I was about to order an Epson 9900 printer, but you have changed my mind. Thank you so much for saving me a ton of money, waste of production time and the frustration of talking with "Epson we don't care customer support people ". Your message is clear!
+Art by the Artist Hey Jeff, I know your video to many may look crazy, but I am an Artist who prints with a DTG printer. Nothing is more frustrating to have paid for an expensive piece of equipment, have production that must commence, and be told that you have to keep buying costly parts that pan out to be, opportunities for a company to keep you shelling out your hard earned money so that you can keep dreaming about a machine that performs consistent with how much you paid for it. Many would say salvage it out for someone else, but that's easier said than done. Bottom line, companies whose warranties and service don't measure up to the high cost of their products, should scale down their prices. period. It is only fair that we get what we pay for. Great video! I understand your frustration.
As the owner of an Epson 7900 huge ass paper weight that performed identically to the 9900, I salute you. I still have not had the courage to do as you did in the vain hope that someday heads might become available again at some reasonable price. Wishful thinking I know......
I've wanted to do this so, so much to my 9900 over the last 6-9 months. Words cannot describe how much I want to do exactly this when I finally lose patience with its crap and decide its time to retire it. You're truly doing God's work. Thank you from the bottom of my heart. (And empty Green ink-tank...)
FANTASTIC JEFF... Its stopped me from buying this machine. I have also read reviews about the customer service from Epsom. You certainly made your point! I respect you very much for your video. Cheers Tony, Liverpool UK
I had an Epson Surecolor 7070 about 5 years ago. Printed the most beautiful colors I ever saw.....for about a year and a half. Then print head clogged and they wanted $2000 to change out the head. I now have 2 HPs and 2 Canons. Canon heads cost $500 but at least you can change em yourself. HP heads are less than $200. This video was outstanding.
Love it. I have a 7900 and feel your pain about this series of Epson Printers. When my 7900 finally bites the dust I am switching over to Canon. There are just too many headaches with the larger Epson printers.
Wow! And I thought there was a solution coming. I really don't know what to say, but I guess you've made your point. Though I just called Epson for the same problem with a brand new 7900 I got less than 2 weeks ago and the banding problem was right from the beginning. Still, after so many calls and visits from the Epson techs, the problem is not resolved.
I was watching this video for a the first 2 minutes & thought.. hey I've had to deal with Epson before.. Wheres his sledge hammer? long behold.. there it is. Love your work. :D
I bought the same printer a week ago and there was a sledge hammer in the box and I couldn’t work out what it was for … after watching your video it’s crystal clear Thank you 😂
We have a couple of 9900s that we run the snaught out of, and so far they haven't had any issues. We go through a set of 700ml cartridges ever month or so. If there is a problem though the extended warranty we have covers all the parts and labor costs. I couldn't imagine having any brand of printer this size without that. It's just part of the cost of doing business. We have clogs sometimes, but they are quickly resolved with the automatic cleaning.
I have to say this video gave me great pleasure to watch since I have felt his pain for sure! I have two Canon Printers. An IPF6100 and a IPF8300 both of which have had constant problems with head cleaning issues. Before printing I would pray to the Printer God in hopes that I would not get the infamous Clean Head Error!!! Both printers are not working after a trip to Paris this summer even though they were left on as Canon suggests. I have gone round and round with Canon with no help since my printer is out of warranty. The printers were hardly used and it is hard to believe that such an expensive commercial device can be rendered useless so easily. When the Canon printers have a head clog the printer is rendered useless until you replace the head. At least an Epson printer will still print something when a nozzle is clogged. Canons mark the head clogged and no prints can be made until the head is replaced. I have gone through multiple heads under warranty with Canon with very low print volume. I will never buy a CANON again!! With Epson's you can at least use the Windex trick most of the time and get results. Canons mark the head for death so they can purge ink and sell you heads! I could pay Canon $1,500 flat labor to come fix plus $500 for a new head and replace purged ink for another $500.... HUM - I will roll my Canon's to the Garbage Truck LOL!
***** I have never been able to print in service mode even though I could get a nozzle print pattern to print? My Canon IPF8300 also after clean printhead issue now says that the cover is open when it is not and is now stuck with now help from CANON! I have removed heads before and tried to clean with no luck. I have not tried to clean capping unit. How do you print in service mode?
I have had 2 r3000 and a p800 die on me before their 4rth birthday. Perfectly cared for and printed on 2x per week or more. Your solution is the best i have seen.
