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Author Topic: 9880 vs 9890  (Read 5247 times)

nairb

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9880 vs 9890
« on: July 11, 2013, 07:03:14 pm »

 Hi all,

I'm experiencing some problems with my 4880 which I've been using for about 4 years and have been considering a 44 inch model for my gallery for a while. With these new problems it seems I either need to spend to repair the 4880 now or invest now in something larger. I've been avoiding moving to the larger printer for a little bit for several reasons but mostly waiting to see if updated versions will come out in the autumn and avoiding what appears to be an unusual amount of reliability issues with the 9900/9890 models compared to their previous generation.

As it happens, a very lightly used 9880 has come available about a 3 hour drive away. I'm just waiting to hear if it still is functioning after being in storage for 3.5 years after having only gone through it's initial included charge of ink.

So my question is: what are the major differences in operating the 9880 vs the 9890/9900.

Here's what I can come up with from some searching and from memory for major differences:

     -180 nozzles vs 360

     -old paper cutter vs rotary cutter

     -long metal rod paper holder vs new design holders which insert into each end of paper tube

     -max 220ml cartridges vs 350ml & 700ml options (I go through maybe 1.5 sets of 220ml carts on my 4880/year)

     -slower and louder printing vs faster and quieter

For those that have experience with both, is there anything major I'm overlooking. And would it still be worth getting the newer model given what appears to be mostly paper handling differences?

Given the amount of use I get out of my 4880 (ie reasonable use of 220ml carts, about 300 standard prints/year) it seems it might be worthwhile to consider the 9880. Especially if the price is low.

Thanks
« Last Edit: July 11, 2013, 07:06:02 pm by nairb »
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nairb

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Re: 9880 vs 9890
« Reply #1 on: July 11, 2013, 08:13:53 pm »

One other thing I just thought of. How is the 9880 at handling cut sheet media?


I got some more info on the printer.

 It had to have a couple auto cleanings then a power cleaning to clear everything up. But nozzle checks are now clear.

Its done 150 prints
 7500cm

Its used just over 1700ml of ink

It comes with a full unopened  set of ink which expired in 2010. Unknown size.

It appears to have a fair bit of expired ink in it now too.

Initially they were asking $3500 with the ink before they knew it was expired and before I informed them of the price of a brand new 9890 at $3800.

Any suggestions on what this might be worth?
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Larry Heath

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Re: 9880 vs 9890
« Reply #2 on: July 12, 2013, 12:01:35 pm »

I have a 9880, for which I gave $2000 about 9 months ago. It has a good bit more use on it (34000 CM) than the one you are talking about, but, it prints perfectly and has given me nearly no problems. I have to say that I likely could have driven a harder bargain, but, the guy was legally blind, liver transplant and living with his mother who is in her 70’s. Just couldn’t do it. Anyway just one of the 3 or 4 rolls of 36” canvas that came with the printer have already paid for the printer and then some. I got three spare paper spindles and a MK/PK change cartridge and also some 24” partial rolls of paper and canvas.

Small cut sheets load and print flawlessly. At this point I have not tried and large cut sheets.

So if it was me I wouldn’t give more than about $1750 tops, unless there are a good bit of sweeteners involved.

Later Larry
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ph0kused

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Re: 9880 vs 9890
« Reply #3 on: July 12, 2013, 12:09:27 pm »

I used to sell Epsons..

I would get this question frequently.

To me, here is the biggest deciding factor...

Are you running ANY matte materials?  Like canvas, fine art paper, water color paper, proofing etc? If YES - then I would urge you to take a look at the 9890, simply because it has matte black & photo black on the printer.

The 9880 is a phenomenal printer, they both are really.  However, the 9880 only has one black loaded in, at any given time.  Meaning If you want to print photo paper, you need photo black.  If you want to print ANY glossy or SATIN material, you need photo black.

The 9890 has BOTH inks loaded in the printer, making printing matte or gloss material very easy.

If you want to print matte materials on a 9880, you will need to buy an Epson Conversion kit, and a tank of Photo Black ink.  It is a costly processes switching back and fourth and having to buy a NEW conversion kit EACH time you want to switch from glossy to matte, or matte to glossy materials.

To me, to be versatile and enjoy printing any type of material at will.... The 9890 is the way to go.  Just my humble opinion.  :)

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nairb

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Re: 9880 vs 9890
« Reply #4 on: July 12, 2013, 12:51:44 pm »

That's one of the things I guess I knew of but forgot to list earlier.

I've never been a fan of canvas prints and so all my printing in the last 3-4 years has been on pearl or lustre photo paper with photo black ink. At this point I don't have any plans for printing matte. The one exception might be that if I get my 4880 fixed, it might be interesting to switch it over to Jon Cone inks and only use that for matte B&W's. There might be a market for that type of product also as there is a glut of wedding photographers here relative to the population. It's become a bit of a destination wedding location.

Regarding the pricing. I was beginning to think that $1800 might be a fair price considering it will cost me a day of my time and $110 in gas to go get it. Though they did say that they just want to get rid of it at this point so I might get away with offering less.

Not that I'm going to use it, but do you have to use a new kit every time you switch black inks?! I was under the impression that the kit was good for multiple uses.
« Last Edit: July 12, 2013, 12:57:19 pm by nairb »
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Wayne Fox

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Re: 9880 vs 9890
« Reply #5 on: July 12, 2013, 01:48:48 pm »

9880 to 9890 differences, you've mentioned what they are, but don't under estimate their value.  Printing speed is substantially faster.  Paper loading, especially rolls is incredibly better, no long rod to deal with, easy and quick to change rolls.  Size of ink cartridges is also a helpful for a couple of reasons.  (you can also buy ink in 150ml size).  First is price can be substantially lower per ml.  Another nice feature is you can run the larger sizes in the colors that consume much more ink (about 50% of the ink on any print is either LK or LLK).

