Used Epson R3880

I've been offered a near new unit (so the seller claims!) for about 30% less than the lowest retail price. I know that this printer is popular amongst the photographers here so I'm seeking some advise as to what to check before parting with my hard earned cash.

The seller claims that it had only ever been used a few times - is there anyway that I can get a print count info from the software? Anything else that I should look out for before purchasing?

Thanks in advance for your advise.

I would certainly want to see the date the printer was bought. Being used only a few times is half the story with printers. The amount of time a printer sits idle with ink in the tubes and nozzles will tell you how often the ink has moved in the tubing and nozzles and indicate how likely the printer might prone to clogging. Clearing clogs can get expensive because it uses a lot of ink to flush the clog clear. I don't have any experience with a 3880 but clogging is certainly a problem with a 4800.

The 3880 does track print count and a few other data points. Don't know which OS you're printing from but check page 98 of the manual (might be covered on a different page but it's there).

Yeah, I agree with Dick. Mechanical age of the printer is one thing... if it has been hardly used, that's fine. But the printhead and ink supply system (not to mention the inks sitting in the device) age in various ways, whether they are being used or not. Get a current print from the device, even if it's just the auto nozzle check pattern. If the machine is local to you, run this test yourself from the printer's front panel. And like Don says, you can look up some usage stats in the front panel as well.

If there are no major clogging issues showing with the printer as it stands right now, then it could be a good deal. The 3880 is indeed a very popular model that can deliver many great prints, as long as this one is in good operating conditions...

Better yet, supply a properly profiled and soft proofed file of your own and have that printed

It's not local to me, this is why I thought I ought to be prepared when I go to collect. I will have to check in situ before deciding. I will try and download the manual online so that I know how to check for print count. Will also bring a file of my own to try printing there.

The seller did say that he hasn't calibrated the printer so accuracy won't be there I don't think - I get the impression that he thought it was just going to be a plug-n-play affair!

Thank you all for your advise so far. If anyone else can think of anything to add, please let me know. The meet day is next week so I have time to be prepared.

Des wrote:It's not local to me, this is why I thought I ought to be prepared when I go to collect. I will have to check in situ before deciding. I will try and download the manual online so that I know how to check for print count. Will also bring a file of my own to try printing there.

The seller did say that he hasn't calibrated the printer so accuracy won't be there I don't think - I get the impression that he thought it was just going to be a plug-n-play affair!

Thank you all for your advise so far. If anyone else can think of anything to add, please let me know. The meet day is next week so I have time to be prepared.

I think you should also do a nozzle check. A lot of files don't use all the colors so a nozzle check will identify a problem color/nozzle if a problem exists.

Absolutely. Print a photo if you like, but do the nozzle check for sure. Many persistent clog problems can be subtle and not immediately obvious depending on the nature of a specific photo being printed.

Something nobody has mentioned yet, what about the ink cartridges? If the cartridges are the original ones and the seller is truthful about seldom used then they are probably out-dated. The value in this printer (to me) is in the ink, as to replace all cartridges you are looking at something like $400 or more! Without new cartridges supplied I would probably pass unless the price was insanely low.

Thank you Randy, good point. I'm still unsure whether if buying used is worth the risk.

Does anyone know if using third party ink renders the warranty void, if I purchase a new unit?

Yea, I'm pretty sure Epson will say that 3rd party inks will void the warranty. I waited until the warranty expired and then switched to Jon Cone's inks when I needed replacements. So far they have worked out very well.

Actually, in the USA and perhaps other jurisdictions, I believe it's illegal for Epson to void the warranty merely due to the use of 3rd party inks. If they determined that actual damage was caused by 3rd party ink or cartridges then they can decline to repair the damage under warranty, but that's a bit different.

Note that with larger inkjet printers in particular, a relatively large portion of the original purchase price is in fact accounted to the ink that comes with the printer, not the printer mechanism itself. Depending on how much ink is left in this 2nd hand system, and how long it has been sitting without being used (check the expiry dates printed on the ink cartridges), a much larger purchase discount could be called for. Look at the new purchase price of ink cartridges and you can pro-rate the value of the ink in a new printer to the cost of the device itself. Then use that for some back-of-the-envelope figuring on what the used printer would be worth given whatever state it and its ink supply are in...

