Top Epson Ecotank maintenance tips [ET-8550 ET-8550]. Things to keep your inkjet printer healthy.

[@KeithCooper]

For the 25+ icc printer paper profiles, contact me via Northlight Images [ www.northlight-images.co.uk/epson-et-8550-printer-review/ ] If you'd like to make a small donation, I have a Kofi page: "Buy me a coffee" ko-fi.com/keithcooper

[@michaelmcmullin2093]

I’ve had this printer for a few years now. Bought on your recommendation and reviews and it’s wonderful! I’ve won many a competition at my local photography club using this printer and that includes mono prints too. Thanks for the continued advice on keeping the printer healthy.

[@KeithCooper]

Excellent - I'd done an overview like this for a few other printers, so it great that I could borrow one again to add this video.

[@AZJack]

I bought my 8550 several years ago after watching your videos. Could not be more satisfied. I have never done borderless printing and see no need to start. A .12” border is fine and hidden when framed, if not framed I can trim it. Thanks for all of your help with getting to know this printer.

[@KeithCooper]

Glad I could help!

[@tmartin6717]

I discovered your KZbin channel while researching my 8550 purchase. I am very happy with the 8550, but even better, I now follow all your videos. I'm still a novice at printing, and your insight is most helpful.

[@KeithCooper]

Thanks - glad it's helpful!

[@Cliff117]

Yesterday I drove 80km and bought the ET-8550 from a BestBuy in Canada, on sale for $300 off. They also had a trade-up program, one can trade in any used printer working or not for another $99 off. So I purchased a 4 year exchange warranty covering everything but physical damage like dropping it on the floor for $149. But they had no paper available larger than letter size in stock. I looked all over that city for 13x19 paper sheets of any kind and discovered I have to order all paper online. I haven’t taken it out of the box yet. I want to get some A3+ paper first so I can properly play around after getting the printer setup. In the meantime I will start watching more of your ET-8550 videos!

[@KeithCooper]

A good deal! Do check the main [i.e. written] review as well, since it has more detail and lists every related video I've created. www.northlight-images.co.uk/epson-et-8550-printer-review/

[@Cliff117]

@@KeithCooper I will! Thanks again!

[@OsuperfastjellyfishO]

We purchased one of these a few years ago too in Australia, always works great never faulted. Amazing bit of kit. It just works

[@KeithCooper]

That's what I like to hear!

[@hedydd2]

I have a Epson 8500 and haven’t done any of the maintenance stuff in 18 months and it works perfectly. If it didn’t work perfectly, THEN it would be time to do some maintenance. It is so economical on ink, used every day doing mostly documents with maybe a photo or three every few weeks, say an average of one a week, 9 out of 10 being small and the tenth being an A4 photo, I’ve still only recently poured the last of the original ink in to it and the reservoirs are still mostly 75% full. I guess that unless I get some reason to print at a much higher rate than usual, this much ink will easily last until the new year [it’s 14th July today.] This is by far the best printer I’ve ever owned and used and amazingly cheap on ink.

[@KeithCooper]

Excellent - regular use is the key. My suggestions are perhaps more aimed at those likely to leave the printer for a couple of months between burst of printing, or who insist on a lot of borderless.

[@flol3266]

I have the 8550 now 2 years or so and only had problems once but they were severe. No matter what I did, I had strange lines in every print even after nozzle checks and intense cleaning cycles. Gave up and tried it again 24 hours later and magically everything was fine again.

[@KeithCooper]

Yes - I've had printers clear up announced like that...

[@garylester55]

Hi Keith. I bought this printer nearly 12 months ago. It’s very economical on the ink usage. I stopped printing boarder less prints when I got this printer because of the over spray on the felt strip, also when the print gets put into a frame, a few millimetres is covered. Great video, I did know about what you covered, as I have been printing my photos for some years now. This printer is the best Epson printer I’ve had, no problems at all. Re Gary 😊

[@KeithCooper]

Thanks - yes, an excellent solution for many

[@print-master]

As I go through phases of printing and not printing, I have set up schedule in qimage to print a declog image once a week. So guarantee automatically once a week a proper image is printed design to declog and to keep everything fluid. I have a dedicated lynx 1010 tablet that does that one job. Thanks for the recommendations the et8550 is a great printer.

