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by billg71 on Tue May 12, 2015 8:13 pm
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I haven't been following the tech in wide-formats for a few years, passed on the Epson x900 series because of all the reported problems with heads clogging when not in routine use.

I don't print nearly as much as I used to so the printers sit idle for months at a time then get pushed into the front line with no warning. I have an Epson P3800 for gloss printing and a SP4800 for matte and rolls. The 4800 gets used a lot more than the 3800 these days, mainly for printing house plans on plain paper roll but only maybe every 3-4 months. Both will start up, do whatever they do when they automatically flush a few $ of ink down the drain and print what I need to print. Occasionally I'll do the auto-head-check thing and throw away a few more $ of ink but for the most part they start up and print just fine. I do keep them powered up all the time, don't know if that makes a difference.

I'm thinking of going to just one printer and also wider, either 24" or 44" and I'm not really comfortable with the larger Epsons, I've read too many complaints of heads clogging when not in everyday use.

Any suggestions would be welcome!

TIA,
Bill
 

by Royce Howland on Tue May 12, 2015 10:11 pm
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HP is largely out of the market in practical terms, though the HP Z3200 remains technically available. For large format photographic printers, IMO it's really a choice of only two right now: the Epson 7900 / 9900 or the Canon iPF 6400 / 8400.

I can't really recommend the Espon x900 series. People do have them and get use out of them, but for sporadic printing like you describe they are likely to cause trouble. The print studio where I work has a dead 9900 right now, same kind of problems described extensively on the web. Except we don't print sporadically, we print heavily. So it's not just periodic use that leads to the epic clogging problems on the x900's. I'm convinced those machines had a major design flaw of some kind. The rumour about the new Epson printers now debuting with the SureColor 800, and presumably with large format versions to follow later this year, is that Epson has reverted back to an x880 style of head design rather than progressing with the x900 head design. Time will tell what happens with the prospective large format SureColor models.

I've spent a bunch of time working with Canon's over the past year and a half, including the 8400. Canon is not without their faults, but head clogging is not one of the problems. Canon heads do fail but they're a much cheaper, user-replaceable consumable item unlike the Epson heads. The big Canons are fast, pretty solid, and produce good results. Especially for sporadic print volumes, where they seem to "just work" all the time. So my feeling these days, even working in an all-Epson shop, is that if I was spending my own hard-earned $ on a large format printer for regular colour work, it would be a Canon. Only if I needed something more specialized would I stick with Epson, which still enjoys much broader support with all kinds of software and DIY kits.
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by Primus on Thu May 14, 2015 6:35 am
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I have an Epson 9900 and a 3880. The latter too clogs, but cleans up on its own when needed, so you don't realize it is clogged. The larger one definitely needs unclogging, unless you are able to send a 'nozzle check' every few days which most people forget to do.

However, the latest version of QImage (if you are on Windows or willing to run it in a shell through VM ware Fusion or Parallels) does have a feature where it sends a much better version of nozzle check pattern to the printer every few days (set by user). The pattern is supposed to pulse the different nozzles in a manner that cleans them out too. I don't know if this would work, I just implemented it myself. Of course this means you need to have the program running in the background.

Otherwise I love my Epsons, the print quality is outstanding.

Pradeep
 

by Mark Picard on Thu May 14, 2015 11:15 am
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I use a Epson 9900 and a 4880 in my studio, and I do print often (every other day or so), so I don't experience major clogging issues with either printer. But if I find that I haven't printed in, say, 5 or 6 days, I print out a McBeth color chart (copied from a Google search jpeg) copied three times in a row, then printed on a roll with a user defined setting of 4' wide by the paper width I happen to have in the printer at the time. This prints out all the possible colors and keeps the head active without wasting too much ink or paper/canvas. I just happen to use roll paper 99% of the time - you could set up the McBeth color chart to print out on sheet paper just as easily too. Here's what the test print for the roll paper looks like: 
Image

