7900 erratic clog

InkjetMall Customer Support
1

I had some clog issues running color ink so I did a complete Piezo Flush initial charge some weeks ago. Everything looked great. Left Flush in but an occasional clog would show but it responded to gentle clean cycle. Then a persistent 2 spot line break occurred in photo black unresponsive to treatment. The capping station, head, wiper blade,etc. have all been cleaned as well and another initial charge with Flush and cleaning but photo black defects persisted. Another (3rd) initial charge performed photo black line breaks persist (same spots always) and now magenta doesn’t print at all. All this over the course of many days with rest periods. Any thoughts or suggestions?

2

This is a frequent event no matter the inks or carts. There is a current thread on the Epson Wide Format board about this very thing.

Sadly this is a degraded head. It’s not clogging, it’s de-laminating of the nozzle plate and/or burnout of the nozzle itself.

-Walker

3

Looks grim, shall I just trash the printer?

4

I would IMO. Someone could take it for Piezo if there is 6 channels or more available.

-Walker

5

Also. I feel your pain. Been there with these printers.

On a better note, the SC-P printers have much less problems like this.

6

I need a 24" for color. Have any thoughts on P6000 vs P7000. Only used for printing photos, not publishing requirements. Do you think there is any to the eye noticable differences in color gamut? I would have a very hard time telling a 7800 from a 7900 print. Just asking?

7

Not much different in color gamut . . maybe a bit more orange gamut in the P7000 compared to P6000

8

Thank you! When Walker Blackwell talks people listen! Especially me…

9

I’d go with the p6000. Two less inks to inventory and you’ll be very hard pressed to see a visible difference in prints. I’ve personally owned 9890s and a p8000. I also manage a lab that has various large format Epsons with and without the extra two colors. I’ve tried a LOT to make prints that exploit the difference. Its darn near impossible. I can see a small difference in a gamut chart of a custom profile on each but it very rarely translates into a visible differences on the print.

I don’t know this for a fact, but it seems to me that Epson’s printer driver does not exploit the orange/green ink well. Those ink colors get used much much less than the other colors even when subject matter contains a lot of orange or green material. I wouldn’t be surprised if some third party RIP made better use of these inks.

Yes… listen to Walker! I’ve learned loads of useful info from the crew there.

10

Thank you, very good post! I ordered the p6000 today.

11

FYI, we’ll have carts for these SureColor wide format printers soon. The most recent mold change we made to these new SC-P carts we are designing was successful.

best,
Walker

12

When I set up the P6000 they say software must be downloaded from the net. Anything to avoid?

13

Go to Epson and download ONLY the driver (not combo update)

Avoid firmware upgrades if you can.

best,
Walker