LisaLynn Posted October 14, 2014 Share Posted October 14, 2014 I am hoping to tap your collective wisdom and get some advice :-) I have an Epson Stylus Photo R1800 that I've had almost 8 years, it is a discontinued model, and the rollers have been getting steadily worse until now I can't get it to load paper of any type, the rollers just won't grab on to the edge and load it. I can still print on a CD because that loads from the front in the CD holder, thus bypassing the rollers. The print quality is not great at this point, but then again I can't load any paper to run the nozzle cleaning maintenance routines, they may need to be cleaned out because of lack of use. The Epson repair shop charges $90 just to look at it and tell me how much it might cost to fix, they said each roller that has to be replaced will be about $25 and each additional hour is another $90, but overall can't give me any idea how much it might be in total as they don't know what it will need. They did tell me that nowadays printers are considered disposable and it might make sense to just replace it, which it seemed to me might be a hint, but I'm not sure. I am considering two things. One is that I am planning to start using a printing service to create books for most of my scrapping based on your recommendations, due somewhat to ink costs but also I just like the idea of the books. The second is that all my scrapbook pages now are 8.5x11 rather than the 12" that I used to do, so a letter size photo printer is now large enough for my needs. But I don't want to be without a home photo printer that can do that size, I want the option and I do print things other than scrapbook pages at times. So, I need to either fix this one or get another, which could be smaller but still needs to be able to do nice photo quality work. What do you all think? And has anyone had repairs done? Or are there good/better photo printers that can print up to 11" wide that are inexpensive enough but still print good photos, which would make this decision a no-brainer? I've read over the previous threads on printer recommendations but as models change so often I wanted a current perspective. Any and all advice is much appreciated, I know that everyone here will appreciate that this is a big enough investment and decision that I want to be sure to think it through! Thanks! Lisa Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lindarobin Posted October 14, 2014 Share Posted October 14, 2014 I agree with the repair shop. Paying to repair your printer is likely to cost you more than getting one new that does the same job A new printer will have a new warranty. I like their honesty. They could have just repaired it and charged you for it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
A-M Posted October 14, 2014 Share Posted October 14, 2014 You have done well to get 8 years out of your printer. I have owned computer and printers since 2003 and am on my second printer which I have now had for some years. I only buy Epson as I prefer their print quality and Canon would be my second choice. Do not bother getting it repaired... less expensive to buy a new printer. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
April Showers Posted October 14, 2014 Share Posted October 14, 2014 I have that printer (love it) and mine does have occasional feed issues. When I clean the rollers with alcohol and a cotton swab, it feeds again. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
April Showers Posted October 14, 2014 Share Posted October 14, 2014 The R2000 is the current version of the printer. Costs about the same the the R1800 did when I got mine over 9 years ago. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
healthyscraps Posted October 15, 2014 Share Posted October 15, 2014 Lisa, I understand your delimma. I find it difficult to accept the disposable way today. Our A3 Canon printer which we recently retired was a fantastic printer and had it for about that length of time too. We did spend a little money on trying to fix and searching the internet for possible solutions which didn't pay off, but at least we knew it was ready for retirement. I like that your repair guys were honest about replacing rather than fixing. If our printer didn't cost so much when we bought it I don't think I would have spent any money on trying to fix it. Printing photo books is terrific but there are times at the moment I miss having a colour printer at home. Something to shop for in the new year. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ValerieT Posted October 15, 2014 Share Posted October 15, 2014 Sadly things are made to be thrown away these days. We've recently bought a new printer, an Epsom. We found it hard to find one that would do a good job on both photos and documents. In the end we settled on a mid range one, prints up to letter size. Cost us about £120, which is about 80-90 dollars. I'm sure you could find a good deal for a lot less than it would cost to repair your current one, and like Linda said you would get a new warranty. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CRS Posted October 15, 2014 Share Posted October 15, 2014 The R2000 is the current version of the printer. Costs about the same the the R1800 did when I got mine over 9 years ago. I may have to show dh this link! I've wanted a large printer for a long time, but don't have the space. But for that price, I may have to make room! I have an HP Photosmart printer that I've had for several years and I love it. It's not a large format printer, but does a great job with all my printing needs at home! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
