On Saturday my Vivid Magenta channel decided to clog. After three cleanings and only getting half the VM channel back I tired a power cleaning, it worked. On Monday I was printing a job this time it fell out after a couple of prints and came back after a cleaning or two. After a couple more prints it fell out completely. I now have a blank VM channel and I can’t get it back. Since this printer is less than a year old it still has its warranty. Well when I set up for an Epson tech to come out they told me since I was using a third party ink it’s mostly the problem, it would cost me time for the tech to come out and figure out the issue which would be free if it wasn’t a third party ink.
The fact this printer is less than a year old and I’m already having a head failure issue is really rough. I know these heads are consistent with failures, but could this be the ink?
I have read how we should get the 3 year warranty with these printers but how does that matter since you still have to pay for the tech and a possible head replacement since you’re using third party inks.
Also you may have some issue we do not know about like - you have not used the printer for some time and perhaps pigment settling. Or you have not ever cleaned the printer capping station and wiper blade. But if you were working steadily for weeks on end and suddenly have a clogged nozzle with no changes in your printing habits or supplies - then the issue may be a premature dying channel. It is very common on this platform. But, if its a maintenance issue or one caused by infrequent printing - then you may not need warranty repair. We just do not have enough info to go by.
It is well known fact as you mention that Epson 7890 print heads fail with OEM inks. But, I would push back with the technician. He is denying you support for an issue that he clearly doesn’t know what it is caused by, but reflects the same issues that Epson ink customers have. What he has a right to do is insist that any repair work he does be verified with Epson inks - and that does make sense. You should have a set of Epson carts on hand even if not full.
Also you may have some issue we do not know about like - you have not used the printer for some time and perhaps pigment settling. Or you have not ever cleaned the printer capping station and wiper blade. But if you were working steadily for weeks on end and suddenly have a clogged nozzle with no changes in your printing habits or supplies - then the issue may be a premature dying channel. It is very common on this platform. But, if its a maintenance issue or one caused by infrequent printing - then you may not need warranty repair. We just do not have enough info to go by.
It is well known fact as you mention that Epson 7890 print heads fail with OEM inks. But, I would push back with the technician. He is denying you support for an issue that he clearly doesn’t know what it is caused by, but reflects the same issues that Epson ink customers have. What he has a right to do is insist that any repair work he does be verified with Epson inks - and that does make sense. You should have a set of Epson carts on hand even if not full.[/QUOTE]
Jon,
Thanks for the quick reply.
Here is some info on the printer. It’s used every day of the week but Saturday and Sunday. I print quiet a lot off of it. As for cleaning the capping station and the wiper blades, I haven’t done this as of yet. I should have but haven’t.
I got a tech to come out, and I have a full set of OEM carts.
For it to completely drop out like this just points to head failure. I will know in a couple of days once the tech gets here. I will let you know the update. It’s just beyond me that this is already happening with a printer that is 8 months old with only a total of 1500 prints on it.
The tech came. Parts were shipped from Epson and everything was cleared up on Friday.
The print head was the problem and he came down to a failed print head which he replaced along with the ink selector. It’s working now, took shy of four hours.
Lucky this was still under warranty. I had to buy a whole set of OEM carts for this fix which was just shy of $800. If it wasn’t under warranty it would have been a $100 for travel, $175 per hour for the tech and something like $1700 for the parts that were replaced.
Since this has come up twice in one year, it’s time to buy a second 24" to have off hand, since these printers are so pron to head failures. Since I will be staying away from the *890 and *990 series I will be getting one of their new models (p6000 or p7000).
The lesson here is what cone colors has been saying about these models, make sure not to skimp on the extended warranty and keep a full set of OEM’s off hand, it will save you a lot of stress and trouble.
The new models are nothing more than the same old print head with a new purge system that wastes more ink to try and keep it clog free.
However, the new generation are designed to be inoperable with 3rd party cartridges. It is the first generation of printer that Epson has designed to ONLY work with Epson carts.
I would look for a refurbished 7880 (try Ron Ardito of Ardito’s Business Solutions). Or buy the new version with the idea that you will ONLY use Epson inks.
I remember you wrote something on the new models only being able to work with OEM carts. I have come to terms with the fact it’s what will have to be done. I would love to get my hands on a 7880 at this point but haven’t caught many that would be within a reasonable travel distant. Thanks for the information on Ardito’s shop I will keep a look on to see if any pop up.
Epson wrote “printers are designed to work exclusively with specially formulated Epson inks, and not with other brands of cartridges or inks.” That is a benign statement unless you take it exactly at face value. When you do, it clearly says the printer will not work with non-OEM cartridges.
I can not say how they achieved it. But, the chip people are telling me many of the normal write backs are blocked. Having said that, the P600 chip is rather a benign chip to begin with, and our CIS system will be out soon. Maybe by xMas. They do not make the same claim with the P600 - but the normal ink synchronization is blocked.
But further down the line it gets really complex with all normal doors closed. P800 and the X000 surecolors.
If the P800 really couldn’t be done, that would be a blow. Still, the chip fabricators have proved resilient and ingenious in the past. It’s their livelihoods too.
[Pushing this thread way off-topic …] To be honest, personally I’m more interested in the P400. As you know, I’m a fan of these carts-on-head, hi-gloss printers, because of their ease of maintenance compared to the ink-lines-and-dampers K3 printers. As I’ve demonstrated recently, the head technology is the same as the x880 and you can use the same Piezo curves once you remap them. The only real difference from a Piezo perspective is that Roy listed the colours in the PPD file in an order such that the Piezo shades are listed in a different order.
