Digital BW, The Print

Hi Chris,

>... you've had bad experiences buying refurbed Epson printers.

Yes, but in general I'd still do it.  Epson took the bad one back.  In fact,
they let me upgrade from the R800 (which worked well enough to test) to the
R1800 I'm now using.  It was clogged when it arrived and had clearly been
used.  But the clogs cleared just by putting cleaning fluid in the bad ones
for a while.  (They'll ship the first one with OEM inks. And those could be
used to be sure the nozzles are clear.)  It's worked fine so far.

> That surprises me because I've always been
> under the impression that refurbed products get 
> MORE testing than new products.

I'd heard that too.  Both of the issues I had might have resulted from
shipping.  The 800 could have been an electronic problem that was
intermittent.  The 1800 had been used, so it could have been the Epson OEM
inks in it that clogged slightly in shipping.

>Considering your experience, would you still buy a refurb?

Yes, and I might get another one if the 1800 gets cancelled.  (See my
previous 260 note.)

>... Epson lists refurbed R800s for $140 on their website 
>(not in stock currently). To me that sounds like the ultimate 
>low-cost archival option for someone who wants to print B&W 
>and color on 8.5 x 11 matte papers.

On thin papers perhaps -- the R800 may have more feeding problems than the
1800.  At least one 800 I know of refuses to take thicker papers at all.
I'm feeding Premier Art 325 (one sheet at a time with very slight assist)
regularly into the 1800.


Paul
www.PaulRoark.com