A couple of other features the 9890 has is HD Screening technology which may yield slightly better prints in some cases.  Also, the auto nozzle check feature is available.  Many have disabled it, but I find it actually works fine on my 9900.

That being said, the 9880 still prints exceptionally high quality prints, and if you can get it for a real bargain, is working well and has seen such little mileage it's certainly something worth considering.
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Larry Heath

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Re: 9880 vs 9890
« Reply #6 on: July 13, 2013, 08:43:51 am »

That's one of the things I guess I knew of but forgot to list earlier.

Not that I'm going to use it, but do you have to use a new kit every time you switch black inks?! I was under the impression that the kit was good for multiple uses.


Yes you can use the change kit multiple times. They will tell you when they are full or empty as the case may be.

Later Larry
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nairb

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Re: 9880 vs 9890
« Reply #7 on: July 13, 2013, 10:45:58 pm »

Thanks for all the advice everyone.

They said they'd take $1500. I probably could've offered less. They originally said they just wanted to get rid of it as it isn't being used and is just taking up space.

That being said, they're having trouble getting osx leopard to see the printer and so they haven't been able to make an actual print with it just yet. They've just printed status pages and nozzle checks from the menu. If they do get a good print out of it I'll probably go to pick it up on Monday or Tuesday as my 4880 is exhibiting a very strange problem that Epson so far hasn't been able to diagnose. As it is I cannot currently get a good print of my best selling image, so I need a printer that can asap as it's getting into the busy season again.

I might start another thread here to see if anyone can help figure out what's going on with the 4880.

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nairb

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Re: 9880 vs 9890
« Reply #8 on: July 14, 2013, 12:56:08 am »

Just out of curiosity, what are peoples opinions on using expired inks?

It seems this printer will be coming with a substantial amount of ink that all expired in 2010.

 
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nairb

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Re: 9880 vs 9890
« Reply #9 on: July 14, 2013, 04:28:37 pm »

Would anyone have any suggestions on how to get a 9880 to communicate with OS X Leopard 10.5 via USB? Or perhaps get it to print an actual test photo on photo paper without connecting to a computer

They can operate the printer from the control panel and print all the status pages and test pages, but they cannot actually connect to it with their mac to make an actual print. I use Windows and am not that familiar with OS X so any suggestions are ones I've found through googling. They seem to have tried nearly everything.

I've got my hands on a cheap windows 7 laptop and have the drivers on there which I can try once I get there. But 350km is a long way to go if it isn't working.

At this point the 9880 can print all kinds of test pages and nozzle checks, but I can get clean readings like that from my 4880 currently, none of which can show the problem I'm having with it. So there could very will be a multitude of problems with this 9880 that the tests don't show, like paper feed issues, or suction problems, or pressure problems, or cutter problems, etc.

If anyone has any suggestions it would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks
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TylerB

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Re: 9880 vs 9890
« Reply #10 on: July 14, 2013, 04:49:14 pm »

Would anyone have any suggestions on how to get a 9880 to communicate with OS X Leopard 10.5 via USB? ...

honestly, it's as simple as downloading the correct driver from Epson and installing it.. maybe check for other drivers currently installed that might appear Epson, but are not.. and uninstall them first.
Tyler
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nairb

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Re: 9880 vs 9890
« Reply #11 on: July 14, 2013, 05:03:41 pm »

They've tried downloading and installing, using the disks and installing, all sorts of things, but the printer just doesn't show up when the drivers are installed or not.

I'd ask them to try uninstalling other drivers, but I just heard back from them and they're at the point of giving up having struggled with this all weekend unfortunately. So I guess I need to decide if I want to drive 3 hours to find out if I can get it working...

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Wayne Fox

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Re: 9880 vs 9890
« Reply #12 on: July 14, 2013, 06:47:37 pm »

Here's an article that seems to have helped quite a few get things working again ...

http://www.cwaynefox.com/wordpress/epson-printers-and-lion-and-leopard-and-snow-leopard/

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nairb

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Re: 9880 vs 9890
« Reply #13 on: July 15, 2013, 12:15:47 am »

Thanks Wayne,

I passed that on to them, but haven't heard back, so they may have just given up as I told them I'd come to test it out myself.


Brian
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TylerB

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Re: 9880 vs 9890
« Reply #14 on: July 15, 2013, 02:41:50 am »

I hope you are able to get it to work and I hope I didn't make light of the install problem, it's always been effortless here, for years, many Macs, many OSs, and many Epsons. Just wanted to add that though many have made a good case for the 9890 here, my 9880 has been the most problem free printer I've ever owned, from x600s through x900s. I think it was the first model with teflon coated heads, but before the more complex and finicky pressure systems of the x900s.
Tyler
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nairb

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Re: 9880 vs 9890
« Reply #15 on: July 16, 2013, 03:56:38 pm »

so i'm here now with the 9880 and my windows7 can see the printer but cannot communicate with it. I try to do a nozzle check but nothing happens at all with the printer. I can enter the driver dialogue and the lfp remote panel and when starting a command from there it says something to the effect of "cannot communicate with selected printer"

does anyone have any suggestions on what I could do? Is there a full reset somehow that i could do through the printers control panel.
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nairb

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Re: 9880 vs 9890
« Reply #16 on: July 16, 2013, 06:27:44 pm »

So after problem solving over the phone with Epson, and running to the store to get a cross-over cable to test with, the printer cannot communicate through either the usb or ethernet ports. Which probably means it's a mainboard problem.

I just talked to the repair company and the part is $435.11 plus likely a minimum of $200 labour.

Bummer. I suppose since she just wants to get rid of it at this point, perhaps she'll just let me take it and pay for the repair myself.
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