[@KeithCooper]

Yes - a useful approach.

[@johnhuntley5591]

Thanks for the good advice Keith

[@KeithCooper]

Thanks

[@stuckkk]

Great info, thank you Keith

[@KeithCooper]

Thanks

[@paulwallis9334]

Thanks Keith . Your a treasure .....

[@KeithCooper]

Glad to help!

[@annac3514]

Yet another great video, Keith. Thank you! I recently went through a few boxes of old photos (20-40 years old) to compare color and fading. I noticed the photos I had printed at a drug store held up very poorly. The photos I sent off to a mail-in lab (mind you, this was in the film days) seemed to have held up much better. The photos that looked the best, were the old school portraits and the silver halide B&W photos I developed in school. I don't suppose the school portraits were actually printed on fine art paper with pigment inks, but rather much higher quality photo paper. So is it the paper or the ink which have a bigger impact? It depends?

[@KeithCooper]

Thanks - Silver halide B&W will always last best [if properly washed of course] I'm not enough of a darkroom expert to have the details of papers and the likes though... ;-)

[@imoafaq]

10:10 just got my printer this week L18050 and all my prints were borderless.. now I see the reason of ink left on that fabric. Also encountering black ink smearing sometimes on satin and semi glossy papers. Hopefully I don’t need to print on these type of papers as Im waiting for some fine art matt papers.

[@KeithCooper]

Yes, borderless is the best way to make a mess inside printers ;-) Take care with fine art papers - I found them very difficult to use in that printer [et-18100] See www.northlight-images.co.uk/epson-et-18100-printer-review/

[@Richardincancale]

Hi - All is going well with my (nearly) new 8550! I mostly print A3/A3+ on either photo or on Canson watercolour paper - it’s great! I have done a bit of borderless, but I wonder if it isn’t better in the long term to use a very small border and then just guillotine off the border? It reduces the print size only a fraction (maybe 3mm on each edge) and avoids the overspray. What do you think?

[@KeithCooper]

Yes - if you need borderless, I'd prefer that - it gets the whole image in for starters...

[@barbaraeguchi470]

Thanks so much for this video. I have a simple question for the Epson ET 8550. We just bought one and I was wondering if I should be powering it off after each use or just keep it on all of the time? Your advice is much appreciated.

[@KeithCooper]

Unless I know it's going to be weeks, I leave the printer on and let it power down itself, to a standby mode

[@barbaraeguchi470]

@@KeithCooper thanks very much for your reply! much appreciated.

[@key2adventure]

Hey Keith. I am going to Nepal for a month, would you turn of the printer or leave it on stand-by? What about the larger P900 that I also have? Thanks in advance, and thanks for your great channel. Best regards from Bo in Denmark

[@KeithCooper]

I'd normally switch off and put in a plastic bag to keep out dust for longer breaks

[@key2adventure]

@@KeithCooper Great thanks for your reply 🙂

[@saiyanlink9303]

Can I ask you something? I watched your review quite a while ago and I want to make sure I’m not getting this printer mixed up with another one. I’m looking to open a small business where I sell prints and K-pop photo cards. All the reviews I’ve seen so far haven’t used any gloss photo paper. I can’t remember if it can print double sided? Sorry for all the questions I’ve just been so indecisive for months cause I’m investing a lot as a student. The photos are much smaller but I’d print them in bulks

[@KeithCooper]

Double sided is only really for office type printing Read the actual review for a lot more info www.northlight-images.co.uk/epson-et-8550-printer-review/

[@Pat-1000]

Thank you Keith , i will be looking over the list for this printer i recently bought one and so far happy with the actual prints , I have the latest firmware yet when using Brilliant Museum Inkjet Paper - SilverGloss White A3+ 25 sheets - 300gsm i am getting roller indentations right along the prints using the rear /top feed, i tried turning on Thick Paper settings but made no difference ... I will try the back feed and see if that makes any improvements , i did see another person mention anything above 280GSM using the rear feed it left the same roller marks .. Would you class 300gsm a heavy paper ? just curious as i a new to home printing as in complete beginner.

