Printers stay 1 of the astir frustrating pieces of user electronics, but it turns retired a thirst for pricey ink and occasionally chewing up and choking connected insubstantial aren’t the biggest challenges of utilizing an Epson printer. As some users person discovered, the hardware mightiness beryllium programmed to simply halt moving 1 day, if utilized excessively frequently.

The operation ‘planned obsolescence’ gets thrown astir a batch with user electronics, arsenic a signifier wherever a merchandise is specifically designed and built with a constricted lifespan truthful that it needs to beryllium upgraded oregon replaced successful conscionable a fewer years’ time. Most companies contradict utilizing this approach, oregon volition mention precise circumstantial but questionable reasons arsenic to wherefore it’s necessary, arsenic Mark Haven, a writer and lecturer astatine the University of New Haven successful Connecticut, precocious discovered.

Haven precocious took to Twitter to stock a frustrating acquisition with their wife’s “very costly @EpsonAmerica printer” which, seemingly retired of the blue, displayed a informing connection stating that “it had reached the extremity of its work life.” It past simply stopped working, requiring either a servicing to bring it backmost from the dead, oregon a full-on replacement.

So what was the contented with the printer? A dormant motor? A faulty circuit board? Nope. The mistake connection was related to porous pads wrong the printer that cod and incorporate excess ink. These deterioration retired implicit time, starring to imaginable risks of spot harm from ink spills, oregon perchance adjacent harm to the printer itself. Usually, different components successful the printer deterioration retired earlier these pads do, oregon consumers upgrade to a amended exemplary aft a fewer years, but immoderate high-volume users whitethorn extremity up receiving this mistake connection portion the remainder of the printer seems perfectly good and usable.

According to the Fight to Repair Substack, the self-bricking contented affects the Epson L130, L220, L310, L360, and L365 models, but could impact different models arsenic well, and dates backmost astatine slightest 5 years. There’s already videos connected YouTube showing different Epson users manually replacing these ink pads to bring their printers backmost to life. The institution does supply a Windows-only Ink Pad reset utility that volition widen the beingness of the printer for a abbreviated play of time, but it tin lone beryllium utilized once, and afterwards, the hardware volition either request to beryllium officially serviced, oregon wholly replaced.

A fewer years ago, Epson released its EcoTank enactment of printers, which were specifically designed to code the highly precocious outgo of replacing the ink cartridges for colour inkjet printers. The printers featured ample ink reservoirs which could beryllium easy refilled with cheaper bottles of ink, and though Epson’s EcoTank printers were much costly arsenic a result, successful the agelong tally they would beryllium cheaper to operate, particularly for those printing a batch of colour imagery. But that assumes they really support moving for the agelong run. Videos of users manually replacing their Epson printers’ ink pads look to bespeak that the institution could redesign the hardware to marque this portion easy user-serviceable, which would widen the beingness of the hardware considerably. But arsenic it stands, the company’s solution runs the hazard of contributing to an ever-growing e-waste occupation and forcing consumers to ammunition retired for caller hardware agelong earlier they truly request to.

We’ve reached retired to Epson for remark astir this functionality and person asked the institution which models specifically are affected by this limitation. We’ve besides asked whether servicing is covered nether the printer’s warranty, and what the outgo whitethorn beryllium if not, and volition update this communicative erstwhile we perceive back.