Epson 9900 printhead

[jwittes]

Has anyone purchased a new printhead for the 9900 from one of the parts sellers in Indonesia or China?  I've found a couple of sellers that are offering them at a 50-65% discount when compared to the States.  Is this a too good to be true situation?  Just looking to get my 9900 back up and running for the next 12 months until I'm ready to replace it.  Thanks...

[Mark D Segal]

Asking for relevant experience here is a prudent start. As well, although I have no experience whatsoever to contribute, I'd suggest finding out whether they offer any kind of warranty/refund conditions (which may be difficult because they can't be responsible for installation) and what their general commercial reputations may be as seen from any available ratings (to the extent trustworthy).

[jwittes]

Mark, thanks for the input.  I'll also double check with my credit card issuer about buyer protection.  For reference here is the place I was considering. 

http://www.printheadoriginal.com/en/printhead/344-f191010-printhead-for-epson-9900-7900-9700-7700.html

I'll report back once I've done a deeper dive into how reputable they are and my experience if I do decide to purchase through them.

[Mark D Segal]

Something is strange about that - they say the same model head is compatible with both the x900 printers and the 3890 printer, which latter is part of the 3800/3880 family. As far as I'm aware, the print head for an x900 is a different design than the one for the 3800/3880 family. I suggest you seek some clarification. Also they don't say whether the head is an OEM product, whereas for some of the Epson heads on their site they do. Great care needed I think. I don't know whether any third-party can manufacture an Epson head, or if they can, how they would perform - but the notations on that website just raise those kind of questions.

[dgberg]

Looks fishy

I had a new one installed last fall on my 9900 by Decision One.
With all the parts and 2 service calls the price was $2900.
(Head, left ink bay and docking station)
I have refillable carts filled with K3 oem inks purchased from across the country.
That is probably the only reason it paid me to have it repaired, a stockpile of 10,000 ml of cheaply purchased oem ink.

[enduser]

Some Asian suppliers offer refurbished printheads at lower prices.  If they are new, the price is usually only 5 to 10 % off.

[Mark D Segal]

Some Asian suppliers offer refurbished printheads at lower prices.  If they are new, the price is usually only 5 to 10 % off.

Interesting. Do you have any idea who does the refurbishing of Epson printheads and how they get into commercial distribution over web retailers?

[Farmer]

They buy or salvage them from printers or other repairers.  Not exactly a pedigree I'd want to buy into.

[Mark D Segal]

Yup - thanks Phil, has to be something like that. Warranty is probably non-existent.

[Farmer]

Tail light warranty.  Once you can no longer see the tail lights as they drive away, the warranty is over :-)

[Mark D Segal]

:-)

[CrazyPugLady]

This is a scamming site. Don't buy there!

[jwittes]

I've decided against trying one of the asian sites.  Just wish there was a way to definitively know if in fact it's the head going out without having to replace the dampers and capping station first.  That's hundreds of dollars spent that could go to a new machine.

[deanwork]

That is the delemma with this series of printers. In the past we would buy new Epson print heads from Compas Micro with a warranty, but Epson shut that down years ago. They told them that "people might be doing the wrong things" with the heads. We never figured out what they ment by that.

Not all of these Chinese suppliers are bad, though Im sure a lot are. Earlier in the year I bought an internal I1 color spectrometer for my Z3100 from Alibaba and it was a third the price of the HP part. It was a new part. I just hired a local company to put it in and it has worked flawlessly. But I would never buy an expensive Epson head that didn't have a warranty. A used or "refurbished" one, never. Even the new ones dont last that long. I bought a "refurbished" Epson head for a 9600 and it was junk. You have people pulling parts from dead printers and selling parts that they know nothing about.



quote author=jwittes link=topic=118706.msg985417#msg985417 date=1498765973]
I've decided against trying one of the asian sites.  Just wish there was a way to definitively know if in fact it's the head going out without having to replace the dampers and capping station first.  That's hundreds of dollars spent that could go to a new machine.
[/quote]

[enduser]

There is some redress offered by Aliexpress and eBay, but I think it would not be quick. We did find a Chinese re-seller of genuine Canon print heads - until he was shut down. Those heads seemed equal to genuine Western sourced heads, as far as our impressions of IQ and life could tell.