Do Epson Print Heads Still Clog Regularly?

[RRZ870]

About 5 to 10 years ago, I had gone through 2 Epson ink-jet printers which fairly regularly would have print heads clog, leaving missing lines in printouts and then I would run the print head cleaning mode, wasting ink and paper to get the printers to work correctly.

Eventually I bought a Canon MX870 and have NEVER had a print head clog in 5+ years.

Now I'm comparing new eco tank or Mega tank ink jet printers from Canon and Epson and although the Epson are faster, I do not want to live through the inconvenience of clogged print heads.

Do Epson print heads still clog regularly, or is the ink formulation or print head technology different today, such that clogging is not an issue.

Is the clogging more prevalent because the Epson ink is pigment based?

 

[BFG-9000]

Yep, Epson uses all-pigment inks which are more likely to clog, vs. your old Canon which used dye colors and pigment only for black. Also Canon uses user-replaceable printheads, while Epson requires a costly trip to the factory for a disassembly and a realignment procedure.

This problem has mostly been solved by incredibly ink-wasting automatic scheduled twice weekly cleanings (suitable even for desert environments so may be extra wasteful for high humidity areas), and you only tend to see it nowadays if you let the ink actually run out so it cannot do its self-cleaning. And you may run low sooner than you think even if you don't print anything, because the ink tanks gave got smaller too. But the Ecotank should give you a huge volume of ink for cleanings. CISS generally often isn't worth the plugging hassle with pigment inks, but this factory engineered type may be an exception.

In any case most of the swellable papers that are best for dye-based inks have been discontinued (like the old HP Premium Plus or Ilford Classic Pearl), and everything is now microporous for pigment inks. Dye inks just do not look as good and fade quickly on such papers, so even Canon have mostly switched to pigment inks now.

Epson also tend to brag about how few picoliters each droplet is, to something possible with only piezo and not thermal like Canon or HP. This also makes it more difficult to clear clogs from the heads.

 

[BFG-9000]

Looks like the MegaTank office printers are just like your old Canon, with pigment black and dye colors, unlike their pigment-only photo printers.

I should point out that pigment colors have a narrower gamut so generally more colors are required for the same quality, meaning the Epson doesn't necessarily look better on modern papers (and Canon papers have never been swellable). Both will show large amounts of dithering to create shades, but if you are happy with the output from the old Canon, then a new Canon should look about the same.

If you won't be printing photos on glossy paper and may occasionally print in high volume, then a color laser would be faster and may be less expensive in the long run. Can never clog and never needs self-cleaning cycles so can even be safely stored unplugged.