epson printer life?

KenC · Apr 30, 2010

What have people observed re the useful life of epson printers? I had a 1270 for about 6-7 years and it was starting to have problems with paper feed, clogging and occasional ink leakage onto prints. I replaced it with a 2400 rather than look into service because I wanted to use pigment inks and heard the bw printing on the 2400 was better (true!). Now, after about 4 years I am just starting to have some of these problems with the 2400, which has seen moderate use (ca. 1-2 hr/day avg. - moderate to those of us with full-time non-photo jobs) vs. somewhat lighter use for my old 1270. Should I expect to be buying another in a year or so, or would the cost of repairs be justified by the additional life they might buy?

TiCoyote · Apr 30, 2010

I don't know whether they changed the design, but I had an Epson about 10 yrs ago, I it gave me endless problems. I switched to HP, because, as I understand, the ink jet heads on the HP are part of the cartridge. New cartridge=new jet heads. With Epson, the heads are part of the printer, so they just get more and more clogged as you continue to use it.

I'm now on my 3rd HP, and I'm happy with it. Ink is expensive, but I only ever print in black, and I refill the cartridges.

If I want to get photos printed, I just have Snapfish or MPIX do it. I get much higher quality prints than if I do them at home, and it ends up being cheaper and less hassle in the long run, because I don't pay for wasted pages when I mess up or wasted ink that dries up.

benhasajeep · May 2, 2010

I still have a working 1270 and a 2400. I don't think I print nearly as much as you. But both are working just fine. I use the 1270 still with third party ink for just everyday printing of pics. The 1270 is about 9 years old, and the 2400 is at least 4.

I am happy enough that next one will also be an Epson.

Vinny · May 2, 2010

I'm a HP person but bought my son an Epson for college. My opinion is try not to print photos with my home printers. I haven't bought photo paper in a while but back when I did it was expensive for the amount of paper you get (I think it was $20 for 20 sheets of HP photo paper) plus the cost of the ink. With photos at Kodak at $0.19 each, it just didn't make sense to me. But with that said I do keep some 8.5x11 paper around just in case an emergency print job is needed.

I know this was not a direct answer to your question but just my opinion. The direct answer is every item has a finite life. Printers have a duty cycle that they can print x number of pages, your printer has a cycle of 25,000 pages; see here: Epson Stylus Photo R2400 Ink Jet Printer, Specifications - Product Information - Epson America, Inc.

The question as to is it better to repair is really based on how much to get it fixed, the rule of thumb is if it's 50% over the cost of a new one - buy a new one.