Because of full sponges: Epson shuts down functioning printer

Manufacturer Epson is said to simply switch off printers that are still working. Due to full ink sponges, the fully functional devices would simply be deactivated for safety reasons, they say.

Epson shuts down printers

“A part in their printer has reached the end of its useful life. Service is necessary,” shines the notice on the display of various printers from manufacturer Epson these days. Affected are apparently various models of the manufacturer, which would still work perfectly, however, reports the blog Fight to Repair.

It goes on to say that Epson had implemented a hard “end of life” code in the printer software that would render even fully functional older devices simply unusable. And this, of course, without informing buyers about this feature at the time of purchase.

Thereby, the communication is in connection with ink sponges, which the manufacturer itself as “porous pads in the printer the ink collect, distribute and – most importantly – hold, which are not used on printed pages”.

Among the models affected are the Epson L360, L130, L220, L310 and L365, it adds. Nevertheless, other inkjet printers of the manufacturer could also be affected, the blog continues.

Epson insists security risk

Epson calls the notice a safety notice that pops up to prevent damage to other items in the home.“Most users do not receive this notice until the printer is replaced for other reasons,” so the manufacturer.

Piquant: The then no longer functioning printers could be further used even according to Epson’s statement, at least in the short term, in which one simply removes the message with the help of the “Maintenance Reset Utility”.

However, this is only necessary once and only a bypass of the complete deactivation for a short time to be able to use the printers a few more times. However, this program is only available for Windows PCs and notebooks.

Epson also states on its own homepage that the printers are designed to simply stop working at some point. Regardless of whether they still print without problems and errors.

However, it is probably possible to replace the ink sponges yourself without any problems, as Fight to Repair further states and links to a YouTube video that shows the replacement. They clearly prove that a complete replacement of the printer, which Epson provides for, is not necessary.

So Epson itself claims to design its printers in such a way that at some point they can no longer be used without replacing the ink sponge. Even experts apparently disagree on the question of whether this practice is illegal.

We’ve already told you what to look for when buying a printer in our tutorial and shed light on whether you can still use expired printer cartridges in another guide.