April Showers Posted October 15, 2014 Share Posted October 15, 2014 I don't use the same printer for photos and documents. I have a refurbished brother laser printer (under $50) that I use for everyday printing. I use my color printer only when I need color. I'm sure that is why I'm still loving it 9 years later. There is another wide format Epson (Epson Artisan 1430) that is less expensive than the one I posted. It doesn't do a roll feed (which truthfully I've never used, but have plans to). I have no experience with it, but it includes PSE free. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LisaLynn Posted October 15, 2014 Author Share Posted October 15, 2014 I'm reading all of this eagerly. I don't need the wide format any more and don't really want it, I'd really like one that printed just 8.5" wide, letter size, but still with the great photo quality that the Epson R1800 had. I also have a separate printer for regular printing and a scanner for scanning, the Epson is just for photo/scrappage printing. Lisa HA! Just after I posted this my DH came in and read all your posts. Then told me that he would try the roller-cleaning trick you mention, and then when/if that ceases to fix it we should just replace with the R2000. So! My agonizing over the cost and the size seems to be not an issue! Thank you all so much! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CRS Posted October 15, 2014 Share Posted October 15, 2014 What a good dh!! Sounds like a keeper! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
diannecp Posted October 16, 2014 Share Posted October 16, 2014 I bought an Epson WF-7510 last summer and absolutely love it. Love the wireless feature as well as the wide format printing. I agree though about the disposability of things in general these days. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LisaLynn Posted October 24, 2014 Author Share Posted October 24, 2014 I wanted to check back in with you all. My DH did some maintenance on the printer. He vacuumed it out and used canned air to blow off the paper sensors, and then cleaned the grey rubber rollers using Goo Gone (a citrus based solvent). He had read not to use alcohol because it would dry the rubber out over time and make it hard, fixing the immediate problem but creating a bigger problem over time. The citrus solvents help restore the rubber rather than drying it. I asked, but he can't remember exactly where he saw this information, he thinks it was one of the copy machine repair websites, so I can't give a good authority for the info, but thought I'd pass it along as he tells me that this is what he'd expect based on his own experience in manufacturing. Anyway, the paper now feeds without a problem. Because it hasn't been used for so long, I have had to run the nozzle cleaning routines, and I found I had to run them several times, and each time the pattern improved. It wasn't enough to run the cleaning/maintenance routines just once. He also advised me to be sure to use the printer every week in future to keep the nozzles unclogged. Just in case this might help someone in future I wanted to pass it along, I'm quite happy to put off buying another printer for a while longer! :-) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
April Showers Posted October 24, 2014 Share Posted October 24, 2014 I wanted to check back in with you all. My DH did some maintenance on the printer. He vacuumed it out and used canned air to blow off the paper sensors, and then cleaned the grey rubber rollers using Goo Gone (a citrus based solvent). He had read not to use alcohol because it would dry the rubber out over time and make it hard, fixing the immediate problem but creating a bigger problem over time. The citrus solvents help restore the rubber rather than drying it. I asked, but he can't remember exactly where he saw this information, he thinks it was one of the copy machine repair websites, so I can't give a good authority for the info, but thought I'd pass it along as he tells me that this is what he'd expect based on his own experience in manufacturing. Anyway, the paper now feeds without a problem. Because it hasn't been used for so long, I have had to run the nozzle cleaning routines, and I found I had to run them several times, and each time the pattern improved. It wasn't enough to run the cleaning/maintenance routines just once. He also advised me to be sure to use the printer every week in future to keep the nozzles unclogged. Just in case this might help someone in future I wanted to pass it along, I'm quite happy to put off buying another printer for a while longer! :-) Thanks! I'll be trying the citrus based solvent for cleaning the rollers from now on. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Smiles Posted October 24, 2014 Share Posted October 24, 2014 that tip to use them every week is a good one to remember! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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