Hi everyone,

I am having an issue with my Epson R260 inkjet printer. I recently
tried to print a document and discovered that cyan was not printing.
The printer was inactive for roughly 3 weeks. I performed numerous
head cleanings and nozzle checks and nothing seemed to solve the
problem. The rest of the story is long and complicated but I
contacted the merchant whom I bought this printer from and he informed
me that the print head on the r260's are prone to "freezing" and that
I should contact Epson to follow up on their warranty. Epson claims
they are not responsible because I am using a continuous ink system.
I personally believe the cyan ink I was sold contained sediment and
the seller does not want to admit this. I have gone back and forth
with these people and I have now decided to take matters into my own
hands. My question is this:

I have removed the print head assembly which contains the 6 plastic
nipples on one side with the print head on the reverse. There appears
to be 3 screws connecting the print head to a small plastic base which
is connected to a larger plastic housing. Where these two plastic
pieces join, there are small amounts of a white epoxy. Does anyone
have any advice as to how I can clean this? My initial reaction is to
unscrew the print head and try soaking that but I am concerned that
their is a seal that might be broken between the jets and the head.
Can the whole assembly be soaked in an ultrasonic bath or will this
damage the pcb and connectors? A similar image of the print head can
be found he http://www.inkjetart.com/3800/print_head.jpg

Any advice you can give would be much appreciated. I would really
love to get this printer up and running again. Thank you in advance.

-Jesse

The older Epson printers are notorious for clogging. I tried everything I
knew , but could not get two of them unclogged after I received them after
sitting unused for several months/years. If you do a web search, you will
find many who can share their own tales of frustration with that design
(print head is separate from the ink delivery.) Good luck.

Bob

"Jstein" wrote in message
...
Hi everyone,

I am having an issue with my Epson R260 inkjet printer. I recently
tried to print a document and discovered that cyan was not printing.
The printer was inactive for roughly 3 weeks. I performed numerous
head cleanings and nozzle checks and nothing seemed to solve the
problem.

Any advice you can give would be much appreciated. I would really
love to get this printer up and running again. Thank you in advance.

-Jesse

"Jstein" wrote in message
...
Hi everyone,

I am having an issue with my Epson R260 inkjet printer. .jpg

Any advice you can give would be much appreciated. I would really
love to get this printer up and running again. Thank you in advance.

-Jesse

Look on the web, there are many thousands of people who feel and share your
pain. Epson ink-jet printers are (or at least were) extremely prone to
clogging. Once the head is clogged, it's often not possible to get it
unclogged. Throw it out and buy another one.

I've found ink-jet printers to be expensive and frustrating. Sure, they're
giving them away with new PC's, but the cost of consumables is at least 5
times that of laser. And they clog. And they're slow. And the ink runs
when it the prints get wet. What I ended up doing is buying a color laser
printer for my day-to-day stuff, you know, prints off the web, proofs of
docs, etc. I have a print shop do my high-quality work, they are cheaper
than ink-jet prints. I bought a Brother HL-4040CN color laser and it's
worked great for a year now.

Dave wrote:

"Jstein" wrote in message
...
Hi everyone,

I am having an issue with my Epson R260 inkjet printer. .jpg

Any advice you can give would be much appreciated. I would really
love to get this printer up and running again. Thank you in advance.

-Jesse

Look on the web, there are many thousands of people who feel and share
your pain. Epson ink-jet printers are (or at least were) extremely
prone to clogging. Once the head is clogged, it's often not possible to
get it unclogged. Throw it out and buy another one.

I've found ink-jet printers to be expensive and frustrating. Sure,
they're giving them away with new PC's, but the cost of consumables is
at least 5 times that of laser. And they clog. And they're slow. And
the ink runs when it the prints get wet. What I ended up doing is
buying a color laser printer for my day-to-day stuff, you know, prints
off the web, proofs of docs, etc. I have a print shop do my
high-quality work, they are cheaper than ink-jet prints. I bought a
Brother HL-4040CN color laser and it's worked great for a year now.

