Epson P900 Problems

[steverap]

For the second time in 18 months, Epson is replacing my P900 printer which started producing prints that are too light and have a magenta cast (on four different papers printed from Lightroom, Photoshop, and Preview). Has any else had serious problems with a P900 printer?

[Tuco]

Not sure how 'serious' this is yet, but after noticing an odd cast to parts of a print I discovered my entire cyan was not printing (which made sections seem overly magenta, a bubble of air?).  After several cleaning cycles I then also lost violet (all nozzles).  Now I have a small subset of each of those colors back.  I haven't done a power clean or whatever it's called yet.  I'm giving it some time, I got a couple more nozzles back this morning that I didn't the night before, but am a long way from having a printer that'll print with quality again.  I guess I'll bite the bullet and do a power clean soon, but am open to suggestions on getting things unclogged again with minimal ink loss.

[Eric Brody]

I'm not sure why this is in the computer rather than the printer section but FWIW I'm on my second P900 in a year because of paper feeding problems, I wrote here and on PhotoPXL in some detail on this. My first P900 worked fine for about 7 months of amateur light use and then would not feed properly. The refurbished one has been doing just fine for about a month. Time will tell. Even the Epson folks will tell you the P900 not as sturdy a machine as the 3880 which served me well for 13 years!

There are not a lot of alternatives in the marketplace. The Epson P5000 is a beast and makes great prints but it's a production machine which will clog if not used regularly. The 24" printers are also production machines and the web is full of concerns about the 7570. Realistically, the Canons are the only 17" alternative right now but the Canon imagePROGRAF PRO-1000 is a bit long in the tooth and Canons will not run QTR my monochrome printing RIP.
I'm just hoping the new refurb will keep going for a while.

Good luck to you.

[bill@plunkettphoto.com]

I'm on my 2nd P900.  The first left, I think they call pizza wheel marks on the print.  I purchased through B&H and they were great but directed me directly to Epson, who eventually replaced the printer after they sent me their paper and I had to make a print and send them an picture of the print with the marks.

I'm kinda waiting for Canon to replace their 17" printer with a new version and I may get it.   I also have an Epson 24" printer which seems to be doing very well.