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Author Topic: What should I do with my dead Epson 4900?  (Read 1486 times)

HartmanPrints

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What should I do with my dead Epson 4900?
« on: June 11, 2018, 05:38:12 pm »

I'm having a bit of an ethical dilemma with this. Here are some of my options:

Selling the unused ink and tossing/recycling the printer. I feel weird throwing it away.

Donating to a school, but i also feel weird donating something that will probably cost quite a bit to repair.

I was thinking of taking it apart, trying to manually clean the print head, and then eventually turn it into a greyscale printer. But who knows if I'll ever have time for that, and the money it could potentially cost is also a factor.

Selling the entire machine with or without the remaining inks, for parts. And possibly selling or donating the inks. Sucks the 4900 inks don't work with the p5000. Or do they?

Am i allowed to sell things on here? I don't know the rules on that. It would obviously be pickup only for the entire printer.

Any suggestions? Thanks!
-Justin
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Mark D Segal

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Re: What should I do with my dead Epson 4900?
« Reply #1 on: June 11, 2018, 06:07:21 pm »

I donated mine to a recycling outfit. They either repair them and give them away, or if not practical they recycle them.
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Mark D Segal (formerly MarkDS)
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dgberg

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Re: What should I do with my dead Epson 4900?
« Reply #2 on: June 11, 2018, 06:36:18 pm »

You say dead, what is actually wrong with it.
If just one channel is clogged (maybe two?) it can be converted to piezography.
Jon Cone’s website Inkjetmall has a for sale forum where you can sell or give it to someone looking for a printer to convert. If it is dead, dead then I would dispose of it in some way.


HartmanPrints

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Re: What should I do with my dead Epson 4900?
« Reply #3 on: June 11, 2018, 10:55:41 pm »

It has one clogged nozzle (VM), it's a considerably bad clog.

I didn't realize you could do piezography with a clogged nozzle.... how is that possible? I've read a few articles about it, but none mentioned how to accomplish it without a working print head.

Recycling is an option, but if Piezography is possible, ill hang onto it and maybe go that route.

Thanks for the replies!
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dgberg

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Re: What should I do with my dead Epson 4900?
« Reply #4 on: June 12, 2018, 06:46:11 am »

It has one clogged nozzle (VM), it's a considerably bad clog.

I didn't realize you could do piezography with a clogged nozzle.... how is that possible? I've read a few articles about it, but none mentioned how to accomplish it without a working print head.

Recycling is an option, but if Piezography is possible, ill hang onto it and maybe go that route.

Thanks for the replies!

Requires QTR - Quad Tone RIP ($50) plus Piezo Flush, Set of refillable carts and one of the Piezography insets.
It is an individual ink jet head printer driver that is able to control each individual ink channel.
K6 or K7 insets are available so you can have up to 2 clogged channels.
The clogged ones are programmed out and you use the other good ones.
Not cheap by any means but a great way to salvage an other wise dead printer.
Give them a call to get the latest scoop.
They have a new updated inset that is supposed to be fantastic, Piezography Pro.


 
Quote per Jon Cone
Piezography requires a printer model that is in very good condition with one exception. And this exception is a stellar exception. Piezography does NOT require that all of the ink channels in a printer are working. And today it’s easier than ever to find free printers with one missing ink channel!

Epson 4900, 7900 and 9900 printers are notorious for operating poorly on Epson inks. The internet is filled with horror stories and even a video explaining how to repair one by destroying it with a sledge hammer!

When these printers develop one single missing color channel, they are often turned off and shoved into a corner. It is not worth their value to repair, and in many communities the owner will find it impossible to discard it. The thing is, these printers perform really well with Piezography inks. They alway have. The 4900, 7900 and 9900 printers have 11 inks and 10 ink channels. Our Community Edition Piezography manual explains how to map out bad ink channels, and you can purchase Piezography ink systems for printers like these.

With only 6 working channels you can use these for a PiezoDN system or Piezography K6.
With only 7 working channels you can use these to print either matte only K7, or K6 glossy & piezoDN digital negative.
With as few as 8 working channels we can provide a matte/glossy print and digital negative K7 system, or a matte only or glossy only Piezography Pro system.
With 9 working channels we can provide a Piezography Pro system.
It has been our experience (because we have received several free printers) that the previous owner was happy to have it hauled away for free.

Finally - I want to mention that although the printers we received for free were missing one or two channels we were able to recover the missing channels with PIEZOFLUSH! A newly discarded printer less than three months out of operation is best. Shy away from one left to sit with inks drying out.
« Last Edit: June 12, 2018, 06:58:44 am by Dan Berg »
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KeithR

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Re: What should I do with my dead Epson 4900?
« Reply #5 on: June 12, 2018, 01:39:00 pm »

Your printer may not be dead! Have you ever replaced the dampers? According to Epson, these should be replaced about every 3-4 years. I recently had a pair of 4800's repaired (one is used for color the other is running PiezographyPro) one needed a new printhead, the other had blocked channels, i.e. nozzle checks didn't show at all in a couple of colors. The person at the repair firm (a former autherized Epson repair facility) mentioned that the most usual cause of a blocked channel, no matter how often you do checks or power cleans, etc is that the damper is blocked. I've used PiezoFlush and still had the clog so I took it in. He mentioned that Epson refers to dampers as valves and once the get stuck, no amount of cleaning attempts will allow in to flow through.
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Mark D Segal

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Re: What should I do with my dead Epson 4900?
« Reply #6 on: June 12, 2018, 01:55:43 pm »

Your printer may not be dead! Have you ever replaced the dampers? According to Epson, these should be replaced about every 3-4 years. I recently had a pair of 4800's repaired (one is used for color the other is running PiezographyPro) one needed a new printhead, the other had blocked channels, i.e. nozzle checks didn't show at all in a couple of colors. The person at the repair firm (a former autherized Epson repair facility) mentioned that the most usual cause of a blocked channel, no matter how often you do checks or power cleans, etc is that the damper is blocked. I've used PiezoFlush and still had the clog so I took it in. He mentioned that Epson refers to dampers as valves and once the get stuck, no amount of cleaning attempts will allow in to flow through.

Very possible - between the damper assembly and labour probably in the range of $300~400 to repair.
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Mark D Segal (formerly MarkDS)
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Farmer

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Re: What should I do with my dead Epson 4900?
« Reply #7 on: June 12, 2018, 06:58:08 pm »

The OP didn't have a blocked channel - he had some blocked nozzles.  Very different and unlikely to be the damper in this case.
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Phil Brown

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Re: What should I do with my dead Epson 4900?
« Reply #8 on: June 14, 2018, 05:22:38 am »

Launch it into an orbit around the sun, on a collision course with Musk's Tesla.
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