I personally love my Epson printers and don't find that the clogging issues are a big deal. Maybe 3 times a year I find I need to run a nozzle clean and after that things are good for quite a long time. I love the color rendering the Epsons put out.
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by signgrap on Thu May 14, 2015 1:44 pm
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Mark Picard wrote:I use a Epson 9900 and a 4880 in my studio, and I do print often (every other day or so), so I don't experience major clogging issues with either printer. But if I find that I haven't printed in, say, 5 or 6 days, I print out a McBeth color chart (copied from a Google search jpeg) copied three times in a row, then printed on a roll with a user defined setting of 4' wide by the paper width I happen to have in the printer at the time. This prints out all the possible colors and keeps the head active without wasting too much ink or paper/canvas. I just happen to use roll paper 99% of the time - you could set up the McBeth color chart to print out on sheet paper just as easily too. Here's what the test print for the roll paper looks like: 
Image

I personally love my Epson printers and don't find that the clogging issues are a big deal. Maybe 3 times a year I find I need to run a nozzle clean and after that things are good for quite a long time. I love the color rendering the Epsons put out.
This is a case where "your mileage may vary" applies.
I have a 4800 which is much worse than the 4880 when it comes to clogging. I print in spurts and my 4800 is a real PITA when it comes to cleaning clogs. 
I'm desperately hoping that the new SureColor printers will prove to be good in regards to the heads not clogging. It seems that I've spent almost as much time cleaning clogs as I have making prints on my 4800. When the heads not clogged it makes beautiful prints. 
Dick Ludwig
 

by Mark Picard on Thu May 14, 2015 4:30 pm
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signgrap wrote:
Mark Picard wrote:I use a Epson 9900 and a 4880 in my studio, and I do print often (every other day or so), so I don't experience major clogging issues with either printer. But if I find that I haven't printed in, say, 5 or 6 days, I print out a McBeth color chart (copied from a Google search jpeg) copied three times in a row, then printed on a roll with a user defined setting of 4' wide by the paper width I happen to have in the printer at the time. This prints out all the possible colors and keeps the head active without wasting too much ink or paper/canvas. I just happen to use roll paper 99% of the time - you could set up the McBeth color chart to print out on sheet paper just as easily too. Here's what the test print for the roll paper looks like: 
Image

I personally love my Epson printers and don't find that the clogging issues are a big deal. Maybe 3 times a year I find I need to run a nozzle clean and after that things are good for quite a long time. I love the color rendering the Epsons put out.
This is a case where "your mileage may vary" applies.
I have a 4800 which is much worse than the 4880 when it comes to clogging. I print in spurts and my 4800 is a real PITA when it comes to cleaning clogs. 
I'm desperately hoping that the new SureColor printers will prove to be good in regards to the heads not clogging. It seems that I've spent almost as much time cleaning clogs as I have making prints on my 4800. When the heads not clogged it makes beautiful prints. 
Sorry to hear that Dick - I guess I should count my blessings on this issue! Maybe it's a climate issue in terms of humidity, etc.?
Mark Picard
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by Royce Howland on Thu May 14, 2015 7:08 pm
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It's certainly in part dependent on print frequency, humidity, which papers are used heavily (whether they throw off a lot of fibres & particles or not) and stuff like that. But there are many x900 horror stories that have nothing to do with those things, and are related to some sorts of failures in the head and/or ink delivery system. It's hardly the case that every x900 has these issues, or there would have been hell to pay before now. But there are enough occurrences of serious problems that it seems to point to an x900 design issue.

When we get rid of our 9900 at the shop I work at, it's the last one of that series for us and we definitely won't ever use another one. We've standardized on an all-11880 setup for now, except for 9880 converted for K7 carbon printing. The x880's work fine, always have, within the normal tolerance for Epson clogging. We'll see what the new SureColors do.

