4900 is officially declared dead

[JeffW]

I have officially declared my 4900 dead. The printhead is toast. If anyone in the Oregon area wants it for parts or pieces and wants to pick it up, let me know.

[Mark D Segal]

I have officially declared my 4900 dead. The printhead is toast. If anyone in the Oregon area wants it for parts or pieces and wants to pick it up, let me know.

What killed the print head?

(And sorry no - great idea to recycle it for people needing parts, but I live nowhere in that region of the continent and mine is still fine.)

[JeffW]

The fact that Epson advertised this print technology as virtually clog free. 

I am an advanced amateur who printed occasionally and the printer didn't like this. I have gone thru several clogged heads , the last was to the point of major surgery. Unfortunately I don't have time in my life to baby sit a printer.

Going to switch over to a 3880. I hate to give up on the feed roll, but have heard that you can still print long prints if needed.

[Mark D Segal]

Yup, they do need to be used every few days to minimize clogging risk. While Epson's claim may be correct under some conditions, I consider it unfortunate that this qualification of frequent usage was not explicitly advised when the printer was first announced. It has become clear over time that numerous people bought x900 series printers with no intention of necessarily using them in a production environment.

[ThomasR99]

Sent you a PM, Jeff.  Wondering if you want to sell some ink carts.

[Alan Goldhammer]

Going to switch over to a 3880. I hate to give up on the feed roll, but have heard that you can still print long prints if needed.

I regularly cut long sheets of Museo Silver Rag for printing on my 3880.  It's just a little tricky getting it fed in correctly due to the length but printing is fine.  I think there is a 37 inch length limit in the Epson driver but this doesn't bother me as I've only gone up to 30 inches.  Printer is great and I've gone through several months of non-printing and when I start it up it prints, no nozzle issues at all in three years of use now.

[enduser]

Because the 3880 stands out on its own re not clogging,  I'm wondering if it has a nozzle redundancy system like Canon has.

[Mark D Segal]

It does not.

[jimabels]

Is there anyway that you can soak the print head to dislodge the pigments? I used to run on a 7880 at my lab and we has so many clogging issues that when buying my own printer, I knew which brand to go with. It wasn't Epson. I ended up with a Canon IPF6400. I print once a week more or less. I never had the problems that I had with my 7880. We wasted so much money on ink with that machine. I tried the paper towel trick but used lint free cloths and it helped. You have to print more often though. I have heard of ways to clear the head by soaking it in some safe chemical. Good luck.

[uaiomex]

I have a 7880 that never clogs. I can leave it off for 4 weeks, sometimes even more. When I turn it on it will start a long whirring before is ready to print but that's understandable after so many days.
The catch is that I live on very humid geography all year long, so I think it might be it. I also keep my printer in a no air conditioning area because AC dries the air. I imagine heating is N times worse.
I wondering if you could build some contraption to keep the heads moist all the time.
Best
Eduardo

PS At first, I missed the humid towel part which reminds me that it is also about luck. I friend of mine had the worst case of clogging I've heard with the first 17" Epson model (4000?). But then again, I think he used the AC on in his printing room.

[Benny Profane]

How large does the "every few days" print have to be to keep the unit free of clogs?

[Chris233]

How large does the "every few days" print have to be to keep the unit free of clogs?

Just a couple ML each channel.  Enough to circulate the ink through the head and advance the rest of ink through the lines.