Epson 7900 clogged nozzles

Discussion in 'Large Format Inkjet Printers' started by prepper, Feb 13, 2014.

  1. prepper

    prepper Member

    Joined:
    Feb 2010
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    Location:
    USA
    We have a 7900 that's 2 years 1 month old. First problem we've had with it. Yellow nozzles clogged. Several cleanings and power cleanings haven't improved it all. From what I read that usually means a new head in almost every case. We don't want to replace a head at around $2000 when we can purchase a new 7890 to replace it for around $2700 and have a year warranty to boot.

    Does the logic that if the nozzles won't clear with cleanings then they'll have to replace the head to fix it sound right? We can take a chance it isn't the nozzles and will cost us around $500 for that, but if it is the head then we'll be spent $500 and still want to just replace the printer.
     
  2. OkiTech

    OkiTech Senior Member

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    Jan 2008
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    Location:
    NEW JERSEY
    Well, you should look at what that printed does for you within given period of time, I concider all digital equipment to be disposable, sort of. We keep on buying high end b/w copier used with minimal printcount, last machine we replaced was Ricoh MP 9000, cost $7k, had 800,000 clicks, in 2 years I run it up to 4 mil. It became troublesome at that point, figures, 3.2 mil x 3+cents, do the math. Sure we sold it to exporter as-is for a grand or so and bought Konica Minolta Buzhub Pro 1050e, new cycle began... Point is, length of time the printer spent on your floor is kind of irrelevant, if you produce a $50K of product with it in a given time, buying new one is no brainer desicion. If you know the reason why the head cloged, like aftrmarket or expired ink was installed or printer was left unused for significant period of time, make sure not to do that again. Also, with new one, you can probably buy extended service pack for 1 or 2 years, just make sure they cover printhead. There are companies that specialize in prinhead recovery, if you can remove the printhead and send it out, I think there is a good chance they can get that fixed, if you can wait for turn around time that is. Besides being in printing business, I own equipment sales/service company and rule of thumb - if repair cost more than half, new unit it is. Me personally, if I would be about to shell out $2K for repair and new piece of equipment would be just $800 more, I would not think twice.
     
  3. OkiTech

    OkiTech Senior Member

    Joined:
    Jan 2008
    Messages:
    823
    Location:
    NEW JERSEY
    After getting a nef printer, if you go for it, you can still fix the one you have, drain it of inks, wrap it in shrinkwrap, put aside. It may come golden as a back up or as second unit when business expends.
    Or put it on ebay, if someone buys it for 500-1000, you will make some money towards new, just disclose that yellow is clogged.
    By the way, there is a program exsist that sends a simple, minimal print command to the printer, every day, twice a day, whatever you tell it to, it refreshes the ink in a nozzels preventing clogging. It could be useful if printer not being used every day or if you leave for vacation for 2 weeks... Hmmm, 2 weeks vacation, being it printing business, sounds like a dream.
     
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