For anyone getting into a large format printer now, the big Canons are definitely competitive in the ways photographers would care about. Especially for low-volume / sporadic printing...
Royce Howland
 

by prairiewing on Sat May 16, 2015 11:23 am
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I don't have a fraction of Royce's knowledge about printers but when I had to replace my 44inch a few years back I read everything I could find and chose the Epson 9890.

It has performed very well for me. It sometimes sits for months at a time when I'm traveling but with a few cleaning cycles and nozzle checks comes quickly back to life. Cost was a secondary factor but it was considerably cheaper than the 9900. I've made thousands of trouble-free prints with it.
Pat Gerlach
 

by DOglesby on Sun May 17, 2015 9:26 am
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I have a 9900 and haven't had any clogging problems. However, I bought it as a refurbished model so I'm guessing that has probably helped. I love the printer, personally. My 4900 on the other hand: yuck; terrible clogging, but, in fairness to Epson, I didn't print that often on it. I need a new head and I'm not about to spend $1500 or whatever on it. But, my 9900 has been great. I like Mark's idea of running a color chart through the printer every few days it sits.
Cheers,
Doug
 

by pleverington on Mon Jul 06, 2015 11:08 pm
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I also have the 9900 and really not much problem. Even after months of non use it fired up and printed fine without a cleaning. One thing to remember is that with more and smaller nozzles any print head that acquires a speck of dirt or cat fur and such will show a clog readily. Also I did have to replace my cleaning station and for what reason it failed I don't know. But possibly the cleaning station is the real source of problems for many that find their 9900's clogging. The problem is not the clogging, but is the fact that the suction to clear it is not being provided by the cleaning station. When I got my new cleaning station it looked like something that should cost a thousand dollars, but in fact was a bit over two hundred dollars. Lots of motors, sensors, gears, pumps. But sure enough, when I did have clogs that would not clear it was a failed cleaning station. Perhaps a defect in the original design, but surely something those who are having problems with clogs on their 9900's should look into. No printer will clear if the suction pump isn't working no matter how many times you try.


Paul
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by Primus on Tue Jul 07, 2015 11:15 am
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I think I spoke too soon. Both my printers - the 3880 and the 9900 are giving me a huge problem. The black channel on the 3880 died completely and I could not get it to show even a single nozzle. I tried everything after reading around and finally bit the bullet and got the new P800 yesterday. The prints sure look great but as yet there is a shortage of profiles, Canson for example has no profile for their Baryta papers that I am fond of using.

The 9900 has had either wandering nozzles or a problem with the cleaning station, I don't know, the nozzle check on some channels always has dropped nozzles that are not the same each time, multiple cleanings, including from the Maintenance menu in service mode have been unhelpful, I cleaned the wiper assembly but still the same. I have a thread over on LL on this issue.

Paul, did you change the cleaning assembly yourself or get a tech in to do it? If you did it on your own, where did you get the program to reset the counters and all (?servpro.exe).

Pradeep
 

by pleverington on Tue Jul 07, 2015 5:09 pm
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Pradeep I did it myself. It was not difficult I would say but I did take my time and made sure every step was done correctly. Also I took a lot of pictures of everything especially the wire hookups before doing anything. The cleaning station is a modular thing built off a piece of sheet steel. Basically all you have to do is remove the ink doors and the side cover, disconnect the wires, disconnect the tubes, unscrew the screws holding the station in, install new station, re hook everything back up. There was two adjustments to make, one of which requiring a step type gauge with precise thicknesses and it was quite pricey, so I made one with the different appropriate thicknesses using different materials laying around. pg 272 in the manual shows the guage. Pg 273 shows how it's used. 