We've had our Epson 9890 running consistently for 10 years. It has been a beauty. Yes, the printhead is a bit flaky and so far we have replaced ours 2 times (I did it myself, not a big deal, but not cheap). IMHO your anger got the best of you. You should have just replaced the printhead yourself (1 hour job). Hope you got a printer in the end that worked for you. FYI when I called Epson about getting my printhead replaced, by a technician, they quoted me a cost higher than a brand new printer! I told them to get a life. So I have a love / hate relationship with Epson, but I have to admit over the years their printers have been absolutely critical to the success of our art business.
I was glued to my screen with inquisitive curiosity, feeling like, "you know what, he might have the solution! Finaly!". And then I realized where this video was going as soon as I saw the work gloves come out hahahahaha. You did what I presume all of us would like to do in this situation. lol Good on you man!
I have owned both Epson and Canon large format printers, and I can say from experience that the CANON printers are superior in absolutely every way to the Epson. The software is better, print quality, user experience, maintenance, everything is better with Canon. I honestly don't know how (other than marketing) Epson maintains their status as the best solution for ink jet printing. Canon needs to up their marketing game and really go after this market. So many dissatisfied Epson customers are ripe for the picking.
This was the most satisfying video ever. My college uses these printers for their photo program. Last semester I saw a lot of prints coming out with banding and two of mine had giant grey strips along the paper in the same spot on each one. My school refuses to look at them and just tell me that it needs a cleaning. Now I will tell them to look at this video and try to lie to me again.
you are my hero. I do aerials and have had the 9800 now a P6000. junk.. those people at epson could care less and they let you know it. told me service call $900. sadly this is beginning to be common in customer service everywhere but they top the chart.
At first I thought this was an educational video, but then I realized about two minutes in that it was a PSA for the American people...well done sir. Very entertaining.
Good for you Jeff! Love this video!! Something every Epson owner has wanted to do, or at least thought of doing. I own 5 printers from the most basic all the way up - NONE of them work properly and I have spent WAY too many hours/days/weeks on the phone with the "Epson customer-we don't care center". The most recent print head troubles with a brand new 9900 that went on for about two years finally sent me over the edge, and this is in addition to dealing with Epson's refusal to update their software - that's a sore spot in itself!!! In response to comments below about "giving it away", thanks for sparing some unsuspecting novice out there the misery of owning an Epson. I would like to see a national "burn your Epson printer" day soon.
HP Designjet Z3200. Thermal inkjet technology reduces nozzle clogs. Easy user replaceable printheads. HP printheads have a separate warranty. If it goes bad under warranty they send a replacement.
Thank you for a very informative video many self help video's on here do not work , your video solves the problem , saves money and time and the tool required is a must have for any DIY warrior , I have found a case of beer and a few close friends accelerates the process.
Fantastic! Bravo Jeff. They are the same "We don't care Epson support people all over the planet". We make them to important and customer are not needed anymore. Soo, unless we find some type of well made printer we won't be able to get this right. I do love your Video. In my country they thing we are milk cows and for the same printer heads they want around $3'000 plus set up. Appalling....
I hate Epson problems, too, bought a 3880 A2+ printer and within 1 year a technician came (no costs for me) and I learned that it is nearly impossible to repair this printer without really advanced skills and must hear "oh you cannot replace print head with a reasonable effort". I always used Epson original ink. After 1,5 years and about 1500 prints, I had problems with printhead that could not be solved and I sold it for 40% of original price. Thank you Epson for selling crap to your customers for much money. And thank you "Art by the Artist" for this clever solution of a very annoying problem.
That's pretty hysterical and judging from the comments, even those that are frustrated with you for not helping them fix their clogged Epson, Epson should really be able to see that there is quite a problem with this. I have had an Epson 9800 for 6 years and it has performed brilliantly with very very few problems with clogging. I was looking to upgrade to the 9900 but I may just wait a bit on that....
