Dead printerhead Epson 9900?

[mcrepsej]

Is this print head dead on my only 5 years old Epson 9900 or are there other options for repair?
Have been in the techniques menu and made the powerclean without it helping.
It seems like the black channel is not quite sharp with small blobs outside the lines.

[BrianWJH]

Have you tried to clear the clog using the following methods.

Brian.

[Dan Sroka]

The deflection in the black in (where the vertical lines are drifting to the right) looks like a print head problem. It's what I experienced with my 7900 when it was 5 years old.

You can get a technician to replace it, but it is pricey. I purchased a new print head from Epson for $1500, and followed the instructions in this video to do the repair myself. This is NOT for the faint of heart. Since then, I've gotten another 4 years (and counting) of life out of my printer.

[dgberg]

Epson has the new one time service plan for your printer. $1195.00, a steal.
I had my 9900 printhead and left ink bay replaced 2 years ago to the tune of $2900. A good deal for me because I refill with oem K3 ink and have about 10,000 ml in stock.
Worth looking into if you want to keep it.



The link does not copy and paste but you can enter it manually.

One-Time Service Plan - EPWPSP1R44 - epson.com

This plan covers the Epson SureColor P-Series 44-inch or Epson Stylus Pro 9900 Printer for onetime, on-site repair services for a diagnosed primary issue. The services provided for the primary issue will be warranted for 90 days from the date services were first provided for the primary issue. Please call 1-888-377-6611 to purchase this service plan.

[Dan Sroka]

Thanks for this information! Here's the link for the 9900 one-time plan, and also the 7900 one-time plan.

[deanwork]

Seems to me that if Epson handles this new warranty offering in a fair way it could really help repair their tarnished reputation in the area of premature print head failure ( one dysfunctional nozzle occurring for instance just after a warranty expires ) that their printers before the 7900/ 9900 series did not have..

I guess a lot will depend on how a given tech will decide to characterize the “Primary” problem.
Such as, it might well be if he decides you should replace the capping station and the head or the pump and the head, or all three plus the damper assembly,  you might end up with double or triple the bill. Only time will tell how all this plays out. Of course they should have done this a long time ago, but better late than never and it appears a smart move. It also suggests to me that these print head issues from the previous 9900 series have not been completely resolved.
——————————————————————————

“If, while performing Services for a Primary Issue, a repair technician discovers a new, secondary issue separate and distinct from the Primary Issue, whether or not caused by or related to the Primary Issue (“Secondary Issue”), such Secondary Issue shall not be covered under this Plan. You will need to purchase a separate Plan to Service the Secondary Issue.

Epson does not guarantee, represent, or warrant that it or its designee will be able to resolve, repair, or otherwise fix a Primary Issue.”


John

Thanks for this information! Here's the link for the 9900 one-time plan, and also the 7900 one-time plan.

[Terry_Kennedy]

Is this print head dead on my only 5 years old Epson 9900 or are there other options for repair?
Have been in the techniques menu and made the powerclean without it helping.
It seems like the black channel is not quite sharp with small blobs outside the lines.

Yes, you are experiencing printhead delamination (the inner layers of the printhead separate, leading initially to a longer ink droplet "in-flight time" which causes displacment to the right in horizontal lines, and eventually to an inability to print with that nozzle at all).

Interestingly, the vast majority of these that I've seen are in the black channel, usually toward the middle nozzles (where, presumably, the internal attachments are the weakest). I wonder if there's something about that particular ink that is more likely to attack the printhead? Everybody I've talked to with these clogs has been running genuine Epson inks for the whole life of the printer. Way-back-when (original SP9000/9500) the magenta was voted "most likely to clog" but that was a pure clog, not a printhead failure as we're seeing here.

It could be that repeated "power cleanings" (particularly the only-in-service-mode ones) are damaging printheads that are just clogged and which might have been cleared by a long soak in an approved cleaning fluid. If there's a clog right at the nozzle opening (where the ink is most likely to dry out), attempting to "blast through" the clog with power cleanings might lead to a bulge inside the printhead substrates. Since black is likely the densest pigment in the inkset, it would probably be the most likely to clog. But that's just a theory. Even if Epson knows, they're not telling...

[mcrepsej]

Thanks for all the answers. 

To BrianWJH: I have followed the instruction and even surfed a bit around the techniques menu and found and used more powerful cleaning procedure.

Regarding service plan: I am from Europe / Denmark and have not heard of a similar plan for us.

To Terry_Kennedy: Thank you for reporting that this is unfortunately a "normal" issue with the 7900/9900 series. Can then state that my 7900 went down with the same problem a month earlier despite having printed only 1/3 of the 9900's.
Maybe it's worth taking a serious talk with Epson Denmark.

[Alistair]

I agree that it looks like the head is dying. It is not a cheap head:
https://www.digiprint-supplies.com/en/epson-stylus-advanced-micropiezor-tfp-printhead-pphep16821.html?category=2#details

It is quite a difficult printer to work on if you do not have a proper workshop manual and these manuals are hard to come by. Prior to the 9900 generation of printers, Mutoh made Epson's wide format printers and they are better engineered and the parts more freely available and cheaper as they are shared across a number of platforms. You are probably better served by getting Epson to do the work and get a good warranty out of them.

A printhead is just another consumable and they all fail eventually. Especially on pigment printers that are not used hard. Just make sure you factor that into your print prices. Good luck.

[Garnick]

Upon viewing the nozzle check pattern I tend to agree that it does indeed seem to be a dead head issue.  My 9900, after approximately 5.5 years of operation, displayed basically the same sort of pattern in the green channel.  When I sent the pattern to a tech who I came to know rather well, he said that the telling test is the bulging of the vertical lines separating the colours, especially if they are bulging to the right as displayed in your pattern.  In January 2016 I had a new head installed and then early 2017 I sold the printer and the last I heard from the buyer it is still chugging along in good shape. 

You might want to take a look at this site- https://myx900.com/manure-requested/.  Eric gave all of us Epson Wide-Format Printer users a lesson on maintaining our machines and at least some of that is still relevant today, since many of the newer versions are based on the versions preceding them, with various interchangeable parts as well.  Check Erics site and peruse all of the videos etc. as well as the cleaning procedures he has laid out there.  I think you might find some very valuable information.

With one caveat:  It has since been discovered that the use of a product such as Windex is not the proper way to clean the print-head in the manner Eric suggests.  Definitely NOT any product that might contain ammonia, since it can apparently have some very negative effects on the head itself.