I too mostly gave up on inkjets a long time ago. I've resisted buying a
color laser based on the cost of consumables. A full complement of
replacement cartridges cost more than the printer in most cases I've
researched.

I guess there's no middle-ground. Color ink is expensive, too. At
least I had the sense (when I did use them) to find printers with
separate tanks for the various colors. Even then, I consumed more ink
in cleaning cycles than I ever laid on a page. I found when I tried to
dispose of ink carts on eBay that they were worthless, and ate a large
chunk in tossed-out consumables when the last printer I used, died.

Do color toner carts expire? My ink carts (Brother brand) did--probably
why I couldn't sell them--and I assume that most other brands have an
expiration date as well.

jak

jakdedert wrote:

Dave wrote:

snip
Look on the web, there are many thousands of people who feel and share
your pain. Epson ink-jet printers are (or at least were) extremely
prone to clogging. Once the head is clogged, it's often not possible
to get it unclogged. Throw it out and buy another one.

I've found ink-jet printers to be expensive and frustrating. Sure,
they're giving them away with new PC's, but the cost of consumables is
at least 5 times that of laser. And they clog. And they're slow.
And the ink runs when it the prints get wet. What I ended up doing is
buying a color laser printer for my day-to-day stuff, you know, prints
off the web, proofs of docs, etc. I have a print shop do my
high-quality work, they are cheaper than ink-jet prints. I bought a
Brother HL-4040CN color laser and it's worked great for a year now.

I too mostly gave up on inkjets a long time ago. I've resisted buying a
color laser based on the cost of consumables. A full complement of
replacement cartridges cost more than the printer in most cases I've
researched.

I guess there's no middle-ground. Color ink is expensive, too. At
least I had the sense (when I did use them) to find printers with
separate tanks for the various colors. Even then, I consumed more ink
in cleaning cycles than I ever laid on a page. I found when I tried to
dispose of ink carts on eBay that they were worthless, and ate a large
chunk in tossed-out consumables when the last printer I used, died.

snip

I am grateful to have an Alps MD5000 dye-sub printer; it can sit for years
unused and when needed will print in publication-quality. Ink ribbon
cartridges are available for different applications and are handled by an
internal robot. From a web description:

The ability of this machine is only limited by your imagination,
vinyl stickers, waterslide decals, dye sub prints and transfers,
t-shirt transfers, puzzles, mouse pads, coasters, invitations,
greeting cards, scrap booking, there is even a way somewhere on
the internet that tells how to print holograms with some of the
metallic and foil cartridges.

It makes photo prints that rival those from commercial photo finishers.

Best of all, it is _much_ less expensive than a color laser, the consumables
are affordable, and it is far more robust than any inkjet.

I no longer run an inkjet and suggest that other folks think hard before
committing to one also.

Regards,

Michael

msg wrote:
jakdedert wrote:

Dave wrote:

snip
Look on the web, there are many thousands of people who feel and
share your pain. Epson ink-jet printers are (or at least were)
extremely prone to clogging. Once the head is clogged, it's often
not possible to get it unclogged. Throw it out and buy another one.

I've found ink-jet printers to be expensive and frustrating. Sure,
they're giving them away with new PC's, but the cost of consumables
is at least 5 times that of laser. And they clog. And they're
slow. And the ink runs when it the prints get wet. What I ended up
doing is buying a color laser printer for my day-to-day stuff, you
know, prints off the web, proofs of docs, etc. I have a print shop
do my high-quality work, they are cheaper than ink-jet prints. I
bought a Brother HL-4040CN color laser and it's worked great for a
year now.

I too mostly gave up on inkjets a long time ago. I've resisted buying
a color laser based on the cost of consumables. A full complement of
replacement cartridges cost more than the printer in most cases I've
researched.

