Long-term storage of a new printer

InkjetMall Customer Support Printer Maintenance & Cartridges
1

As mentioned in a couple of other threads, I’ve just bought an Epson R2000 for piezo, and I have put it aside until I need it, hopefully for several years.

Now I seem to recall that IJM has done something similar with the 3880. My question is, how to store this new printer?

It’s tempting just to put it aside as-is, although I will try to sell the OEM carts. But of course if I do that then I won’t know whether the printer is working until it’s far too late.

So should I start it up and put flush carts in, and then store it with these flush carts? I assume that if I were to do that, I’d plug both the vent and fill holes to prevent evaporation. Or should I just leave it boxed as is? Faulty from new is exceptionally rare, and I wonder about leaving it stored with the same flush carts for such a (hopefully) extended period.

How are you storing new printers long-term for future use?

(And no, I’m not going to put the OEM carts in. Not unless it proves absolutely necessary to diagnose a fault.)

2

Our practice is to put a set of PiezoFlush filled cartridges into the printer - run a head cleaning to replace the inks with PiezoFlush and then turn off the printer with PiezoFlush carts installed. If you can remember to remove the plugs when you start it back up - you can close the vent plugs while its stored. We also wrap our desktops tightly in a large poly bag to seal in the moisture - just in case our few weeks turns into a few months.

We buy a lot of printers for R&D and you would be surprised how many new printers or refurb printers are sub-standard upon start up.

but you can do a lot of testing with PiezoFlush because it’s dark pink enough to see on the nozzle checks and the alignments. A little more difficult on alignments - but there.

3

Have you stored a new printer for years this way?

4

We do. We have a lot of printers in house. R&D is upstairs over the Cone Editions Press and many of the printers we use in R&D are project oriented. When we complete a project - the printer is stored. It’s not uncommon for us to keep a printer in PiezoFlush for 2-3 years. We use a chemical to slow the drying of PiezoFlush specifically for this purpose.

We also store brand new printers for 5 years or so in the unopened retail boxing. They start up as if they were just bought…

5

Sorry to keep asking dumb questions, but just to be 100% completely clear on this, do you mean with flush carts? (That’s implied by the context, but I want to be 100% certain before I do anything rash.)

6

If we want to test a new printer - we do and then we store it with PiezoFlush.

If we do not want to test a new printer - we just keep it in the box “unopened”.

7

Are you able to say what determines when you want to test a new printer and when not? Is it related to the model, or a hunch, or random QA on a some in a new batch of printers? (I’m sounding a little obsessive here, but I’m torn between wanting the reassurance that comes with testing and storing with flush, and also wanting the convenience and simplicity of just storing it as-is.)

8

I am not embarrassed to say that when we buy 10 printers (such as the R2880), we do not have the time to test them. :frowning: Or the resources - as often we are knees deep in projects. If the printers are 3880s we would test because of COST and warranty time. If they are X900s we would not buy them without 3 year warranties and those we take the chance on.

In your case - you have a new R2000 you have plans for and it must carry a one year warranty. So certainly test it prior to that! Otherwise - leave it in the box. No need to expense a PiezoFlush system for it.

For you and for us - it comes to cost with new printers.

For printers in production - we put them in PiezoFlush if we know we will not use them for 3 weeks or more. Or if we find we have not used them for a long time and experience regret for not putting them in PiezoFlush earlier. it just makes life easier for us and we know when we need the printer to be spot on it will be.

9

Thank you both for the education. Very helpful.

10

Nor should you be embarrassed. Risk management is often a far better (more cost-effective) option than total risk avoidance.

I could have waited until the warranty was almost expired before I tested, but if there was a DoA type fault which would lead to a replacement rather than repair, I wanted to know while I was still in the grace period for DoA units.

The R2000 has been tested over several days with (only) flush carts, and now the printer with (replugged) flush carts is safely wrapped, reboxed and under the house, waiting for the day when it is needed.