Re: Looking for a good photo printer

On Fri, 18 Jan 2008 17:34:51 GMT, "Luis Ortega" <lortega@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>
wrote:

>I've only ever had Epsons (in my art classroom and at home, I've  used
about 
>a dozen Epsons over the years, starting with the Stylus Color) and I
thought 
>that it was part of the inkjet printing process to have to run head
cleaning 
>cycles whenever the prints started banding. Are you all saying that this
is 
>not typical of all inkjet printers?


     I have an older HP PhotoSmart 7550 printer that prints up to 8x10
prints on 8½ by 11 paper.  This printer has the print heads built into
the ink cartridges, so when you run out of ink and put in a new ink
cartridge, you also put in a new print head.  This was the main reason
why I've stuck with HP printers over the years.  I've had three HP
printers and the only reason I've had three is because I wanted to
upgrade to a better printer.  I still have the other two HPs but I
don't need them.  If I did decide to take one of the old ones off the
shelf after sitting there for 8 years, I'd just install new ink
cartridges and print.  You could never do that with an Epson.  After
letting an Epson sit for a while, the heads would clog up and if they
were really clogged, you'd just throw it away and buy a new one.
     HP does make printers that use individual ink tanks and have
fixed print heads, so it depends what you're looking for.  It's just
that for my use, I like the dye based inks that my printer uses.  HP
does make pigment based printers also, which are the fixed head
printers, so you have to determine what you're going to ultimately use
the printer for.
     I do have an Epson printer, the R220 that I got last year.  I got
it for one reason....to print on printable CD/DVDs.  I print at least
one CD/DVD a week, and if I don't, I'll do a Nozzle Check cycle..  If
I don't do this, the heads will clog up.  I've gone for 9 days once
before realizing that I hadn't done a Nozzle Check on the printer.  I
immediately did a Nozzle Check and found they were clogged.  I had to
do numerous Head Cleaning cycles before I could get it clean.  I
wasted about one half of each ink cartridge to get the heads clean.  I
try now to do the test every three to four days....just in case.
     Epsons make really nice prints but the head cleaning can be a
major pain.

Talker