Epson Stylus Photo 1280 Inkjet Printer (Silver)

I've had my 1280 for several years, and other than using a fair bit of ink it's an excellent machine (I sell my photography). HOWEVER - I had to get a new computer recently and the 1280 won't work at all. There are some online postings saying people have had trouble getting the ink levels to read and there is a patch for that, but mine won't work at all. So far, no reply from Epson. As well as this works, I can't see buying a new printer from a company with such poor support. I may have to get a local techie to see if my new computer (and I know there can be serious problems here, functionality-wise) can be converted back to XP. Anyway, this is a serious and possible very expensive problem.

I've had my Epson 1280 for about 2 years. I love it! It prints excellent text and photos. I can clearly read even tiny print done by it. I can use non-Epson brand ink and glossy photo paper with no problems. This keeps my printing costs way down. I am very happy with the colors, sharpness, everything. I can't think of a thing wrong with this printer! If it ever goes, I will get another Epson!

I will say however that my erzatz ink does tend to fade when left on display. It probably needs to be put under glass. If you print on paper that it's not set for (ie you set it for plain paper but feed it glossy), the jets seem to jam, but that's easily resolved by cleaning the heads using their utility routines. Again not the fault of the printer. All told, I am very satisfied with this printer.

This printer has been great for me to have as it is helping my build my business and am very pleased that it has been so helpful and sent so quickly.

I bought this "1280 Silver" twice. The first printer started printing incorrect colors after extensive use over a year. I bought another, the same "1280 Silver" again, only because Epson was offering a sale and the printer was very cheap and also because I already knew the problems and how to fix them.

I am very good at repairing certain electronics, and that was why I was able to print so much, but I don't think people should work so hard to cleaning and tuning the mechanical device inside just to print things.

The first printer had lots of problems, although it produced high quality prints with my struggles to control this machine.

Problem 1: After printing borderless prints, the ink that didn't land onto the paper, where the edges are, accumulated on two certain spots, in this case, since I was printing a lot of letter size prints, the ink accumulation were 8.5 inches apart. I am talking about a lot of ink staying in two spots in the printer. What it did was, each time I printed, the edges of paper got black stains. There is a thin gray sponge to collect the excess ink, but since I printed so much the ink was soaked in the sponge. I was constantly cleaning and drying the sponge so the ink doesn't get onto the paper. Then this leads to the Problem 2.

Problem 2: The gray sponge (it was already black from the excess ink) got so worn out that it decided to come out of the spot where the sponge should have stayed. What happened was that the nasty sponge got trapped into a few wheels that move the paper! I had to use all sorts of tools (I am exceptionally good at using small tools to fix things) to remove the chunks of the nasty sponge that were already spinning with the little wheels. I honestly think most people cannot do what I did because, like I mentioned I am very good at doing stuff like that. So I did not give up, and removed the crap out of the printer. It took a lot of cleaning solution to clean up the excess ink from the printer, and I decided not to print borderless again with this printer.

Problems 3: Each time I put new ink, I had to clean up the nozzles so many times, and that is a pain because, first of all, it cleans just a little bit at a time, and each time it cleans a lot of ink is consumed. Also I had to clean the part where ink tank and printer meet each time I replace the ink tanks because the ink mess was tremendous. This printer requires a lot of maintenance if one uses a lot like I do.

Problem 4: The room got smelly when I printed for hours because I had to print that much. The smell made me feel sick.


Problem 5: This printer, according to Epson's specification, is supposed to print what they used to call "double-sided matt paper." This paper is thicker than the regular paper, and I had to feed one by one because this printer can grab any number of papers. I even had to feed the most common paper one by one because the printer grabs paper irregularly so the next page starts printing in the middle of the paper instead of the top of the paper. Since I didn't want to re-print nor waste papers, I had to feel papers one by one, restraining me at around the printer like a tied up dog.

Problem 6: Then finally it started printing incorrect color. I just did feel like spending more time trying to figure out how to fix it.

Problem 7: After buying the second printer, I removed the gray sponge because I knew that someday it would get trapped into the wheels. And I never printed borderless again with the second printer. The problem #7 occurred after I came back from one month trip. One of the nozzles was clogged! I cleaned and cleaned and cleaned and cleaned. The cleaning used up both black and colored inks, both brand new! The inks are over $40 worth with black and colors, and it was only one of seven nozzles that was clogged! What this might imply is that one must hire someone to come to his or her office to print something once a week or so to make sure that the nozzles don't get clogged when the owner of the printer is out of town for a long time. I can ask someone to feed a cat, but I hate a printer that requires that much of care!

I am giving a 3 stars because the quality of the prints were very good (I would give 4 or 5 stars), but the amount of work on my part was so much that I cannot give any better rate. I am writing this not because I want someone read this but because I am exhausted from using this printer and am going to buy Canon. I think I have had just enough.

This printer is old (I thought it was recently introduced by epson)
Man....it uses the ink.... but does a good job printing...