and humid and on all days I have experienced problems the heat and humidity was very high.

I experienced the problems on 3 seperate printers this summer. The Epson 1270 and (2) 785's (less then 2 months old and replaced once under warrantee). Epson Canada insists that the enviroment has no bearing on the printer operation, but I have to disagree. I wonder if its the quick drying Archival dye inks that the printers use.

Alan Rew said:

I've got into the habit of running a nozzle check pattern every
time I switch the printer on. It's much cheaper than printing an A4
sized photo & discovering it's ruined by blocked nozzles. Most of
the time the nozzles are OK.

Click to expand...

This wouldn't help with my problem. It happens while in the middle of printing, usually after 10-15 sheets (printing proof books) and with out warning the black ink clogs. So much for unattended printing.

Don

Niel

Its Neil here. You can tell that the print head is blocked because one or more colour inks won't print, and you'll have white areas of missing detail on your photo.

I don't think the observations here are scientific enough to say that you would definitely have these problems in hot and humid conditions. I am very happy with my printer overall, but it is definitely something you need to bear in mind.

The thing that interested me is that

• Clogging in humid as opposed to dry conditions and
• Clogging mid-way through a job

both suggest that clogging isn't always an issue of ink 'drying out'.

niel said:

How do you tell when your printhead is clogged??

Does that mean those living in a hot country(I am a Malaysian)
shouldn't get an Epson? Temperature here is always above 30c. Day
time usually 33c...

Click to expand...

--
http://www.pbase.com/nw

I've found an increase in relative humidity to make my 1280 perform much better with less clogging. Location here is eastern shore of Maryland - peninsula between Chesapeake Bay and Atlantic Ocean. I was having clogging all winter long. But once the weather changed and humidity increased, the clogging has virtually disappeared.

However, I do think there IS a heat related problem. The temperature has been over 90 degrees here for about a month. My 890 prints parallel dark lines in the direction of paper travel (perpendicular to print head travel). It looks to me like the head carriage is "chattering" on the bar holding the head as it starts moving across the page. These lines only occur in the first 2" of the photo. And only when printing B&W -- if I print in color mode the lines don't appear -- the lines are only visible in mid-range grey areas, darker or lighter greys are okay.

It's always something, isn't it. Overall, I'm incredibly pleased by how well these printers work and the warranty replacement policy of Epson. Exactly what I need for printing note cards and photographic reprints for sale.

--
Richard Orban
Curator/Web Engineer for A. Aubrey Bodine website
http://www.aaubreybodine.com

nw said:

I bought an Epson 810 (820 in US) a month ago. I had read about the
clogging issue, but my general impression was that this problem
mainly seemed to affect people living in hot climates, and who used
the printer infrequently.

In London on Saturday, it was unusually warm (90F) and my printer
clogged even though I had been using it heavily in the past week. I
ran three head cleaning cycles, before giving up for the day.
However, on Sunday (temperature had dropped back to 80F) I ran a
nozzle check and everything was back to normal without a head
cleaning cycle.

I wouldn't have expected clogged printing heads to unclog
themselves, so I was wondering if it was the case that the printer
heads just didn't operate very well at above average temperatures?
Anyone else with similar experiences?

I'm not fretting too much anyway, because we don't often see 90F in
London

--
http://www.pbase.com/nw

Click to expand...

Hi All,

As I mentioned in an earlier post it could be also to do with the head getting warm through use and expanding. The nozzles are only a micron or so in dia.
Bryan

Richard Orban said:

However, I do think there IS a heat related problem. The
temperature has been over 90 degrees here for about a month. My
890 prints parallel dark lines in the direction of paper travel
(perpendicular to print head travel). It looks to me like the head
carriage is "chattering" on the bar holding the head as it starts
moving across the page. These lines only occur in the first 2" of
the photo. And only when printing B&W -- if I print in color mode
the lines don't appear -- the lines are only visible in mid-range
grey areas, darker or lighter greys are okay.

It's always something, isn't it. Overall, I'm incredibly pleased
by how well these printers work and the warranty replacement policy
of Epson. Exactly what I need for printing note cards and
photographic reprints for sale.

--
Richard Orban
Curator/Web Engineer for A. Aubrey Bodine website
http://www.aaubreybodine.com

nw said:

I bought an Epson 810 (820 in US) a month ago. I had read about the
clogging issue, but my general impression was that this problem
mainly seemed to affect people living in hot climates, and who used
the printer infrequently.

