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Seeking input from people who have had a failed Epson 3880 or similar printer

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Failed3880pro

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I would like to be contacted by anyone who has owned an Epson 3880Pro or similar printer that became completely unusable, unrepairable, etc. because the K3 inks completely clogged the print heads.

OR anyone who had one of these or similar professional grade Epson machines that failed because the print head carriage cracked, causing the print head to gouge into the paper during printing.

Thank you
 
Failed3880pro said:
I would like to be contacted by anyone who has owned an Epson 3880Pro or similar printer that became completely unusable, unrepairable, etc. because the K3 inks completely clogged the print heads.

OR anyone who had one of these or similar professional grade Epson machines that failed because the print head carriage cracked, causing the print head to gouge into the paper during printing.

Thank you
Click to expand...
This going to be interesting as I've never seen any of these failure modes discussed here. You sound as though you have been very unlucky.
 
my old 3800 was a clog queen and eventually died after 'not much'. I hated the thought of printing on it since it would take a solid cleaning and then it might just re-clog in the middle.

I replaced it w/ a 3880 which has been much much better (but not as wonderful as other people's experiences)
 
I have a 4800 and a 9600 that had clogged heads. For when regular power cleanings won't work I developed a method of soaking the heads overnight on a paper towel(s) soaked with rubbing alcohol. It's pretty strong, though, and requires some clean up afterwards, so I would consider this a last resort.

These series of videos are also helpful to watch:

 
I stopped using Epson printers despite their wonderful print quality after the R1800 generation. Both ink and pigment based printers had too many clogging problems requiring gallons of ink to clear and all had print head failure after what I would consider moderate use after too short a time. I have switched to Canon and never looked back: they can "waste" ink clearing the print head if not used for a while but they have never failed to clear as Epsons are prone to do.

In my not unlimited experience when I mix prints from different brand and model printers I honestly can not tell which printed what. However if one has a distinct preference for the "look" of Epson prints then you put up with the print head problems which do not afflict all users.

I think with color prints the user can achieve what they want with nearly any reasonable quality printer regardless of maker or ink type. Monochrome in my opinion is more printer specific than color and in some ways more difficult.
 
Failed3880pro said:
I would like to be contacted by anyone who has owned an Epson 3880Pro or similar printer that became completely unusable, unrepairable, etc. because the K3 inks completely clogged the print heads.

OR anyone who had one of these or similar professional grade Epson machines that failed because the print head carriage cracked, causing the print head to gouge into the paper during printing.

Thank you
Click to expand...
My 3880 had nozzle clogging problems that started after about a year of moderate use. I found myself doing head cleanings every week just to keep the clogs at bay. The MK/Pk switching also frequently resulted in no ink flow, again requiring frequent head cleanings.

I eventually had enough and gave the thing away.

I've now had a Canon ipf6400 for 10-months and have had no clogging issues.

soloryb
 
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Yes, well I'm trying to determine that. Trying to determine whether my problem was a fluke or if it's widespread enough to look into what would be involved in exploring a class-action suit. I'm particularly interested in hearing from people who have documented exchanges with repair outlets. Also in hearing from people who work at repair shops. Epson has essentially said "tough luck" to me because the machine was out of warranty when it failed. I understand warranties, but I'm very disappointed that Epson has been so unsympathetic. My feeling is that if a machine costing more than $1,000 is SO sensitive to clogging that it can become unrepairable if not exercised regularly, than it's deceptive not to say that clearly in the manual and on the ink cartridges. The cartridges says simply "Use the ink within six months from installation for best results" (that's a paraphrase). It doesn't say you're printer may suffer a catastrophic failure if you don't use it every other day. One tech I spoke to said I should have been running a nozzle test two to three times a week (using that VERY expensive ink). That's outrageous, but IF IT'S REALLY NECESSARY, it should say that. The broken carriage was another issue.

Anyway, anyone reading this, please contact me if you have had these or similar problems.

Thank you
 
Failed3880pro said:
Yes, well I'm trying to determine that. Trying to determine whether my problem was a fluke or if it's widespread enough to look into what would be involved in exploring a class-action suit. I'm particularly interested in hearing from people who have documented exchanges with repair outlets. Also in hearing from people who work at repair shops. Epson has essentially said "tough luck" to me because the machine was out of warranty when it failed. I understand warranties, but I'm very disappointed that Epson has been so unsympathetic. My feeling is that if a machine costing more than $1,000 is SO sensitive to clogging that it can become unrepairable if not exercised regularly, than it's deceptive not to say that clearly in the manual and on the ink cartridges. The cartridges says simply "Use the ink within six months from installation for best results" (that's a paraphrase). It doesn't say you're printer may suffer a catastrophic failure if you don't use it every other day. One tech I spoke to said I should have been running a nozzle test two to three times a week (using that VERY expensive ink). That's outrageous, but IF IT'S REALLY NECESSARY, it should say that. The broken carriage was another issue.

