I have spent the last few years enjoying the knowledge that is shared here, so thank you all for this information.
Rarely do people visit to share good experiences with their printers, or media. But I thought it was worth sharing my experience, and balancing the good and the bad for anyone considering an Epson 9900.
I am onto my third printer, after Epson Australia replaced the last two after many repair attempts. Epson have always been first class with their service, supplying free ink at one stage and always responding to issues in a timely manner.
A major issue is the fact that I am 111km outside of the standard warranty network. Standard onsite warranty is within 80km of capital cities in Australia. Each and every issue I have had, has cost between $400-$600 per callout. Parts have been provided by Epson at their cost.
The printer have displays some very strange behaviour, and I have owned an operated many since my first 7600. The amount of time spent cleaning is a major part of my workflow, some four to five hours today alone. Which is the reason I have finally decided to share my experience, and thoughts. As I type, the printer has randomly stopped midway through a print and hangs until I restart the print job.
The first 9900 started out with regular blockages, and I was told that I was the only one with any issues. This was when they were first released, and even buying inks was a big task. Soon I realised that I was not alone, and several threads from Epson users surfaced, reporting the same behaviour. After several trips by a technician, and boxes of different parts, the machine was eventually replaced.
Along comes machine two, and for the first week it was smooth sailing. As the work load picked up, the printer would constantly start up with the same blocked nozzles. I do a lot of small runs, swapping from MK to PK and back each day or two. And this process would take several minutes to change over, but then be followed by an extended clean which would consume up to 70ml of ink.
Random head cleaning failures, and constant frustration resulted in another swap out. This time, the third printer was running okay for several weeks with light work. And then, back to constant cleaning and huge delays with forced cleans following swapping blacks.
My office is not air conditioned, and as a result I only print in the evenings when the temperature is below 26 degrees. I constantly monitor humidity, which sits between 40-65%. I am also close to the ocean, which is another factor that I have questioned.
A typical day like today results in extreme amounts of time. I print for professional artists and photographers, and turnaround time is of great importance to my clients. Today I have used 15% of the maintenance tank, and still not produced a single print. I have four 8" x 12" prints to complete, and at AUD$400+ for a 700ml ink cartridge, I am not going to turn a profit. In fact, most days I go backwards due to small jobs and large volumes of ink wasted.
I have come to the conclusion, it is pointless trying to offer a print service using this machine unless you operate two. For it is not capable of swapping between matte black and photo black without lengthy and wasteful cleaning cycles. I previously operated two 7800 and one 9800 for this reason, but reading the glossy advertising materials I believed this machine had solved many of the issues with the previous generation of printers.
As I type, the machine still sites frozen half way through a print. I have cancelled the print, both through the driver and at the machine. I have also turned off the power button and still it sits wasting more time.
The only time the machine excels is when you stay on either black and run it all day long. The print quality is amazing and the speed another major benefit. But both are useless if you spend most of your days cleaning and waiting to take advantage of the quality and speed. I can honestly say my business has suffered no end since running no less than three of these machines. And I have stayed faithful to Epson, as they have been of great assistance. Just a shame that couldn't get it right when it came to designing a machine that works for everyone.
Firmware updates are performed regularly, but Epson only appear to be capable of emailing sales info to professional customers and not information on any improvements in firmware. I have never used service mode, as I don't want to jeopardize my warranty.
In my experience, I see the ink change over as a major flaw. The cleaning system is in need of a major rethink, and the reliability is far to low for a professional product. Cleaning seems to only cause other colours to block and ends up costing more time than any photoshop or printing work.
Epson, great service, lousy product.
Having just restarted the printer after having to turn it off at the wall, it has wasted another 55 minutes and still no print. Not something I need after the hours of cleaning today. I have been out of action for a week, as one of the 700ml ink carts had a faulty microchip (third time this has happened). The same colour is now blocking all day, with no printing, only cleaning. I decided to do some test printing of my own work and have not seen any banding. But as I pointed out, I am yet to actually print a full print.
This was not intended to be a negative story about the bad runs I have had with their product. Rather a first hand review from a long time Epson supporter, and some points to consider when looking at doing short run printing on their current printers. I have been told that I am the ONLY one that has constant issues, guess I'm unlucky to have it in three 9900's.
