Digital BW, The Print

On 20/07/2008 esharamaki wrote:
> Thanks for the link Tony. I decided to send it off to the recycler.
> Ever since I got it, it's had problems with clogging. So, now I have
> one less clogging problem to worry about!

Probably wise. Both my 1160 and 1290 were used with CIS from new. 
Initially they just worked. After a year or so I spent more and more time 
trying to get them working reliably. By 2yrs I'd replaced the head on the 
1290, and it was actually far better than the OE had ever been. But within 
another year it had degraded and I was spending 4 times as long trying to 
get it working as printing, and wasting 80% of ink and considerable 
amounts of expensive paper.

Possibly this was partly my fault as I'd quite often go a month or so 
without printing at all, but when I did need to use them it was usually on 
deadline. I got fed up with the utter unreliability, being up half the 
night covered in ink and Windex, or having to send printing out because I 
couldn't fix the damn things. I never got on with Cone BW ICC after the 
original plugin was ditched and inkset changed for legal reasons. I just 
couldn't get the same print quality with the revised stuff. Since then, JC 
has said the 4ink 1160 was pretty poor anyway with BW ICC. I wish he'd 
said that before selling me the compulsory 'upgrade'!

I since bought an HPB9180, which cost 35% the price of the Epsons + CIS, 
and so far, at 8m old, has been no trouble at all. It just works. I never 
need to do a nozzle check even when left unused for a month, thamks to its 
daily self-clean maintenance cycle - which BTW uses almost no ink as it 
only cleans problematic nozzles. I did think about a 3800, but my Epson 
clog traumas and the ludicrous PK/MK swap regime put me off.
-- 
Regards

Tony Sleep
http://tonysleep.co.uk