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Author Topic: 4900 at one year  (Read 2310 times)

dpirazzi

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4900 at one year
« on: July 27, 2012, 01:13:16 am »

After nearly a year of use, last night I had my first head clog that the automatic check at startup did not take care of. It had been two weeks since I had printed anything, and the first print showed partial clog on MK and complete on LK. Two standard cleanings did nothing, so I did a powerclean of the MK/LK channel, and shut it down for the night. This afternoon all is well again.

I've been very happy with this printer, just wish I had more time to send it files. I thought I'd pass this along since we usually only hear about the ones with problems.

I've been considering the extended warranty, but at $535 for two years it's a bit steep for this non-professional. Curious what other 4900 owners have decided?

thx, Dave
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Mark D Segal

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Re: 4900 at one year
« Reply #1 on: July 27, 2012, 09:21:56 am »

If you don't use this printer for a couple of weeks you can expect at least one channel to need cleaning. This happens to me quite routinely these days but I find that it usually clears-up with one standard "pair" cleaning, and if not that, one more. This consumes very little ink according to Epson.

I thought about the extended warranty. It's an insurance policy and like all insurance policies you want to be able to measure the value of buying the insurance against the risk and the alternative cost of the risks that are covered. We aren't given access to that information - manufacturers keep frequency of repair records and their value pretty close to their chests, so making a rational decision about this really isn't possible. My experience with Epson printers in general is that if they perform well for the first half year or so, they are likely to go on performing well for years. In my case my 4900 is doing very well and I feel comfortable not buying the extended warranty. Could I be sorry down the road? Yes. Am I likely to be sorry down the road? Probably not. Always a roll of the dice, but remember, if all the repair work one would need in two years costs less than the price of the warranty, one is still ahead.
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Mark D Segal (formerly MarkDS)
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walter.sk

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Re: 4900 at one year
« Reply #2 on: July 27, 2012, 03:08:45 pm »

My 4900 is just under a year, and I recently bought the 2 year extended warranty.  What made me decide was that I had bought an HP Z3100 24" printer with built in spectrophotometer.  After the rebate it cost me about $3400, and I thought it was outrageous to spend what HP wanted for the extended warranty. About the middle of the 3rd year of happy printing, the drive belt self destructed.  HP wanted more than $1200 to even look at the printer.  I decided to replace the belt myself, and followed a video that detailed very step.  However, when I got the printer back together I got some error messages on boot-up.  I called HP and they refused to even send a person at any cost, since I had tried to fix it myself.

You can imagine what a 24" printer looks like, out at the curb waiting for the sanitation department.

After that, I decided that $535 was pretty decent, after all, for my 4900.
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Mark D Segal

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Re: 4900 at one year
« Reply #3 on: July 27, 2012, 03:17:47 pm »

Sad experience Walter and I can relate to the decision you made. I've been through a succession of HP "Office Professional" printers and scanners over the past 10 years and I felt relieved after I scrapped the last one of them and replaced it with an Epson Work Force Pro for my non-photographic undertakings. It's such a relief to have equipment that just works and to know there is a decent service facility to back it up in case it doesn't. Just yesterday at the Apple Store here in downtown Toronto I asked them what would happen if I self-configured by MacBook Pro to replace the optical drive with a 3rd party SSD and I messed-up - could they get back to square-one. They told me of course it would void the warranty, but if I got it all horribly screwed-up they would certainly repair it at whatever the cost (to me) of parts and labour. No wonder the Apple store is like a railway station. They provide flexibility and service customers can appreciate.
« Last Edit: July 27, 2012, 06:55:25 pm by Mark D Segal »
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Mark D Segal (formerly MarkDS)
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PeterAit

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Re: 4900 at one year
« Reply #4 on: July 27, 2012, 05:54:48 pm »

Like all insurance, an extended warranty is - well, insurance! Statistically speaking it is a losing proposition, but if you end up among the small percentage of owners with a serious problem, you'll be very happy you have it! If you don't every have a problem, consider that you were paying for peace of mind.
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dpirazzi

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Re: 4900 at one year
« Reply #5 on: July 28, 2012, 12:44:40 am »

So I guess it comes down to what Dirty Harry said, "Feeling lucky?"

Maybe I'll spend the $535 on more ink and paper and try to keep the printer busy.

thx, Dave
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Mark D Segal

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Re: 4900 at one year
« Reply #6 on: July 28, 2012, 07:39:09 am »

So I guess it comes down to what Dirty Harry said, "Feeling lucky?"

Maybe I'll spend the $535 on more ink and paper and try to keep the printer busy.

thx, Dave

It's probably not that big a deal. The extent of the necessary attention is likely climate-dependent, but here in Toronto, keeping the printer within the temperature and humidity conditions of the Epson specs, I find I can leave the printer shut down for at least 5 days before there is any prospect of dried nozzles preventing ink from reaching the paper. If I know I won't be printing much for a while and I am here to do it, simply running one multi-coloured printer test image through the printer every few days (and letting the printer do its own automatic detection and cleaning routine when starting up) is enough to keep the system moist. Epson has always recommended to me that when not in use the printer should be turned off to ensure the head is properly capped.
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Mark D Segal (formerly MarkDS)
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Damir

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Re: 4900 at one year
« Reply #7 on: July 28, 2012, 12:11:23 pm »

My 4900 is just under a year, and I recently bought the 2 year extended warranty.  What made me decide was that I had bought an HP Z3100 24" printer with built in spectrophotometer.  After the rebate it cost me about $3400, and I thought it was outrageous to spend what HP wanted for the extended warranty. About the middle of the 3rd year of happy printing, the drive belt self destructed.  HP wanted more than $1200 to even look at the printer.  I decided to replace the belt myself, and followed a video that detailed very step.  However, when I got the printer back together I got some error messages on boot-up.  I called HP and they refused to even send a person at any cost, since I had tried to fix it myself.

You can imagine what a 24" printer looks like, out at the curb waiting for the sanitation department.

After that, I decided that $535 was pretty decent, after all, for my 4900.

WOW where are you from?? My belt replacement, service check and cleaning of entire Z 3100 was around 300 USD by official service!

On the other hand I know profesional printing facility that had change heads on 11880 by official service pay for it 2.500 USD, printer did not work proprely, they was not able to fix it therefore they sent it by railway to the central european service. During the transportation printer was damaged beyond repair, they are now trying to arrange something, they offer new printer in halft the price - so he paid USD 2500 and now he need to pay more to get printer working!

There are different stories around, I am in Croatia, and I am extremly happy with HP service, I can call free of charge whenever I have question or need advice. Obviously this depend about local companies that have licence, not the manufacturer itself!
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