Just wanted to add...keep in mind that, with a new 3880, a significant minority of each new ink cartridge will be drained during the initial set up process.  This is a one-time instance, but--if I recall correctly--something on the order of 1/4 to 1/3 of the ink in each conference will be purged.  This doesn't eliminate any of the points made above (particularly if the ink in the used printer is old, etc.) but it probably should impact any estimates of the relative value of the two options (assuming the used printer and its ink turn out to be viable).

Kerry wrote:Just wanted to add...keep in mind that, with a new 3880, a significant minority of each new ink cartridge will be drained during the initial set up process.  This is a one-time instance, but--if I recall correctly--something on the order of 1/4 to 1/3 of the ink in each conference will be purged.  

Geez, I don't recall that they use that much ink at start up! Even a good power head cleaning doesn't use that much either. I mean, at that ratio, you would use a  hundred dollars worth of ink on initial startup!

It certainly uses a *lot* of ink at startup, I recall mine dropping by more than 20%.  The maintenance cart usage was even higher.

Also the manual claims the power cycle uses a "large quantity of ink" such that the cartridges need to be "at least 50% full" for a power clean!

Anyway, I haven't seen warranty mentioned but that should be considered.

Unless your eyesight is very good, bring a magnifying glass when doing the nozzle check and look carefully. 

It's probably a good idea to print something to check for weird marks or ink smudging issues.

Epson puts these on sale at times so it's worth checking current rebates in comparing the new price.

Thanks guys, food for thought...

Starting a brand new printer doesn't exactly "use" any ink. All it is doing is filling all the hoses with ink and makes it look like your cartridges have been drained. It does take a considerable amount of ink to do this but you haven' actually used any. But if you have to purge the lines because of bad ink you'll have the same thing with new cartridges AND you'll probably have to change the maintenance cartridge also, (not a significant expense though).

Randy Mehoves wrote:Starting a brand new printer doesn't exactly "use" any ink. All it is doing is filling all the hoses with ink and makes it look like your cartridges have been drained. It does take a considerable amount of ink to do this but you haven' actually used any.

I don't mean to belabor the point, and perhaps this is semantics, but the Epson 3880 Startup Guide says the following:

"Note:  The first time you install ink cartridges, the printer uses some ink to charge the printing system, so print yields may be lower with the first cartridges.  Subsequent ink cartridges will last for their full rated life."

At the very least, that implies that some ink has been "wasted" upon setting up the printer, and that certainly conforms with my experience.

Hmmm....since the printer will never print the lines dry, that volume of ink in the lines will never be available for printing so it really is used (ie wasted for printing).   

Anyway, the point for the OP is probably more that if he checks the printer and see the inks at 80% (or so) then it would be wrong to think the printer has been used a lot.  Those levels are consistent with a very lightly used printer.

Yes, BJS' point is true. The initial load of ink that charges the lines, dampers, etc. to prepare for the first print certainly is not all dumped into the maintenance tank, so it's not wasted in that sense. (Though some is, you can tell by looking at the maintenance tank after firing up a new printer.) But an equivalent volume of ink will always remain within the ink delivery system and will never be depleted by printing. So it's not fully usable print-making ink; it's a cost of overhead that will be finally paid when the printer is decommissioned.

The only reason this matters right now is 2 points already made above. First, most photo inkjets like to be printed regularly (unless they have an automated self-cleaning cycle that fires when the power is left on). Ink can go stale (though for pigment inks it takes a long time), and pigments can settle if left sitting for a long time. So the ink that's in a used printer is not necessarily valuable, depending on how old it is. Second, a large proportion of the purchase price of a new larger format printer is the load of ink that comes with it. If the ink has been consumed or is untrustworthy for use, then that should affect the pricing of the machine. The printer mechanics would be discounted by wear & tear; but the ink might be discounted even if it wasn't used.

Also as mentioned, if the printer has sat unused for a long time there's a chance it has developed some clogs that may take a greater than average amount of cleaning cycles to clear. If that's so, it will burn up more ink -- a further cost in acquiring a used printer. This is why it would be good to print nozzle checks at a minimum when viewing the printer firsthand, to verify whether clogs are present or not; and if they are, to ensure they can be cleared satisfactorily before settling the deal for a given price.