Life Span of Epson Print Heads

misterinkjet81

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I was always curious to know what the actual life span of the Epson print heads are. I have been on the phone with Epson myself and asked them the same question. They told me it was 8-10 years. I have a hard time beleiving this because I have customers who have had their Epson for one year and it seems that their printhead as gone bad. I know that the figures will vary depending on how well the customer maintains their print head but was wondering if anyone has done any research into this topic that could help me. Thanks.
 

websnail

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The key to the head lasting is the ink that passes through it and doesn't stay for an extended visit.. ie: clogging.

I've got a couple of C84's that are still going strong 2 years on, despite being used flat out in school for long periods... My old Epson 740 was still ticking over as well for years until a cart died in it after over a year of refilling (my own fault)... so they CAN last pretty well but don't necessarily go for the whole 8-10 years.
 

alchemist

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I ran a printhead life test on three Epson 740 printers. One printer used only OEM ink cartridges, the second some ink I formulated in US made compatibles, and third using off the shelf Chinese cartridges.
The sample size is not valid, but at the time it was intended to be a quick and dirty comparison.

The Epson black failed after 94 cartridges. Not a clog but an electrical failure. The color head had not failed but test stopped.
The printhead had to be cleaned with a cleaning cartridge after the 35th, 42th, 61st, and 82 cartridge in order to clear clogged nozzles or filter.

The US cartridge printer head failed after 86 black cartridges. The color head was still working. The printheads also had to be cleaned 5 (vs 4 for OEM) times.

The Chinese cartridge test was stopped, at the 25th cartridge, after I discovered the samples I had acquired had mixed ink formulations. When I sorted by what I assumed to be the same date code the colors were still not all the same. There was no printhead electrical failure at that point. The clogging got to be a major issue and I saw no sense in continuing, given my corrupted sample set.

This was by no means a valid printhead life test, but those heads are darn robust, if you put in a good quality ink and perform an occasional through cleaning.

Alchemist
 
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