You need the service manual:
http://elektrotanya.com/epson_stylus_pr ... nload.html  (look towards the bottom for "get manual"

Page 179 shows a picture of the tubes as they enter the top of the waste ink box. I knew I had a problem when I took the side cover off the printer and instructed it to do a super clean and nothing was moving through the tube. Page 179 is where you get your instructions though. Pg 55 shows the ink system unit. The whole boxy looking contraption with all the pink colored items is what gets replaced

If you do it yourself read everything and more from the manual beforehand, take your time, take your time, take your time, and take notes and pictures. Remember how everything was hooked up. The wire connectors are coded so you can't hook them up wrong if I remember correct. Getting the new unit first and looking it over helps tremendously to understand what's going to need to be done.

If you not to used to working on things maybe get a service technician. For me I like working on my printer myself as it helps me know what's going on inside and therefore be better able to understand how to use it. plus it saves money.

Maybe first ascertain if your sucking any appreciable ink out of your heads during a clean by examining a fresh waste box or one you can reuse stuffed with some folded paper towels and reset the chip with a re-setter. Or just take the side cover off--it's amazingly simple. Just be very careful with the ribbon leading into the control panel box.

I think I had to purchase the wiper blade separate, but do replace that also. Page 182

By the way there are other possibilities for a loss of suction such as a bad seal between the ink nozzle head and the 5 individual cap heads on the cleaning station. For a few hundred dollars I guess I just said what the heck plug in a new one which has everything on it new and be done with it.  

If you do get into it you need part 567 and 568 from here: http://www.compassmicro.com/parts_search3.cfm

Counter reset and clear pg 327 manual

Paul


* By the way Pradeep, with the cleaning station(ink system unit) removed, you can then from behind the printer totally see your nozzles and then not only check to see if there  is any debris on them but also eye dropper some clearing solution like "majic bullet" to soften up any clogs. Can't do this otherwise. And don't leave the nozzles uncapped very long--get the new unit in as soon as possible after removing the old one so the nozzles don't dry out. I also took a PEC pad and soaked with majic bullet and laid it over the print head nozzle while I was working on things.

* I also flushed my entire system out with cleaning solution. I bought a gallon and used refillable carts. Scroll down to piezo print head cleaner:
 
http://www.image-specialists.com/catalo ... ducts.aspx

I buy my ink by the liter bulk from them too and pay about 75 dollars. That' about a third of buying epson carts. The ink is wonderful and have had no problems with it. In fact image specialists probably makes the ink for all those third party suppliers.
Paul Leverington
"A great image is one that is created, not one that is made"


Last edited by pleverington on Mon Jul 20, 2015 5:21 pm, edited 2 times in total.
 

by pleverington on Tue Jul 07, 2015 9:52 pm
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Pradeep --Some more details came back to me and I thought you should hear them. I had clogs I could not clear so I threw in the towel and went for a full flush of the printer. Using refillable cartridges, I filled each about half with peizo flush. I then ran a initial fill command cycle to the printer. I ran another, then another and for some reason the ink lines were not clearing very much at all. So I tried maybe five more times and then checked then cleaned out the waste tanks and reset the chips to see if anything was getting through. Not much to zero. And for sure something should have as not all the nozzles were clogged. Being that flushing fluid is thinner than ink, it should have gotten through fairly easy. I applied majic bullet to the ink head parking pads and let that soak overnight. Next day tried the initial fill and again nothing. I could hear the cartridges pressuring up so I knew that was not the problem. I could make prints and nozzle checks so I knew the ink delivery system was working. So the only thing left would be no suction to pull the ink and now flushing fluid through the nozzles during a clean cycle or during an initial fill which really pulls the fluids through like gangbusters normally.

I've read that people should routinely do a flush on their printers as a matter of discourse and routine maintenance, so your best bet would I think be to start there. If your not running more affordable refillable cartridges you might want to start considering them and it would be easier to do a generous flush of your entire ink system on your 9900 with them. It won't hurt the printer and if you also had trouble moving ink through the lines using initial fill like I did, then you probably need to suspect at least your ink system unit(cleaning station) which contains that suction pump.