[@KeithCooper]

This seems to affect different printers by different amounts - But I class papers by thickness not weight, since the two are not the same. It's also important to note that surface/paper firmness varies.

[@Pat-1000]

@@KeithCooper Ok thanks , the caliper thickness on this paper is 0.40mm

[@KeithCooper]

Yes - use that in your testing. each printer seems different - there is no firm guide

[@Cliff117]

I very much appreciate your experience and expertise. Thanks for a GREAT video!

[@KeithCooper]

Thanks - glad it was of interest.

[@sabineremnant6675]

Hi Keith, I made mistake of charging the ink before I had actually put ink into the printer, and so now nothing prints. I cannot find how to get the printer to charge the ink again. Do you have any ideas?! I have the ET-8500. I would love any suggestions!

[@KeithCooper]

One for Epson support I'm afraid...

[@richardsorge-]

Thank You, as always, every video is precious (me too decided for the 8550 after seing Your videos , Epson should pay You some royalties). A couple of questions: Can You point to some brand of adhesive paper that gives good result for the ET-8550? and Is this 25+ icc printer profile any good for domestic prints ? ( es: trying to enhance color brightness on papers that give dull results ? Thanks

[@KeithCooper]

Glad to have helped. Unfortunately, adhesive paper is something I've never used beyond making labels for jars of preserve, and that was stuff I 'found' a box of 25 years ago with a laser printer... The profiles are for specific papers - see the discussion in the actual [i.e. written] review www.northlight-images.co.uk/epson-et-8550-printer-review/

[@nwcs2]

I have the ET-7750, any tips specific to this model?

[@KeithCooper]

Nothing specific - the general points stand.

[@okiterukagetsu]

Would print alignment help if there is a slight misalignment of the borders when printing? I don't mean uneven offsets... I mean if it's slanted on the page every so slightly. It's not an issue with larger prints, but more obvious on smaller.

[@KeithCooper]

No, the head alignment affect print quality. Any skew is usually doe to the feed rollers.

[@pmcbMadeInIreland]

@@KeithCooperThank you for the in-depth tips Keith, much appreciated. I have the same problem as Okiter i.e. slight skewing of printing, noticeable when comparing borders on each side of the print. What in your opinion is the fix for this please?

[@KeithCooper]

@@pmcbMadeInIreland I never saw this when testing I'm afraid - the printer was just a loan from Epson, so had to go back

[@pmcbMadeInIreland]

@@KeithCooper thank you, I appreciate the reply Keith.

[@mohanmenon8146]

HELP!! My brand new Epson ET-8550 is all set up. It prints blank internal reports (and also blanks from my iMac). Do you think that the ink is not loading into the print head? What do you think?

[@KeithCooper]

Does it print a nozzle check page from the panel? If not, it's got a problem and may need replacing - contact Epson or supplier...

[@mohanmenon8146]

@@KeithCooper@KeithCooper Nozzle check also prints blank. It is from Quill, USA. I will contact them. For a while, I thought it was the driver (for iMac). Thanks for the help.

[@GremHopkins]

I have a bit different experience on how often to do head alignment: sometimes I need to do it twice during long session of printing. Maybe it is because my printer is installed at not very stable table

[@KeithCooper]

For that often, something is definitely wrong somewhere...

[@GremHopkins]

@@KeithCooper maybe, at some point it just starts printing in lines, and each alignment shows different results - i.e I need to choose different answers. Sometimes I do head alignment a few times one after another for best printing accuracy and it kind of works