I guess there's no middle-ground. Color ink is expensive, too. At
least I had the sense (when I did use them) to find printers with
separate tanks for the various colors. Even then, I consumed more ink
in cleaning cycles than I ever laid on a page. I found when I tried
to dispose of ink carts on eBay that they were worthless, and ate a
large chunk in tossed-out consumables when the last printer I used, died.

snip

I am grateful to have an Alps MD5000 dye-sub printer; it can sit for years
unused and when needed will print in publication-quality. Ink ribbon
cartridges are available for different applications and are handled by an
internal robot. From a web description:

The ability of this machine is only limited by your imagination,
vinyl stickers, waterslide decals, dye sub prints and transfers,
t-shirt transfers, puzzles, mouse pads, coasters, invitations,
greeting cards, scrap booking, there is even a way somewhere on
the internet that tells how to print holograms with some of the
metallic and foil cartridges.

It makes photo prints that rival those from commercial photo finishers.

Best of all, it is _much_ less expensive than a color laser, the
consumables
are affordable, and it is far more robust than any inkjet.

I no longer run an inkjet and suggest that other folks think hard before
committing to one also.

Regards,

Michael

I looked into those a long time ago. ISTRC some issues with them, so
when they were being dumped off at clearance prices; I passed. I guess
that could have been a mistake. My recollection of the time was that I
feared consumables would become unavailable. I guess it 'was' a
mistake, then.

jak

On Mon, 15 Sep 2008 12:42:11 -0500, jakdedert
wrote:

Do color toner carts expire? My ink carts (Brother brand) did--probably
why I couldn't sell them--and I assume that most other brands have an
expiration date as well.

jak

Color laser cartridges seem to last just about forever in storage,
just like B/W toner. Although they are expensive, they are still
cheaper than inkjet per page. I've also had good luck refilling color
laser cartridges, unlike inkjet. I highly recommend OKIdata's color
LED printers. They have fewer moving parts than a color laser, but
the printing technology is similar.
Andy Cuffe

Hi
Three weeks seems a very short time to clog. When I had these problems
I managed to remove the clog by injecting ink cleaning liquid
(solvent) through the ink input. You will find it appears jammed but
repeatedly and carefully trying with a syringe slowly starts to flow
after a while and you are there (the air compresses slightly and
that's the way to get solvent inside). Do not apply too much pressure,
you can break the piezo elements, after several attempts let it sit
for a while now and then so it can penetrate and break the clog. That
way no head dissassembly is requiered. I got some Epsons back in
business with this method.

Epsons (especially old) are reliable but when used with proper inks.
Some low quality inks tend to clog frequently and irreversibly while
others never cause trouble. When there is a partial clog, using good
ink will fix that in a day or so (no amount of cleaning cycles with a
bad ink will do). I guess good ink has some kind of solvent.

I had problems with third party cartridges when I tried a refill kit
sold at Aldi (branded Zolid). On Epsons it is easy to refill a
cartridge and I never had a clog with that ink, even when unused for
months. In my experience the ink really makes a difference.

Andy Cuffe wrote:
On Mon, 15 Sep 2008 12:42:11 -0500, jakdedert
wrote:

Do color toner carts expire? My ink carts (Brother brand) did--probably
why I couldn't sell them--and I assume that most other brands have an
expiration date as well.

jak

Color laser cartridges seem to last just about forever in storage,
just like B/W toner. Although they are expensive, they are still
cheaper than inkjet per page. I've also had good luck refilling color
laser cartridges, unlike inkjet. I highly recommend OKIdata's color
LED printers. They have fewer moving parts than a color laser, but
the printing technology is similar.
Andy Cuffe



That's good to know. It wasn't always such. I remember the first color
copiers had toner shelf-life problems. My first laser was an Okidata.
It didn't turn out to be so reliable, and the consumables were
astronomically high; but that was fifteen years ago.

jak