In London on Saturday, it was unusually warm (90F) and my printer
clogged even though I had been using it heavily in the past week. I
ran three head cleaning cycles, before giving up for the day.
However, on Sunday (temperature had dropped back to 80F) I ran a
nozzle check and everything was back to normal without a head
cleaning cycle.

I wouldn't have expected clogged printing heads to unclog
themselves, so I was wondering if it was the case that the printer
heads just didn't operate very well at above average temperatures?
Anyone else with similar experiences?

I'm not fretting too much anyway, because we don't often see 90F in
London

--
http://www.pbase.com/nw

Click to expand...

Click to expand...

The epson manual says that you should leave the printer off overnight if head cleaning doesn't do it, to "let the ink soften"

Steve

I don't know if I'm being a bit stupid - but I thought that Ink initially hardened if left?

Regards,
Neil.

Steve L said:

The epson manual says that you should leave the printer off
overnight if head cleaning doesn't do it, to "let the ink soften"
--------------------------------------------

Click to expand...

--
http://www.pbase.com/nw

Hi,
All you want to know about epson printers.
http://home.att.net/~arwomack01/#otherresources
Bryan

nw said:

I bought an Epson 810 (820 in US) a month ago. I had read about the
clogging issue, but my general impression was that this problem
mainly seemed to affect people living in hot climates, and who used
the printer infrequently.

In London on Saturday, it was unusually warm (90F) and my printer
clogged even though I had been using it heavily in the past week. I
ran three head cleaning cycles, before giving up for the day.
However, on Sunday (temperature had dropped back to 80F) I ran a
nozzle check and everything was back to normal without a head
cleaning cycle.

I wouldn't have expected clogged printing heads to unclog
themselves, so I was wondering if it was the case that the printer
heads just didn't operate very well at above average temperatures?
Anyone else with similar experiences?

I'm not fretting too much anyway, because we don't often see 90F in
London

--
http://www.pbase.com/nw

Click to expand...

Although I have an old faithful Epson 800, I haven't had any issues with head clogging. Living in Orlando Florida, we have an almost constant 90% humidity and rarely does the temp drop below 80 F. Maybe I'm just lucky or maybe the old inks just don't dry as quickly.

I’m defiantly interested in any clogging with the 2200, as I’m looking to purchase one this month.

JMHO Ken

nw said:

Its Neil here. You can tell that the print head is blocked because
one or more colour inks won't print, and you'll have white areas of
missing detail on your photo.

I don't think the observations here are scientific enough to say
that you would definitely have these problems in hot and humid
conditions. I am very happy with my printer overall, but it is
definitely something you need to bear in mind.

The thing that interested me is that

• Clogging in humid as opposed to dry conditions and
• Clogging mid-way through a job

both suggest that clogging isn't always an issue of ink 'drying out'.

niel said:

How do you tell when your printhead is clogged??

Does that mean those living in a hot country(I am a Malaysian)
shouldn't get an Epson? Temperature here is always above 30c. Day
time usually 33c...

Click to expand...

--
http://www.pbase.com/nw

Click to expand...

Interesting observation.

To confirm what others noticed- running head cleaning cycles one after another helkps less than running just one and let printer sit for a while, maybe overnight.

When the black cartridge gets low on ink it can start banding too, but not because of clog but because of insufficient ink, so it it better to change cartridge than loose a lot of color ink on cleaning which wont help anyway.

bryan davies said:

nw said:

I bought an Epson 810 (820 in US) a month ago. I had read about the
clogging issue, but my general impression was that this problem
mainly seemed to affect people living in hot climates, and who used
the printer infrequently.

In London on Saturday, it was unusually warm (90F) and my printer
clogged even though I had been using it heavily in the past week. I
ran three head cleaning cycles, before giving up for the day.
However, on Sunday (temperature had dropped back to 80F) I ran a
nozzle check and everything was back to normal without a head
cleaning cycle.

I wouldn't have expected clogged printing heads to unclog
themselves, so I was wondering if it was the case that the printer
heads just didn't operate very well at above average temperatures?
Anyone else with similar experiences?

I'm not fretting too much anyway, because we don't often see 90F in
London

--
http://www.pbase.com/nw

Click to expand...

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Click to expand...

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