I, and one other piezo user, think that they’re a better all-round option for a lot of people. Compared to the R1430, they can do both gloss and matte. The P400 presumably has the first-and-last-inch micro-banding issue, but I expect that the P600 does too, and it has lines and dampers, so the worst of both worlds. I realise that it’s too late for the R2000 - as a discontinued printer it wouldn’t make business sense to order more carts. But if you can get chips for the P400, then there’s a business opportunity. Easier for users to maintain and I’d expect less support headaches as well.
Well its seems the VM in my 3880 is now not coming back from repetitive cleanings. I know this time of year is dry and I had this issues when I first moved here with my 9890 and the VM clogging. Started using a humidifier and that cleared up the issue with the VM channel. For this to be happening a two weeks after I just had a tech out to switch out my print head due to the VM channel not working.
I used the same VM ink from the same batch on both machines. Could this be a bad batch of ink? I hate to jump to the ink and point the blame in that direction because I know in general these machines are just overly faulty. This is just to soon with the same problem but now with my 17".
Yes, I cleaned the capping station and the wiper blade. Along with weekly shakes to all the carts. I can’t do a power cleaning because I’m very low with LC ink and have to wait for that to come in from my most recent order. This printer is only a year and a half old. I know you cant do much other than recommend you flush system (which is not something right now I want to invest in to find out the head is dead). Maybe you can look into the VM with said batch. I just need to know if this could be a bad batch that is clogging the head or truly I just a having bad luck with two machines I bought in the last year and a half.
[QUOTE=jon;9794]Are you saying the same VM affected both machines or just one?
How old is it?[/QUOTE]
Both the machines.
Little over two weeks ago it was my 7890. Which I had to get a tech in for. He came down to replacing the head. Now my 3880 VM channel is showing up with a handful of spotted lines and not coming back after a wiper blade cleaning, capping station cleaning, damping a power towel with P Flush and letting it sit, one power cleaning along with quiet a few head cleanings.
It fell out about a week ago, but I was able to do three cleaning than it came back. This time not so much. I was printing 20 prints when this one came up. It got through all the printing and when I check the nozzle print out (I do this after a run of any prints) the VM was spotty. As I did a couple of head cleanings it got worst. Now after more head cleanings and one power cleaning, it won’t come back. I will try a couple more head cleanings, but since I have quiet a few jobs in the pipe line to come off of this printer, it looks like only after a year and a half of this printer, I’m already going to have to buy a new 17". This has 7500 prints on it. I know that is high (my last one gave up the ghost on 13k). To repeat myself, for this to happen already its way out of hand.
It is a weird that this happen to the VM in my 7890 and now my 3880. Am I the only one that is having problems with their VM?
[QUOTE=jon;9800]How old is it? (not the printer, the ink.
Is this from a freshly opened bottle?
What is the MFG date or the exp date?[/QUOTE]
Jon,
I thought you meant the printer.
I will give you a date on the bottle once I got back to the print shop on Monday. I just checked how recent I ordered the VM and it was on 10/15/15. It’s pretty recent. As for the date, it could have been older but I have never bought an ink from you that was out of date. I got through the 350ML bottle just about every other month.
As a last ditch effort. I’m going to take the house off and get to where the head is to see if there is a build up of ink. It’s just to much of a coincidence that this just happen with my 7890 and now my 3880. I will let you know what I find.
[QUOTE=jon;9800]How old is it? (not the printer, the ink.
Is this from a freshly opened bottle?
What is the MFG date or the exp date?[/QUOTE]
Jon,
Here is the Lot number and MFG
Lot#140508
MFG 07 14 15
The update on the 3880.
I took the housing off to get to the head yesterday. Got to the head once the dampers were off. There was a little build up both on the VM and the Y but nothing to make me think that was what the issue was since it was a little ink and not a lot. I took some P flush and slowly pushed it throw the VM nipple. I let it set for an hour and then pulled the P flush back out through the nipple. I assembled it back together and was able to get the VM channel to do a perfect nozzle check after one cleaning. As I type this I’m doing a print run of 5 prints and I’m going to do a nozzle check after. I will let you know if anything changes with the printer and if the VM clogs up again.
Just Printed off 5 12.5 x 19" full color and did a nozzle check, no drop our of the VM. I will let you know after a week how it’s still preforming, but it definitely seems that the VM had a serious clog.
I know this post is now 6 years old and you have solutions (serialized cart chip) for the SC-PX000 printer family. How are you feeling about the P7000/P9000 printers since they have the same head of the X900 printers? I think I saw a separate post that you are now using P7000s for dig.negs? Why did you choose that one over the P6000? It appears my 7880 has given up the ghost (or I am looking in the wrong places, ) and so need to find a replacement. And there aren’t a lot of good choices out there: either because of supply chain issues / Covid and/or Epson getting smarter about locking out 3rd party inks (and IJM/CD herculean efforts to overcome this). What would you recommend? My primary use is dig. neg. with pro inks (and eventually getting back to gravures). My inkjet prints are used for quick proofing.
) and so need to find a replacement. And there aren’t a lot of good choices out there: either because of supply chain issues / Covid and/or Epson getting smarter about locking out 3rd party inks (and IJM/CD herculean efforts to overcome this). What would you recommend? My primary use is dig. neg. with pro inks (and eventually getting back to gravures). My inkjet prints are used for quick proofing.
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