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.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.pindelski.org\/Blog2\/ET8550_nozzzle_cleaning.jpg\")
<\/center><\/p>\nOn 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<\/a>‘. 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.<\/p>\n Power cleaning requires fairly full ink tanks and you are warned that if a tank runs out of ink the related nozzle may be damaged. The process takes 6 minutes and uses around 20% of each tank’s ink. The user is instructed to wait 12 hours after power cleaning for best print quality.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n Ink bottles<\/a> 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.<\/p>\n Separately, the included scanner is excellent and fairly speedy and I find it useful for scanning and printing cooking recipes.<\/p>\n The ET8550 remains introduction and is strongly recommended as long as you maximum print size is 13″ x 19″.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" 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 … Continue reading Three years with the Epson ET8550 printer<\/span> ![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.pindelski.org\/Blog2\/ET8550_power_clean.jpg\")
\nNozzle checks after (top) and before Power Cleaning.<\/I><\/center><\/p>\n