I think my suction pump was always having a problem before I replaced it pretty much. Since doing so I have very little problem with clogs. Certain papers beware shed a lot of debris and all that stuff can find it's way on the nozzle head. In that case one will be relying on the wiper to wipe the head clean. A hair or piece of fur is not always so easily removed and can cause clogs that seem to move around as the wiper rearranges it.

Hate to see a 9900 go down..the prints it makes are spectacular. Good luck.... hope I have helped...


Paul
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by Primus on Wed Jul 08, 2015 6:47 am
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Paul, thanks so much. This is indeed very helpful.

I had looked up Eric's site at www.myx900.com and have the manual already from another source. The difficulty I faced was the lack of understanding as to what was really wrong. On the thread over at LL, the suggestions were all over the place - from a faulty head to faulty main board or cleaning station. No definite answer, which is of course to be expected since so many different things can cause the same symptoms.

My understanding from reading about all this is that getting a tech in may not be the best solution. Some techs do not have enough knowledge or training and often suggest changing the head as the 'standard' solution. Replacing the head by a tech would cost at least $2000 and then there is no warranty for other things that may go wrong. A lot of money to spend on fixing something that may not be at fault to begin with.

I guess it's time to open it up and have a go myself.
 

by pleverington on Wed Jul 08, 2015 9:50 am
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Primus wrote:Paul, thanks so much. This is indeed very helpful.

I had looked up Eric's site at www.myx900.com and have the manual already from another source. The difficulty I faced was the lack of understanding as to what was really wrong. On the thread over at LL, the suggestions were all over the place - from a faulty head to faulty main board or cleaning station. No definite answer, which is of course to be expected since so many different things can cause the same symptoms.

My understanding from reading about all this is that getting a tech in may not be the best solution. Some techs do not have enough knowledge or training and often suggest changing the head as the 'standard' solution. Replacing the head by a tech would cost at least $2000 and then there is no warranty for other things that may go wrong. A lot of money to spend on fixing something that may not be at fault to begin with.

I guess it's time to open it up and have a go myself.
Your doing the right thing by researching ahead of time all you can. In any case scenario, doing a full ink flush of the  system can't do any wrong, is reasonably inexpensive, beneficial for the printer in any regards, and could be very telling as far as diagnosing what the problems are. So if I were you I would start there. Heck it may in itself fix the problem. But I wouldn't bank on it.

Get familiar with your printer even though the manual makes it look like an overwhelming endeavor. I think a lot of folks toss their expensive printers because the repairs are too expensive and not even a guarantee, and the manual looks too overwhelming. One step at a time........You'll get it......

Again good luck, share your results, we will be curious to hear the solution.

Paul

*Pradeep could you post an exact and thorough nature of your clogging? My feelings for one are that if the clogs are all over and moving that the cleanings are not being done in the machine correctly and this could indeed be the suction pump or something related to that system. A real clogged nozzle like one with stuck debris or a victim of being dried out does not move for example.
Paul Leverington
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by Primus on Wed Jul 08, 2015 3:16 pm
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pleverington wrote:
Primus wrote:Paul, thanks so much. This is indeed very helpful.

I had looked up Eric's site at www.myx900.com and have the manual already from another source. The difficulty I faced was the lack of understanding as to what was really wrong. On the thread over at LL, the suggestions were all over the place - from a faulty head to faulty main board or cleaning station. No definite answer, which is of course to be expected since so many different things can cause the same symptoms.

My understanding from reading about all this is that getting a tech in may not be the best solution. Some techs do not have enough knowledge or training and often suggest changing the head as the 'standard' solution. Replacing the head by a tech would cost at least $2000 and then there is no warranty for other things that may go wrong. A lot of money to spend on fixing something that may not be at fault to begin with.

I guess it's time to open it up and have a go myself.
Your doing the right thing by researching ahead of time all you can. In any case scenario, doing a full ink flush of the  system can't do any wrong, is reasonably inexpensive, beneficial for the printer in any regards, and could be very telling as far as diagnosing what the problems are. So if I were you I would start there. Heck it may in itself fix the problem. But I wouldn't bank on it.

