Buying Second Hand Large Format Hand Epson and Canon Printers

[bwpuk]

I'm considering buying a used large format 24inch Colour Printer either Canon or Epson and wondered if anybody out there has experiences they would like to share on the subject. I will mainly be using the printer for large digital negatives for Salt and Platinum Printing, and maybe the occasional colour print. I'll not be using the printer on a daily basis, it will be periodically used quite heavily and then maybe not touched for a couple of weeks or so.

The experiences I've had with Epson Stylus Photo printers over the years have not been great to be honest. Mostly numerous irreversible head blocks and other issues made me switch to Canon printers some ten years ago. They just simply work when I turn them on, and I've not had one head block since I bought any of them. I currently use a Canon Pro1 A3+ and it has been superb.

Any advice would be gratefully received, pitfalls, advantages, best model, maintenance costs etc.

Many thanks

Barrie

[mearussi]

I've bought all my large printers used (can't afford new). Initially they were all Epson (4800, 7800, 9800, 9900) and they all cost me a small fortune in ink as I had to clean the heads at least once every other day. When the last three died I decided to try a Canon ipf6400 and am much happier. I can leave it for weeks unused and it still prints fine. And yes I know the heads eventually will need replacing but I've calculated that the cost of replacing both heads every two or three years is still less than the cost of all the ink I had to buy for the Epsons just used for nozzle cleaning (I use OEM inks only).

Now I also still have an old Epson 9600 that just keeps going and going and seldom ever needs nozzle cleaning, but I'm assuming that's because the older head just has larger nozzle holes that don't plug as readily.

For your specific use though you can get away with using 3rd party inks so ink costs might not matter so much, but having a printer always ready to print might, so you still might want to get a Canon.

[bwpuk]

Thanks so much mearussi for your reply.

So which 24 inch Canon would you recommend? The more inks the better as far as I'm concerned because the Pro1 has twelve and the negatives it's producing are superb, particularly as I colourise them too.

How much are head replacements and the ink for your particular model?

The thing I love about the Canon is I don't touch it for often months, I switch it on and it prints 100% all the time, no missing colours. I have never had to do a clean either. There appear to be a good few older Epsons out there for sale though, which are tempting I must say.

[mearussi]

Thanks so much mearussi for your reply.

So which 24 inch Canon would you recommend? The more inks the better as far as I'm concerned because the Pro1 has twelve and the negatives it's producing are superb, particularly as I colourise them too.

How much are head replacements and the ink for your particular model?

The thing I love about the Canon is I don't touch it for often months, I switch it on and it prints 100% all the time, no missing colours. I have never had to do a clean either. There appear to be a good few older Epsons out there for sale though, which are tempting I must say.

I like the model I have, but the ipf6300 is almost the same machine (they just made a few minor improvements to the ipf6400 but not enough to worry about).

And I've seen the heads as low as $305/each:   https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0036ZZ2NQ/?coliid=I2TIKQTQN4UBYF&colid=3OTALYPY98198&psc=1&ref_=lv_ov_lig_dp_it

Ink I just buy off of eBay for cheap as I don't mind using outdated because I've never seen any difference between in date and out of date ink. But even if I had to buy all new ink, the ipf6400 uses very little when printing anyway.

[PeterAit]

I'm considering buying a used large format 24inch Colour Printer either Canon or Epson and wondered if anybody out there has experiences they would like to share on the subject. I will mainly be using the printer for large digital negatives for Salt and Platinum Printing, and maybe the occasional colour print. I'll not be using the printer on a daily basis, it will be periodically used quite heavily and then maybe not touched for a couple of weeks or so.

The experiences I've had with Epson Stylus Photo printers over the years have not been great to be honest. Mostly numerous irreversible head blocks and other issues made me switch to Canon printers some ten years ago. They just simply work when I turn them on, and I've not had one head block since I bought any of them. I currently use a Canon Pro1 A3+ and it has been superb.

Any advice would be gratefully received, pitfalls, advantages, best model, maintenance costs etc.

Many thanks

Barrie

You have sort of answered your own question, me thinks!

[bwpuk]

Looks like that way.....I was hoping some Epson users might come up with a bit of info too.

[mearussi]

Looks like that way.....I was hoping some Epson users might come up with a bit of info too.

I did, I used Epson for almost 10 years which is why I finally switched to Canon last year.

[Richard.Wills]

>99% Canon (8400 now), but 1% is a second hand 7880, loaded with cone Piezo DN ink set. The Canon runs 10 hours a day, and gets through heads every 6 months.

The Epson is used for making digital negatives, and gets run 2-3 hours every few of weeks. I run a nozzle check, print a granger rainbow (using QTR print tool), then print the negatives onto Pictorico  UP OHP film.

The Canon makes beautiful exhibition prints (always genuine ink - I don't have the luxury of potentially having prints fade early), but the Epson makes negatives that are in a different league.

The Cone inks don't give you the option for colurised negatives, but do make damned good negs.

How much do platinum salts cost these days, and how many hours do you invest in the final print production?

[Terry_Kennedy]

Looks like that way.....I was hoping some Epson users might come up with a bit of info too.

I have 2 SC-P10000 printers I bought used at different times. Both work very well, though I use them infrequently - I print a nozzle check every week or two, and print maybe once every few months (typically about 20 feet of 44" - equivalent prints). One of them developed a 1415 error after I updated the firmware and needed a new pump cap station from D1 installed for $900. As I only paid $400 for the printer with a full set of full ink cartridges, I was OK with that. I've never had any major clog issues - they will report clogged nozzles after each big print job (44" x 10 feet, for example) but telling the printer "Ok, go clean it" clears the problem every time.

The P10K and P20K use a print head very different from older printers, and I don't think there will be a "trickle down" of putting that head in 24" and smaller printers. So my experience above doesn't apply directly to older models.

I also have a 4880 that sat for 5 years or so without printing. A year ago when I started printing again I soaked the capping station with Epson cleaner for a few days, then started nozzle checks. After a power cleaning I was getting good prints on it with no bad nozzles. However, as they say in commercials, "results not typical - your experience may vary".

To end, I'd have no problem buying an Epson printer.

[kers]

You may also consider a HP Z2100
It keeps the nozzles clean - heads cost 70$ and have a lifetime of years ( 4 heads= new printer) very little wasted ink, and the colours stay almost forever- longest of all pigment inkjet printers.
and it has a spectrophotometer to make  icc profiles of all papers.
https://store.hp.com/us/en/pdp/hp-designjet-z2100-24-in-photo-printer

[ryanearl]

The price of a new Canon Pro 2000 or Epson P7000 is pretty attractive if the 2nd hand printer has any flaws.  I bought a used Epson 11880 from 2009 that was used by a large company that put 20 100’ rolls through it and after a few cleaning cycles functions perfectly.

With the expanded ink set of the P7000 I thought gambling on one used with a clogged light black seemed reasonable.  It turns out that printhead could need replacing.  It was only put into operation a year and a half ago.  The user replaceable heads on the Canon printers seem like a good option and are lower cost over Epson.

If you have some technical background you can reverse a printer build with as little as a philips head screwdriver.  the Epson 11880 is pretty easy to replace parts like the capping station yourself.