Some minor complaints.

For my one year report click here.

I’m now approaching three years of use and as recent use has been more sporadic I have found that I am getting occasional clogging of one or two of the six print heads. This necessitates a nozzle cleaning process which takes some 3 minutes.

On a recent day three cleanings failed to produce a clean result so I had to resort to Power Cleaning. This process requires that the printer has a 12 hour rest after the regular cleaning and also requires installation of a new ‘Maintenance Box‘. This is a box under the cover which stores ink waste from cleanings and from regular use. I’m at 729 pages of 13″ x 19″ prints so cannot complain about this $25 cost item. Replacement takes seconds and the weight difference between the old (full) box and the new (empty) one is clear.

Anyway, after the power cleaning all is well, and I have learned to perform a regular head cleaning before a print run if the printer has not been used for a few weeks.

Ink bottles run $22-25 each, ink use remains exceptionally frugal (though Grey ink is used twice as fast as the other colors) and it’s impossible to insert a bottle in the wrong slot when refilling as the caps are differently keyed. I have had no issues with spills.

Separately, the included scanner is excellent and fairly speedy and I find it useful for scanning and printing cooking recipes.

The ET8550 remains introduction and is strongly recommended as long as you maximum print size is 13″ x 19″.