Get familiar with your printer even though the manual makes it look like an overwhelming endeavor. I think a lot of folks toss their expensive printers because the repairs are too expensive and not even a guarantee, and the manual looks too overwhelming. One step at a time........You'll get it......

Again good luck, share your results, we will be curious to hear the solution.

Paul

*Pradeep could you post an exact and thorough nature of your clogging? My feelings for one are that if the clogs are all over and moving that the cleanings are not being done in the machine correctly and this could indeed be the suction pump or something related to that system. A real clogged nozzle like one with stuck debris or a victim of being dried out does not move for example.
Paul, the problem started when I left the printer for a couple of weeks or more when I was on a trip abroad. It worked great before that and I have a beautiful print of a shot from Bosque with the gradient in the sky printing perfectly. Indeed when it works well, the 9900 is unparalleled. 

On trying to print images from my trip to Africa, I found that there was subtle banding in sunrise/sunset shots and on doing a nozzle check there were dropped nozzles in several channels. I did multiple cleanings including 'power cleaning' and the problem persisted, some of the channels never cleared up completely and it appeared that the nozzles were random in their drop out. That made me think it was not a clog.

So I did the usual Windex on paper towel thing under the head several times. I also cleaned the wiper blade, replaced the waste ink tank, did some more cleaning of pairs in the 'serviceman' mode (after reading the manual on how to do it). Same problem. Sometimes only 5-6 then after a while it would be as many as 20 nozzles that were dropping out. 

I even did 'purge' printing using the 'stress test image' in the manual (downloaded it from Epson). I also  created my own stress images in Photoshop by entering the single channel RGB values on a blank layer. I then printed these at maximum quality. What was interesting here was that there was some banding in the top 1 inch of the image, after that the entire print was pristine - I printed 36X8 inches at a time. This was very puzzling, since with a clog I would have expected banding throughout the print and not just the top 1 inch. Somebody suggested that this was happening because the printer 'mapped' the density needed and compensated for the dropped nozzles. The banding in the upper 10%% of the image suggested that the main board or the head itself was not working right. 

I changed ink carts (what I could), checked to see if there was air in the carts by poking a paper clip into the nozzle of the cart, but nothing seemed to make a difference. I left the printer alone for four days and a repeat nozzle check now shows several channels missing half of the nozzles. Perhaps a repeat cleaning is needed.

Very frustrating. I would hate to dump this wonderful machine and yet getting a tech involved seems to be throwing good money away. I would much rather troubleshoot on my own and do not mind opening the beast up to see what is really wrong.

thanks much for listening to me..

Pradeep
 

by Primus on Wed Jul 08, 2015 3:29 pm
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I have another question and maybe this is not the right thread. What is the experience with third party inks? I know there is a lot of (mis)information out there on this topic and opinions are highly variable. Many years ago I used these for my Canon and ruined it completely, vowed never to try again. However, all these cleaning cycles have been very expensive. On my 3880 I think I must have used up at least $200 worth of ink before realizing that the black channel was really dead.

Paul has already said he is very happy with Imaging Supplies Ink.

John Dvorak has an interesting take on this issue here: http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2409373,00.asp wonder how much truth there is in his article.

Pradeep
 

by Royce Howland on Wed Jul 08, 2015 4:28 pm
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Some 3rd party inks may be safe enough to use on all levels, but definitely not all of them are. I know that for a firsthand fact. The only ones I've used and researched enough to trust are from Jon Cone's Inkjetmall. Though I've used mostly his K7 carbon B&W inks, not the colour ones. I am quite confident that Cone's inks are not made by Epson. :)

Our print shop is all-Epson, and we use no 3rd party colour inks. Individuals may use whatever they like and present or sell it to their customers or audiences however they like. But it would be lethal for us if we used a 3rd party ink for our customer prints and it later turned out there was even a minor issue with it. So for colour work we use only Epson OEM ink.

