Best Heavy Duty A3 photo printer

[weefunker]

I just stumbled upon this forum and it looks like you guys know what you're talking about when it comes to printers so
I was wondering if anyone had any recommendations for a heavy duty a3 photo printer?

I have three epson 1400's one of which has completely shat itself (wont feed heavy a3 photopaper) and the others clog more than and more each day. Saying that they do have to print about 30+ A3 photo sheets each and every day so I can understand that they will clog but I am looking for something that will require minimal maintenance for around the same price.

I use ciss on all my printers and I am having to run 4-5 cleaning cycles on each of them to get them working again. They print for about 8 sheets then one or more nozzles clog. I have tried cleaning solutions ect. but it doesn't seem to make a lick of difference.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated




 

[blue moon]

I just stumbled upon this forum and it looks like you guys know what you're talking about when it comes to printers so
I was wondering if anyone had any recommendations for a heavy duty a3 photo printer?

I have three epson 1400's one of which has completely shat itself (wont feed heavy a3 photopaper) and the others clog more than and more each day. Saying that they do have to print about 30+ A3 photo sheets each and every day so I can understand that they will clog but I am looking for something that will require minimal maintenance for around the same price.

I use ciss on all my printers and I am having to run 4-5 cleaning cycles on each of them to get them working again. They print for about 8 sheets then one or more nozzles clog. I have tried cleaning solutions ect. but it doesn't seem to make a lick of difference.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated

for the most part, 1400 is not a commercial grade printer. My guess is that's why you are having problems. 48xx series is designed for heavier use and should work out much better. They are significantly more money, but you should be able to find a used one at a very reasonable price (not sure about the UK market, but here in US they can be had for $500 or even less with some patience and luck. I paid $350 for mine and it had 3,500 print on it). 48xx also comes with much larger ink cartridges (110 or 220 ml compared to 7 or so 1400 uses). Aftermarket inks are available for them and are significantly cheaper, but nothing will beat the original EPSON inks if you are using them for photo output (almost all of us here use only the black ink and then it is used to print film positives which has different requirements than the picture printing).

Most of the EPSON printers like to be used often and it helps keep the heads clean.  My guess the issue with your clogging is related to the CISS system or inks.

pierre

[weefunker]

I just stumbled upon this forum and it looks like you guys know what you're talking about when it comes to printers so
I was wondering if anyone had any recommendations for a heavy duty a3 photo printer?

I have three epson 1400's one of which has completely shat itself (wont feed heavy a3 photopaper) and the others clog more than and more each day. Saying that they do have to print about 30+ A3 photo sheets each and every day so I can understand that they will clog but I am looking for something that will require minimal maintenance for around the same price.

I use ciss on all my printers and I am having to run 4-5 cleaning cycles on each of them to get them working again. They print for about 8 sheets then one or more nozzles clog. I have tried cleaning solutions ect. but it doesn't seem to make a lick of difference.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated

for the most part, 1400 is not a commercial grade printer. My guess is that's why you are having problems. 48xx series is designed for heavier use and should work out much better. They are significantly more money, but you should be able to find a used one at a very reasonable price (not sure about the UK market, but here in US they can be had for $500 or even less with some patience and luck. I paid $350 for mine and it had 3,500 print on it). 48xx also comes with much larger ink cartridges (110 or 220 ml compared to 7 or so 1400 uses). Aftermarket inks are available for them and are significantly cheaper, but nothing will beat the original EPSON inks if you are using them for photo output (almost all of us here use only the black ink and then it is used to print film positives which has different requirements than the picture printing).

Most of the EPSON printers like to be used often and it helps keep the heads clean.  My guess the issue with your clogging is related to the CISS system or inks.

pierre

Thanks for your reply Pierre unfortunately the Cheapest 48xx series epson I found was £1500~$2000, Will definitely look into getting one but at the moment that is way over my budget. The inks I use are fairly cheap but give better results than the epson brand ink so I presumed that they were better.

I went through a couple of ciss on my epson's as they sometimes were the problem but upon switching in a brand new ciss the problem was still there only maybe the cyan was previously clogged and now its the yellow.

[blue moon]

if you can't find a used one in UK, there might be one in US you could import. At $500 and another $150 for the shipping, you would be waaaay ahead.

also, just because the image looks better, it does not mean the ink is better. Even you say the heads are clogging. I would bet that this would not be the case with EPSON inks.

pierre