Epson 9880 Purchase from Storage

[tjphototx]

I have an opportunity to purchase a low mileage 9880 from
someone who has had it in a storage unit for two years.
It's my understanding the unit was unplugged and put in storage.
It's a great price and they literally printed very few prints with the unit.
Thanks in advance for any and all comments.

TJPhoto

[Luca Ragogna]

The obvious answer is to plug it in and run a print. If that weren't a possibility I'd still go for it if the a) the price was so good that it was still a good deal if you had to replace the heads and b) you can see (and smell) that the storage unit isn't damp or musty.

[langier]

After you turn it on, hopefully there's still ink in the carts for run a nozzle check. You'll need a couple of sheets of 8.5x11 paper.

First, I'd take each cart out and gently shake them to get the pigments distributed back in the liquid. Put them back into the machine and run a check.

If the pattern prints all 8 colors print, you are fine. If any color doesn't print or there are gaps, run a cleaning. If you have enough ink, you can run a cleaning cycle several times. Hopefully you won't need to run a super cleaning cycle since they run lots of ink and I think will wear out your head faster.

Recently, a 9800 went for about $1200-1300 on this list here in Northern California. The 9880 replaced the 9800s with an improved head and the Vivid Magenta ink update. The 9890 goes one better with the auto-changeover to matt black and the rotary cover. However, you pay a price for convenience and IMO, the photo black ink still looks nice on matt papers, though just a little less rich. It isn't bad, just not as rich as the Mk.

While you are at it, check any other component life you can through the panel display. Newer Epson prints don't seem to have this display, though there may be a way through the Epson control panel on your computer.

Good luck and enjoy the speed and large prints you can now do! I got my first 24 inch printer in 2005 then my first 44 inch printer in 2007 and never regretted the purchases since each, in my case, has generated enough print sales to pay 'em off in little time!

[Sven W]

Our 7880 has been sleeping almost a year. My colleague had to do some reprinting for an edition we did a year ago(yes, we bought
the printer only for this job, 1.600 prints from the same image),
We have carefully kept record of all the settings, paper etc.
Shaked all the carts thoroughly, did some nozzle checks and some cleaning, and then Print.
The image is very subtle and toned b&w, and something was wrong. Started to adjust and came closer and closer.
But the more we printed, the more we slowly went back to original settings.
Conclusion;
I know that the pigments in the ink can "sediments" over time in carts, but I suspect that this also happens
in the tubes. So I recommend to print some sq.ft with a dark image, if the printer has not been used for say 10-12 months.

/Sven

[Farmer]

I know that the pigments in the ink can "sediments" over time in carts, but I suspect that this also happens
in the tubes. So I recommend to print some sq.ft with a dark image, if the printer has not been used for say 10-12 months.

Definitely.  In extreme cases, as per your experience.  For most users, the act of printing and moving the ink through the lines (and the lines moving) and going through the damper is enough to fix it (like shaking the carts).

[Wayne Fox]

Personally if I was bringing a printer stored for two years back to life, I would discard the ink's, install new inks and run at least one power clean (and maybe two) to make sure all the old ink was cleared out.  Obviously a little expensive, which should be accounted for in the negotiated price.

There's is a very high probability the head will be just fine, assuming the printer wasn't abused before being put into storage.