We do offer K7 carbon B&W prints on a converted 9880, as well as standard Epson K3 B&W prints on our 11880's. And we use Piezoflush whenever we need to flush lines or store a unit for awhile. But even though we trust Cone's inks we don't use his colour set. We just can't afford to have any doubt introduced by that conversation with any customer. It's different with K7 because Epson doesn't have a direct analogue, and because K7 has been validated extensively by top-shelf independent testing.

If I had to save a few bucks for colour, I'd look at the ConeColor ink set. But I would question the rationale of putting any 3rd party inks into a printer that's already having significant problems, especially an x900 model. Either it can be fixed to run with the OEM inks or it can't; but I don't know that I'd try to switch it before the fix was resolved...
Royce Howland
 

by Primus on Wed Jul 08, 2015 8:13 pm
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Royce Howland wrote:
.................... But I would question the rationale of putting any 3rd party inks into a printer that's already having significant problems, especially an x900 model. Either it can be fixed to run with the OEM inks or it can't; but I don't know that I'd try to switch it before the fix was resolved...
Thanks Royce. Makes sense. For an amateur the issue of 'credibility' does not matter too much and yet, having spent so much money on all this gear, to pinch on genuine inks perhaps is being a bit 'penny wise'. 

I think the first order of the day is to try and figure out what is really wrong with the machine and then go from there.

Pradeep
 

by pleverington on Wed Jul 08, 2015 10:35 pm
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Primus wrote:
pleverington wrote:
Primus wrote:Paul, thanks so much. This is indeed very helpful.

I had looked up Eric's site at www.myx900.com and have the manual already from another source. The difficulty I faced was the lack of understanding as to what was really wrong. On the thread over at LL, the suggestions were all over the place - from a faulty head to faulty main board or cleaning station. No definite answer, which is of course to be expected since so many different things can cause the same symptoms.

My understanding from reading about all this is that getting a tech in may not be the best solution. Some techs do not have enough knowledge or training and often suggest changing the head as the 'standard' solution. Replacing the head by a tech would cost at least $2000 and then there is no warranty for other things that may go wrong. A lot of money to spend on fixing something that may not be at fault to begin with.

I guess it's time to open it up and have a go myself.
Your doing the right thing by researching ahead of time all you can. In any case scenario, doing a full ink flush of the  system can't do any wrong, is reasonably inexpensive, beneficial for the printer in any regards, and could be very telling as far as diagnosing what the problems are. So if I were you I would start there. Heck it may in itself fix the problem. But I wouldn't bank on it.

Get familiar with your printer even though the manual makes it look like an overwhelming endeavor. I think a lot of folks toss their expensive printers because the repairs are too expensive and not even a guarantee, and the manual looks too overwhelming. One step at a time........You'll get it......

Again good luck, share your results, we will be curious to hear the solution.

Paul

*Pradeep could you post an exact and thorough nature of your clogging? My feelings for one are that if the clogs are all over and moving that the cleanings are not being done in the machine correctly and this could indeed be the suction pump or something related to that system. A real clogged nozzle like one with stuck debris or a victim of being dried out does not move for example.
Paul, the problem started when I left the printer for a couple of weeks or more when I was on a trip abroad. It worked great before that and I have a beautiful print of a shot from Bosque with the gradient in the sky printing perfectly. Indeed when it works well, the 9900 is unparalleled. 

On trying to print images from my trip to Africa, I found that there was subtle banding in sunrise/sunset shots and on doing a nozzle check there were dropped nozzles in several channels. I did multiple cleanings including 'power cleaning' and the problem persisted, some of the channels never cleared up completely and it appeared that the nozzles were random in their drop out. That made me think it was not a clog.

