44" printer recommendation for B&W

[kuau]

Hi everyone.
I am in the market for a new 44" printer for doing mostly B&W work.
I currently own a HP Z3200 PS 24" printer which I have been happy with except the paper handling.
Anyways having owned LF printers since 2000, I have used them all, Epson. Canon, and for the past 2 years HP.

Not sure what direction to go at this point, a new Z3200 PS 44", Epson 9900, 9890, or a Canon IPF 8300 which Altex is selling them for $3000.00

Thanks
Steven

[Sunny Alan]

Dear Kuau,
Did you shortlisted/ bought one?
I am also in your stage of selecting a LF printer for Photo/Art printing and B&W film positive printing.
Happy to know your inputs...

[VeloDramatic]

Steven,

I purchased a new Epson 9890 about two months ago. It replaced a still productive 4800. I've been very happy with the improved image quality and speed but it's been the paper handling that's given me the biggest grin. Sheet media from letter to 24 x 30 drops into the media slot and is fed into the machine accurately and painlessly. I've not had a single misaligned sheet, a big improvement over the 4800's hit-and-miss manual feed routine.

Since most of my printing is BW I went with the 9890 over the 9900. Couldn't be happier. Purchased from DTG... where the Epsons are on sale again I think.

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Clogging: I disabled automatic cleaning on the 9890 and turn the printer off each night to park the heads. I print a nozzle check before each session and thus far I've had four checks come up positive; each time the clogs appeared in the Cyan and Vivid Magenta channels. Using the pair wise cleaning method for the affected channels clears things up, then I flip the original piece of paper and print a confirming nozzle check. Total time to do this three or four minutes. This hasn't bothered me at all and I like seeing the positive nozzle check before committing to larger, more expensive stock.

::Michael

[jack777]

Can't say about 9890 but there is a huge difference between 9800 and 9900. Quality, gamut, speed even noise level while printing... also we have severe issues with clogging on 9800 however that may have been caused by non-original inks.

[Sunny Alan]

Clogging?
Is non-OEM ink is so cheap to consider as a solution?
How did you clean it?