Bricked Epson printers make a strong case for user repairability

Image by Jess Weatherbed / The Verge

There were accusations of planned obsolescence after the company disabled a printer that was not malfunctioning. It won't be cost-effective for many owners to send their home printers in for service due to the fact that they will stop working at a predictable point in the future. Wouldn't it be better if they were user serviceable in the beginning?

After an end-of-service error message appeared, his wife was unable to use her very expensiveEpson printer.

My wife’s very expensive @EpsonAmerica printer just gave a message saying it had reached the end of its service life and proceeded to brick itself. Apparently she can pay to service it or buy a new one even though it was working fine. Outrageous!

— Mark Tavern (@marktavern) July 22, 2022

This isn't a new thing for the printers from the company. Several years ago, there was an error message that read "parts inside the printer have reached the end of their service life." The error is related to the printer's ink pads, which have become saturated and are now at risk of spilling into the rest of the printer mechanism.

Several solutions are offered in a recently updated support document. Sending the printer intoEpson to replace the ink pads is one of the things that can be done. The printer's other components may be near the end of usable life, so repairing it may not be a good investment for lower cost printers. Most consumers who are out of warranty choose to replace a lower-cost printer when they receive an end of life service message, according to a new report.

In order to complete existing print run needs, customers in North America can get a free Maintenance Reset Utility. This is only available to users of Windows 10, Windows 8, Windows 7, Windows Vista, and Windows XP. If you want to get additional reset keys, you can purchase them from less thanReputable third-party websites that will usually charge you $9.99 for the service.

Users found other ways to keep a printer running, such as manually replacing or cleaning the ink pads themselves. The company's ink pads seem to vary by model, but there are plenty of video lessons available that document the process. None of these tasks are endorsed byEpson.

The ink pad issue is rarely encountered by most customers and only affects very heavily used printers, printers used for several years, or consumer printers. A representative for the printer company said that most print users wouldn't receive the message. It is dependent on a number of factors, including the printer model, usage conditions, and type of printing.

There is a safety issue to consider, according to the company. According to the support page, the printers are designed to stop operating at the point where further use without replacing the ink pads could create risks of property damage from ink spills or safety issues related to excess ink contact an electrical component. It seems reasonable that Epson doesn't want to be held responsible for property damage. It is an admission that the hardware can be avoided with regular maintenance.

Consumers are fighting for the right to repair their own hardware because of the ink pad scenario. Despite the existence of effective do-it-yourself solutions, Epson requires you to pay to service the printer or replace it completely, taking money out of your pocket and putting it into its own despite the existence of effective do-it-yourself solutions. Consumers should be able to clean or replace the ink pads if they want to. It is a bad deal for its customers and the environment if it continues the status quo. Recycling schemes are not always efficient.

HP remotely disabling printers for customers who canceled their Instant Ink subscription is just one of the anti-consumer practices that have come under scrutiny by the Consumer Product Safety Commission. Canon was a victim of its own business tactics earlier this year when the chip shortage resulted in Canon printers being unable to recognize its own officially branded ink. It shows that manufacturers can always come up with new ways to make us dislike using an ink jet printer.