The hidden drive behind my making this video is that I find a cure for clogged heads. Then users will be able to remove them solo. Apparently I am delusional because I still feel confident that a cure is findable. If this happens, this video makes a lot of sense. Even if it doesn't though, installing a new head for $1,400 still saves the machine in my eyes.
Far as something screwing up, once you watch the video you'll understand for yourself - there are no mysteries to this process. Just steps. I am not a big risk taker. If swapping a head yourself was a throw the chips in the air and hope they land right process, I'd be long gone a while ago.
Interesting point about the damper unit. One thing I plan to do in the future is take apart an old, used, damper. I'd like to see why one would need to be replaced. What exactly is the difference, old to new. I had an Epson tech on the phone just the other day who told me straight out that all the damper unit replacement "mumbo jumbo" was crap. This guy was running his machine with dampers from 98, no problems. I won't even get into what he said about using out of date ink...
By the way if you want to replace your damper unit, this same video will do you justice. Premier Pro just exported it at Vimeo codec - it's 1.7gb. That's too big. Where's my framing hammer.