Anyway, anyone reading this, please contact me if you have had these or similar problems.

Thank you
Click to expand...
Nozzle checks use a miniscule amount of ink!

Joe
 
To repeat: At a given price point, printer OEMs should be obligated to issue Technical Service Bulletins. If you report an issue covered by one, it receives warranty repair.
 
Failed3880pro said:
Yes, well I'm trying to determine that. Trying to determine whether my problem was a fluke or if it's widespread enough to look into what would be involved in exploring a class-action suit. I'm particularly interested in hearing from people who have documented exchanges with repair outlets. Also in hearing from people who work at repair shops. Epson has essentially said "tough luck" to me because the machine was out of warranty when it failed. I understand warranties, but I'm very disappointed that Epson has been so unsympathetic. My feeling is that if a machine costing more than $1,000 is SO sensitive to clogging that it can become unrepairable if not exercised regularly, than it's deceptive not to say that clearly in the manual and on the ink cartridges. The cartridges says simply "Use the ink within six months from installation for best results" (that's a paraphrase). It doesn't say you're printer may suffer a catastrophic failure if you don't use it every other day. One tech I spoke to said I should have been running a nozzle test two to three times a week (using that VERY expensive ink). That's outrageous, but IF IT'S REALLY NECESSARY, it should say that. The broken carriage was another issue.

Anyway, anyone reading this, please contact me if you have had these or similar problems.

Thank you
Click to expand...
Let me expand on what I said. If you were to do a search of this Printer forum you would find that of all the Epson printers the 3800/3880 are known as the printers least likely to have a nozzle clean after being unused for a period. My own experience bears that out. My 3800 has unfortunately had little use over the last year, nevertheless, after up to 3 months unused it has produced perfect nozzle checks. It is also known that, provided you give them a good shake before installing, long expired OEM ink carts perform perfectly and do not cause clogs.

As for broken carriages (you don't specify the nature of the break) in 10 years I have never seen a reference to this as a failure mode. I think your class action is going to be dead in the water. Everyone gets a Friday evening product occasionally and it seems you may have got one. Sorry.
 
I do not know what caused my 3880 to fail. It churned out a beautiful print, and the next one was completely blank. I did not bother to repair it and bought a P800.


The 3880 now sits in my garage, and a full set of cone inks with cartridges and chips. Epson was good enough to replace my OEM ink with ones for P800.
 
If it's true that nozzle checks use very little ink, then all the more reason to make it absolutely clear that doing them regularly is NECESSARY maintenance to preserve the print heads.
 
Yes, well, as I say, I'm mainly at this stage curious to know if the failure I've experienced is at all unusual. If it is unusual, then, obviously, there is no class of people affected and no merit in a class action. That's fine. In that case, however, you'd think that Epson would recognize that my situation is extremely unusual and that they'd have some sympathy. I can't help feeling that a total failure after about 70 sheets is unreasonable. But thanks for your input.
 
I wasn't making a threat. I am seeking information to determine whether in fact there IS a class of people similarly affected.
 
Where are you located? Maybe Yours has parts that would allow mine to be repaired for less than the $1,600 or so I was quoted for a repair.
 
My 3880 is about 4 and a half years old, it also started dripping inks a few months ago, and drained the photo black ink into the waste maintenance cartridge. I looks like it's probably toast too.
 
I also stopped using Epson printers for photo's too many cleaning cycles and clogs. I went with HP when they were making photo printers and had great luck, I still have my HP A4 printer and it still works fine but they stopped making the Photo gray/black ink for it and stopped making the high quality paper. A year and a half ago I got one of those Canon Pro 100's when they had that crazy deal with rebates and 13 x 19 inch paper 50 sheets for free with the printer. It just works, and the one time I had to call Canon they could not have been nicer they even called me back the next day to make sure everything was still working properly.

I still keep buying those refurb Epson printers for my wife just to print things out and and every 2 years it seems I just get her another one with free shipping and ink for 50 dollars.

wbill
 
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