Another perspective on the Epson 9900

InkjetMall Customer Support ConeColor Inks & Printing
1

I appreciate your efforts to help people with clogged heads, Jon, and wanted to offer some counter experience to what you have posted regularly about how 9900 heads are failing widely.

I have been using ConeColor inks since we got our Epson 9900 and, perhaps, this is the reason, but it has operated flawlessly now for a number of years, not yet a single incident of a clogged head. I have actually had more issues with refillable cartridges and refillable cartridge chips than with the print heads.

When I first got the printer, largely based on your warnings, I purchased a set of empty cartridges and a large container of piezoflush and they are still sitting on the shelf years later. I’m glad I have them and I am also glad I have not had to use them. I also purchased an extended service agreement that is nearly ready to run out to the tune of $1200.

I have a handful of friends who have had the same good experience with the 9900.

One friend, a professional photographer and giclee printer, workshop leader and teacher has been using his 9900 printer for 5 years without a hitch.

One thing I do religiously is to print something regularly. If I don’t have a job in the hopper, I simple print a test image daily. If I am not going to use the printer for a while, I put in a roll of inexpensive narrow 24 lb inkjet paper and use a launch agent plist (I’m on a mac but Windows must have something similar) to run a script to print some small image daily. This keeps the heads wet. The thing I have heard from any number of people, printers, repair folks and service people is that the killer of heads is non-use.

I’m not posting this info to be argumentative, but I did want to let people know that some people have had great experience with the Epson 9900. It does have a lot of nice features not available in previous models.

If I remember, your first experience with Epson clogged heads was with the 7900 rather than the 9900. Of interest, a professional photographer I recently ran into who was leasing both a 9900 and 7900 from epson had had big head clogging problems with the 7900 but none with the 9900. I wonder if there is some difference regarding head issues between these printers.

–Kenoli

2

We appreciate your input kenoli, it’s good to share our experiences and what works or doesn’t here for everyone to read and learn from.
Yes, it is certainly important to use any printer on a regular basis to keep inks moving thru the lines, and the print head moist to prevent drying/clogging. That is great preventive maintenance (as well as regular agitation of the ink carts). We had lots of problems with our 7900 when it was brand new, then after replacing the head (twice), cleaning assembly and main board (all within the first month of it’s life, still using Epson carts), it worked great for about two years (with ConeColor inks) until it sat unused for maybe two weeks, and it developed a stubborn blockage of the center 1/3 of the LC channel, which we were never able to fix. Our 9900 has been running ConeColor inks for about two years, and works very well, though we have received problem reports from people using all sorts of inks in their 4900, 7900 and 9900 printers, so I think some work very well, and some can be complete headaches. I’m glad yours is working well, and hope it continues for a very long time!

Best regards and happy printing~ Dana :slight_smile:

3

Dana – Thanks for your hopes for a long 9900 life. Ditto to you.

Warm Regards,

–Kenoli