Epson xx90 series: Any fix?

[gwhitf]

I noticed the price of the Epson 9890 coming down. $3995 or so. Attractive.

I was a victim of the 7990 LLK printhead issue, and don't want to walk back into that forest again. It's been months since I've read anything on Epson; has there been a fix or workaround for the printhead issue?

What if you knew in advance now, and simply set your Reminder to make you run a print every Monday morning or so, to keep the blockage down?

Thanks in advance.

[Paul2660]

Personally I would be very surprised if the head on the 9890/7990 is any different than the head on the 9900/7900.  You just don't have the orange and black lines running to the head.  Might be wrong, having never seen a parts break out.

To answer your questions, no nothing has changed, no different hardware or firmware, at least in U.S. for over a 1 year now.  I also don't think that the heads have seen any changes. 

Yes, they can and will "clog", however many of the "clogs" are not what I think traditional "clogs", instead they are failures of the ink delivery system.  Either the Pizeo nozzle at the head or the electronics behind it.  This was very clear in the damage Eric G's printer had, when they finally tore open the head and found nothing visually wrong, even under intense magnification. 

Total or 1/2 blockages of LLK, PK, and other inks is common especially after a PK to MK or MK to PK switch and I don't think the lose of 1/2 of a nozzle pattern is a "clog", way too much material would be involved.  This is something else.  More than likely new units may have newer hardware that addresses this, as such non official upgrades are common in this type of equipment.  In large equipment it's termed a EC change and most times will roll back to earlier units, however Epson doesn't do this. 

If you purchased a "new" 7990 that wasn't a warehouse sitter for 6 months, odds are you have some newer EC's in it.  However I have not seen anything from Epson that addresses this issue of losing a full channel after the ink swaps (PK MK).  Most times with my 9900 it happens after about 2 prints which does point to an air issue somewhere in the system.  Only fix I have for it is, Power off, come back up in maintenance mode, and run a CL1 or CL2 on the effected channel pair.  This still takes a lot less ink than doing it from the normal mode as you only have 2 settings. 

In 3 years, I have yet to need more than a CL3 and it only once.  I have never had to run the stronger cleaning cycle.  Repeated strong cleaning cycles, more than likely do electrical damage to the Piezo head, more than likely due to heat build up. 

Epson's need to be run, daily, or at least every 3rd day.  Leaving a unit off for extended periods will lead to "clog" issues. 

My print work commercially comes in batches, so when I am not running a large job, I still run prints, mainly a color test pattern to move ink through the system.

If you are not in a daily print workflow, the Canon system makes more sense, and looking back, I wish I had invested in the 8400, but my 9900 was a field replacement offer from Epson after 3 failed 9880 replacements.  So I stayed with Epson.

Older Epson heads, i.e. 7800, 9880, family are much easily to run in a non-daily workflow.  I can leave my 7800 off for a month, power it back on find a few clogs, then clean the wiper, run a couple of cleaning cycles from the LCD and I am good to go. Not true with the 9900 as it needs IMO more daily attention.

Results are great.  If you make the investment, buy the 2 year warranty extension and just don't worry for the next 3 years, as Epson will make it right as long as the unit is under warranty.  May take a few tries, but they will get it right.

Paul

[John Caldwell]

...run a CL1 or CL2 on the effected channel pair.  This still takes a lot less ink than doing it from the normal mode as you only have 2 settings. 

In 3 years, I have yet to need more than a CL3 and it only once.
Paul

Paul, Thanks for this. Are you saying that ink expenditure in CL1, and in CL2, are less than that used in Normal (non-service mode boot) cleaning? Do we have the ability to run pairs in the CL1 and CL2 cleaning cycles?

Many thanks,

John-

[vjbelle]

If you are not in a daily print workflow, the Canon system makes more sense, and looking back, I wish I had invested in the 8400, but my 9900 was a field replacement offer from Epson after 3 failed 9880 replacements.  So I stayed with Epson.

Paul

Very sound advice!!  I replaced my 9900 with a ipf8400 and couldn't be happier.  My printer can sit for weeks at a time and my only discipline for now is to print a test print once a week.  8400's can be purchased for $3200.00 which is/was a no brainer for me. 

Victor

[Paul2660]

Paul, Thanks for this. Are you saying that ink expenditure in CL1, and in CL2, are less than that used in Normal (non-service mode boot) cleaning? Do we have the ability to run pairs in the CL1 and CL2 cleaning cycles?

Many thanks,

John-

Hello John:

Yes if you do a pairs cleaning from M/A mode, you have 4 ink level cleaning options, CL1 through CL4.  As I remember, in normal mode you only have settings, "medium" and "high" or something like that.  Most times 85% of the time, CL1 gets the job done.  It's a bit of pain to jump back and forth but ink savings are worth it.  BTW you can print fine in M/A mode, you just can't:

1.  set your platen gap
2.  set you paper type
3.  run a nozzle check from the printer.

All can be done in from the printer driver however. 

I used to always change from PK to MK and back in M/A mode since it avoids the auto cleaning cycle, however I now feel that cleaning may be necessary to purge out the rest of the MK from the head when I go back to PK.  PK to MK, it most times won't try to clean.

Paul

[Garnick]

Paul, Thanks for this. Are you saying that ink expenditure in CL1, and in CL2, are less than that used in Normal (non-service mode boot) cleaning? Do we have the ability to run pairs in the CL1 and CL2 cleaning cycles?

Many thanks,

John-

Hi John,

I agree with Paul on all of his suggestions concerning the x900 series printers.  Upon delivery of my 9900 more that 4 years ago I started an "Issue Log" so that I would have a chronological record of possible problems with the printer.  During the first two years I had made at least 80 entries and had a half dozen or more service calls, mostly throwing various parts at the machine to see what might stick.  Needless to say I renewed the warranty twice to give a full three years of coverage.  Since the first service call(6 months in) would have cost more that $2100.00 out of warranty, renewing the warranty for as long as possible was indeed a no-brainer.  One of the best insurance policies I can think of in relation to these printers.  I have been warranty free for more than a year and very few problems.  I attribute that to the fact that I now have a much more stringent humidity control system in place and even during the past LONG DRY winter it worked well with no major issues.  

Of course I will freely admit that mine was not the average situation and that many users probably have very few issues, but a warranty renewal is always my first piece of advice offered.  I also agree that most of the time when a channel seems to almost completely disappear it is likely more related to a cartridge pressure loss than to "clogs".  My answer to that is to shut down the printer, let it sit for a few minutes and than restart.  The restart will of course cause the ink carts to re-pressurize and that will often bring back most or all of the channel.  After a K ink switch I always print a 3x10" black patch to get the K line active.  I then run a nozzle check and clean cycle if necessary.  There never seems to be any standard as to when the printer will want to do a clean cycle after a K in switch, but if after one cleaning I still have problems I start up in service mode and run the clean cycles there, usually CL1 or CL2.  And yes, as in standard mode, one can indeed run pairs cleaning cycles in service mode.  You have to scroll down past the "Standard" cleaning mode and then you'll find the pairs. Of course you will also have to run your nozzle check from the computer using the utility app instead of from the control panel as in standard operating mode.  While in service mode it's also a good idea to check and perhaps clean the wiper blade.  A few minutes of your time can make a big difference.

I hope this is of some help John.

Gary  






    

[John Caldwell]

Nice points here, Gary. Thanks you.

John Caldwell

[gwhitf]

Thank you on the advice toward consideration of Canon. I will research. Thank you very much.