So I did the usual Windex on paper towel thing under the head several times. I also cleaned the wiper blade, replaced the waste ink tank, did some more cleaning of pairs in the 'serviceman' mode (after reading the manual on how to do it). Same problem. Sometimes only 5-6 then after a while it would be as many as 20 nozzles that were dropping out. 

I even did 'purge' printing using the 'stress test image' in the manual (downloaded it from Epson). I also  created my own stress images in Photoshop by entering the single channel RGB values on a blank layer. I then printed these at maximum quality. What was interesting here was that there was some banding in the top 1 inch of the image, after that the entire print was pristine - I printed 36X8 inches at a time. This was very puzzling, since with a clog I would have expected banding throughout the print and not just the top 1 inch. Somebody suggested that this was happening because the printer 'mapped' the density needed and compensated for the dropped nozzles. The banding in the upper 10%% of the image suggested that the main board or the head itself was not working right. 

I changed ink carts (what I could), checked to see if there was air in the carts by poking a paper clip into the nozzle of the cart, but nothing seemed to make a difference. I left the printer alone for four days and a repeat nozzle check now shows several channels missing half of the nozzles. Perhaps a repeat cleaning is needed.

Very frustrating. I would hate to dump this wonderful machine and yet getting a tech involved seems to be throwing good money away. I would much rather troubleshoot on my own and do not mind opening the beast up to see what is really wrong.

thanks much for listening to me..

Pradeep
Pradeep this really does sound like your not getting suction. Listen--you could try an initial fill cycle with your installed inks. I guess that might cost you 50-100 dollars, but you'll either pull a lot of ink through the nozzles or not..... without heating them up....... and if you wind up with a pile of ink in your waste tank, at least you will know your suction pump is working. And if you do get a pile of ink, you then should have cleared all nozzles too. My bet would be this is not going to be the case, but at least you'll know that then and then what to do . The problem you described is exactly what I was encountering. Lots of nozzles dropped and different ones all the time. Impossible to clear them no matter what. For now though, pulling the ink through might keep things on the simple side instead of flushing and all that that entails.

Royces advice is sound in general, but the company I gave you a link to is a manufacturer, not a reseller. I have been using their inks since when I first got my 9600 and have noticed no difference as far as troubles with the printer than when using epson's inks. I checked the profiles of both ink systems I had made using same papers and they were so close for the 9600 it was of no concern. Near perfect match on profiles on the 9900. I am printing like a madman right now with them on my 9900 and they are stunning. No clogging problems worth mentioning. Image specialists actually sells their ink by the pound, but it winds up in liter bottles for me which I think is two pounds. They sell ink to a lot of other distributors and businesses and like I said, is where a lot of these third party suppliers get their ink. They sell it by the drum even. And selling to the general public is not what they really do, so this is why many are unfamiliar of them. I kind of got an in  way back as a business printer I think. They may have eased up on any such restrictions now selling to the public,  but in the day for a 250ml cart of ink my cost I remember on the 9600 was 7 dollars. 7 dollars a cart--You read that correct. Anyways, if they made  junk no way would they still be in business. They have a full time chemist staff and lab that monitors and formulates. Fear not on this one, but Royce is right to set your focus on getting her running, and then we will talk about affordable inks.

I don't know if you caught the page on them as a company, but here it is....

http://www.image-specialists.com/about_us.aspx

Cone's inks really probably use an established base like from a manufacturer as image specialists or another, and then formulate the pigments in their B&W sets to achieve what they want. I do like what cone has done. Very impressive. Color might be something that comes straight from the manufacturer or maybe not. I'm just thinking this is the story-- I don't know for sure exactly. But surely Cone has no lab and chemist staff formulating new improved inks or trying to match secret existing ones. But certainly he or anyone can add the pigments and an existing base to whatever formula they want and sell them in a set. Others have been doing this for years for their own use and is how Cone got started himself. If I had the time, I'd love to give it a go myself.

Think positive things Pradeep...


Paul
Paul Leverington
"A great image is one that is created, not one that is made"
 

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