Epson R3000 Problems - Replacement Recommendations?

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Neilc28

Neilc28

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Neil
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Hi all,

My friend and I share use of an Epson R3000 and it has now decided to leave black horizontal lines on the prints, about an inch long and it's excessive ink, not a printed line. So first of all has anyone seen anything like this? I've seen a few posts around where people have condemned the R3000 due to print-head issues and I'm hoping this is not the case....

Previously I used a HP Photosmart, 6 ink model and the prints were damn good, the R3000 does an exceptional job but it has got me wondering about purchasing my own printer, so what's peoples recommendations for a photo printer these days, non-commercial use, A3 would be nice but not essential and would I be snobby in assuming that tri-colour cartridge printers are still a bad-investment?

Hoping someone can point me in the right direction!
 
Sorry, should've said A3+ as a preference, not just A3
 
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Neilc28 said:
Hi all,

My friend and I share use of an Epson R3000 and it has now decided to leave black horizontal lines on the prints, about an inch long and it's excessive ink, not a printed line. So first of all has anyone seen anything like this? I've seen a few posts around where people have condemned the R3000 due to print-head issues and I'm hoping this is not the case....

Previously I used a HP Photosmart, 6 ink model and the prints were damn good, the R3000 does an exceptional job but it has got me wondering about purchasing my own printer, so what's peoples recommendations for a photo printer these days, non-commercial use, A3 would be nice but not essential and would I be snobby in assuming that tri-colour cartridge printers are still a bad-investment?

Hoping someone can point me in the right direction!
Click to expand...
Well Ive slagged off the 3000 in the past but using a CISS probably contributed too.What convinced me to scrap it and move to the Canon Pixma Pro 100s was the cost of a new print head being about the price of a new 3000 whereas I discovered that with the Canon I can pop a new head straight in for under 100 bucks. It became a no brainier. If you feel that staying with pigment ink is important to you for archival reasons, you might consider the Pixma Pro 10.
 
I had a Canon Pro 100 which was brilliant but after 12 months Calumet had a silly offer on the Canon Pro 1 so I changed to that and al I can say is wow what a brilliant printer inks a around £240 for a full set but the print quality is amazing I have other members of the club regularly get compliments on the print quality. I would recommend that you get specific profiles for the papers you use and whichever printer you go for it makes a big difference to using generic profiles
 
I had Epson printers for a while but they all suffered from the head problem the OP has mentioned. I tried to repair them but it was to no avail. I read up on the head problem and it seems that the jets on the heads on the Epsons are triggered in a different way to Canon. Once a head becomes blocked on an Epson it leaves streaks on the prints and is difficult to unblock. On Canon I have read another jet on the head can take over the blocked head to compensate to an extent. I now use Canon Pixma and use Inktec ink (same colour as Canon ink and heads don't block) to refill the cartridges.
 
I've had a similar problem on an R3000, took it to my local Epson repair centre who had a look. They stripped it and did a clean up and, touch wood, it's been fine since. It's a great printer, but having read some of the comments on here, I think a move to Canon could be in order when I need to replace it.
 
After almost 6 years of trouble free use, only cleaned the nozzles probably once a year, in the space of a week the PK black nozzles completely blocked up.

Ran a few cleaning cycles without much success so bought a cleaning cartridge for that position in the cart and ran that through it and got it working again.

Odd that it suddenly went like that. I've only ever used Epson inks in it. Will see how it goes over the next couple of months. I would be very reluctant to change from Epson because both Epson printers I've had have been reliable but I quite like the Canon idea of being able to change the head out for reasonable money and prolong the life of the printer.
 
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Many thanks for the replies everyone, I'm going to give the necessary components a thorough clean and see if it improves. Having read through reviews of the Canon Pixma Pro I will be purchasing one for myself!

I noticed the 100S had a few negative comments about monochrome compared to the 1 and 10, does anyone here have any experience or feedback of the 100S?

Thanks again

Neil
 
Neilc28 said:
Many thanks for the replies everyone, I'm going to give the necessary components a thorough clean and see if it improves. Having read through reviews of the Canon Pixma Pro I will be purchasing one for myself!

I noticed the 100S had a few negative comments about monochrome compared to the 1 and 10, does anyone here have any experience or feedback of the 100S?

Thanks again

Neil
Click to expand...
Neil I moved from the Epson 3000 to the Pixma Pro 100s and I get nice B&W prints. I can only think that some people have made a judgement on their Monochrome prints as they come out of the printer. It must be the fact it uses Dye as opposed to Pigment ink, but you have to let your prints "dry" as it were because after some hours possible even up to 12 hours, when you go back to them they are lighter so for punchy black images, you can get the impression they are too black initially. I can't remember if the Pro 1 and 10 have WiFi but the 100s has (I think that's what the "s" means). The only objection I have to the 100s (can't speak for the Pro 1 or 10) is when printing on Fine Art Papers [in my case Canson, some Permajet and Hahnemühle] the printer imposes 30mm (minimum) side borders - I think this is to remove the possibility of head strikes on both edges of the paper when printing. Ordinarily this doesn't bother me but just occasionally I might like it narrower but as I always use the paper manufacturers profiles, I can't conn it to circumvent this because it recognises Fine Art media I guess from the profile. You could always pretend it's some other type of paper but then you are not using the best profile.
HTH
Jamie
 
No-one seems to have reported here on the P800, which does seem to have had good reviews...
 
ChrisR said:
No-one seems to have reported here on the P800, which does seem to have had good reviews...
Click to expand...
To be fair, the P800 is getting towards double the already substantial prices of the other printers being discussed here, plus I would still have worries about the print head performance at the back of my mind.

As one who has suffered problems with Epson printers in the past, I now no longer print large format at home, and choose to have my prints done commercially and let someone else deal with the hassles.
 
So I'm having the Epson print head woes (see my post here)with my 1500W. I've managed to get all good nozzle check except on the light magenta. I currently have a tube on the nozzle with a syringe of iso mixed with de-ionised water trying to soak it clear. I have our yearly club comp tonight so I'm really annoyed about this.

So I've been reading your posts with interest and will be checking out Canon's options soon.
Good thread (y)
 
I've been using epson printers for 15 years and always used epson inks, had a few problems but nothing impossible to overcome. I got the p800 almost as soon as it came out and haven't had a single problem, I know a few others that have got the p600 and p800 and not a problem between us. B&W prints are brilliant.
 
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