reliability info on Epson 20000 wanted

[mearussi]

A friend is thinking about buying the Epson 20000 and I was wondering if anyone has any user info or comments on its reliability. One of the reasons I ask is that a local Epson repairman told me he had to replace the head twice on a specific machine within a 18 month period, and I have no way of knowing whether this is a one off or the norm.

Thanks

[Dan Wells]

I've never used a 20000, which is a different head from the smaller machines, but the consensus seems to be that keeping an Epson happy means printing a LOT. Many of them have been very reliable if they're used every day - but there are a huge number of complaints on here from photographers who print every week or every month. Canon and HP handle that better - a friend of mine has an old Canon iPF6100 that's approaching its 10th birthday, still running fine (one set of new heads in that time) with several bursts of printing each year.

[Royce Howland]

We run the Epson SureColor P10000 and P20000. No head problems so far, other than the usual clogging issues that plague all Epson models. But while our P10000 has been running reliably (aside from firmware and driver bugs that are slowly being corrected), we have had 2 service calls for our P20000 to correct hardware issues. Once the main board blew out due to a motor shorting out from a small piece of shipping foam jamming in a small gear deep in the paper transport mechanism, and once the head developed persistent dropouts on certain channels after sitting overnight, most likely due to a faulty seal with the capping station. There may be a 3rd service call coming soon because we're getting heavy channel dropouts and scattered "clogs" that appear related to ink supply issues to the head.

These printers are fast and produce beautiful output, but their market launch was marred by some QC issues. And the P20000 in particular has been troublesome for us. So I'd advise getting the extended warranty.

Even with everything, I honestly can't see us abandoning Epson for the foreseeable future. We still would have taken it over the alternative -- which at the time would have meant only previous generation Canon 60" (x400 series) or investing a lot more to keep our Epson 11880's running.

Having said that, we did an evaluation of the Canon PRO-4000 recently and are now looking seriously at bringing Canon into the fold as well. While the paper transport on the new Canons is a bizarre, over-complicated, over-automated, finicky design, there's enough about the Canon platform that appeals that we may decide to adopt it as well to balance off some of the Epson operational issues...

[mearussi]

We run the Epson SureColor P10000 and P20000. No head problems so far, other than the usual clogging issues that plague all Epson models. But while our P10000 has been running reliably (aside from firmware and driver bugs that are slowly being corrected), we have had 2 service calls for our P20000 to correct hardware issues. Once the main board blew out due to a motor shorting out from a small piece of shipping foam jamming in a small gear deep in the paper transport mechanism, and once the head developed persistent dropouts on certain channels after sitting overnight, most likely due to a faulty seal with the capping station. There may be a 3rd service call coming soon because we're getting heavy channel dropouts and scattered "clogs" that appear related to ink supply issues to the head.

These printers are fast and produce beautiful output, but their market launch was marred by some QC issues. And the P20000 in particular has been troublesome for us. So I'd advise getting the extended warranty.

Even with everything, I honestly can't see us abandoning Epson for the foreseeable future. We still would have taken it over the alternative -- which at the time would have meant only previous generation Canon 60" (x400 series) or investing a lot more to keep our Epson 11880's running.

Having said that, we did an evaluation of the Canon PRO-4000 recently and are now looking seriously at bringing Canon into the fold as well. While the paper transport on the new Canons is a bizarre, over-complicated, over-automated, finicky design, there's enough about the Canon platform that appeals that we may decide to adopt it as well to balance off some of the Epson operational issues...

Thank you very much for your direct experience. This is exactly what I was concerned about, the new high speed head on the 20000 is still a work in progress with teething issues making the extended warranty a must.

I personally would prefer the Canon 6000 due to (probably) being more reliable and easier to use, but my friend wants the ability to use thicker medium in the Epson that the Canon cannot handle. But at least we are forewarned.

[narikin]

P20000 owner here, 1 year in.

Love it. Zero head problems. I can turn on after weeks away and get a clean nozzle check, Canon-like (I own canons too)
Sure, I have occasionally had to do a random nozzle clean, but that's it.
That said, I did buy the 2 year warranty, as you never know.

Great output. incredibly fast. I'm a solo photographer-printer using it just for my own work, and thought speed didn't matter, but now I realise it does make life a lot easier!

For fine art output, the improved longevity of the Yellow is a huge gain.  It was the weak link in the old generation.
3 of my friends have it too, and they are also happy.

I only wish they made a bigger machine - 24, 44, 64" exist, but go to any major museum/art fair and you'll see that an 84" one is very much needed.