I've seen a few of these 7900 and 9900 printers discarded/sent to surplus from other departments at the large organization I work at. We have our own 7900 (shorter sister printer of the 9900 in this video) and a 9800 in our shop and even though the 7900 is the newer unit, it is the dead one and the one which had the most problems. We ended up taking it out of service a few years ago. We were pretty good about keeping the head and head park area clean but it was a losing battle. Two years ago I intended to take the whole thing apart a perform a last-ditch heroic effort to fix it but there's no time, and parts are expensive too, with no light at the end of the tunnel. The best advice I have is to stay away from this generation of Epson (the older printer we have is still soldiering along, but I needed to put a new head in it 5 years ago. The original head lasted 8 years, a pretty good run.) And if you get one of these 7900 or 9900 or 9880 printers free from someone (who hasn't given it the sledgehammer treatment it deserves yet) then have at it, if it's free you have nothing to lose and you can sell the logic boards and other parts off of it for a few bucks. The rest of it may make a nice tomato planter once hollowed out. All I can say is we've been down to one printer for two years now, and when I dies we will need a replacement, pronto. Had Epson given at least one ounce of care for their customers I'd tell our management to buy an Epson replacement in a heartbeat.. "We don't care" should have consequences. I'm retiring next year and I want a new printer in place for younger staff to work with when I'm gone; as it stands this year I'll make point of specifying that a Canon be purchased, just to deny Epson a sale.
I followed through on the best procedure to address the clogged Epson print head, and the "we don't care" issue: the purchase of a 44" Canon imagePROFRAF PRO-4100. At four grand it came with a full complement of the medium-sized 350ML inks (11, plus chroma optimizer. Has a solid warranty, and the print head pops right out; it's easily user-serviceable. Later, Epsongator.
The people who gave a thumbs down obviously don't own an Epson Stylus Pro 4900, 7900, or 9900. I called Epson support a week ago, they said I needed a print head, roughly $1600 or more - yeah right! I just called Epson support a second time, same issue, I was transferred to six different numbers before being advised it would cost $295 to send a tech out for an hour and that doesn't include any parts. The first time I called, I must have got the Print Head Replacement Resolution guy??? Dollar signs are flying away! Just spent near two hundred on a maintenance tank and two ink cartridges to continue the ink cleaning on this 7900 Stylus Pro. My 7900 Pro started the horizontal banding after the three year extended warranty ran out, 663 total pages have been printed with my 7900 printer. Also I receive an automatic cleaning failed, red and white error message, within the first two years - ridiculous for a "professional" printer! No amount of cleaning, power cleaning, paired cleaning, will correct the issue. Odd; prints one print with no flaws, and the next print has horizontal banding that never ends with future prints no matter how much money and ink you feed it, as it is requesting. Clogged Nozzles Detected, yet the thing just drinks your money away and doesn't unclog the nozzles. This is a design flaw, and a legal issue. A class action lawsuit probably is in the works, or exists already due to how much money these printers drink up and waste, with its clogged nozzles and banding issues.
Thank God...someone has finally come up with a solution to fix my 9800. I hate the expense of this piece of junk and finally gave it away free with $2000.00 worth of ink. I actually thought about shooting it with a shotgun but this fix here seems to work just as good.
Unfortunately there are other products on the market with known issues that companies refuse to acknowledge. If only there were a way to hold them responsible! Watching your video makes me very sure I will never purchase an Epson product. Great video! I can only imagine your frustration in trying to get a product out the door and having to deal with a defective piece of equipment.
That is the funniest video I have ever seen! It should go viral. I have the first Epson Wide Format ever issued and it has run wonderfully for 15 years! Small things have gone wrong but I guess they don't make them like the used to!
DAMN...I feel refreshed after watching your video. The point being the Shitty customer support that most large format print manufacturers give to their customers. Most times they use the customer as a R&D tool to move their product along.
Hi bro. Good idea. I'm using p6000. After two years of usage with original epson ink. The print head do not work with llk too. Same thing happens. So i replace a brand new print head for the price you mentioned. After around 2 months light usage it came back again with llk and yellow problems. After few print outs. It will clogged and cleaning needed. Really make me frustrated 😤. One day. One day I will do exactly like you.
Haha, That is gold! Im so glad someone has done this. If only companies like Epson would take note and acknowledge their poor customer service. HP were the same a few years ago when i called them.
I had a similar issue on yellow ink for the 2400, right after replacing the cartridge. Nothing come out for that color. I had to re-seat the cartridge several times before it flowed again. Seems to me there's some sort of air block occurring when switching out the cartridges. I also use piezoflush from Inkjet mall to clean out nozzle if banding occurs, works well. I also have a 9800, haven't seen this issue yet, hope I won't. What printer did you replace this with?
I had the same problem with my 9900 with the Light Magenta ink. Absolutely nothing on that channel no matter how many time I cleaned it. So I just bought a Color Munki and did a new profile on each of my papers and canvases and it prints beautiful again. No banding or anything. We use to get pretty good prints with (4) C M Y K inks. I still have 9 inks to make a print and it looks great.
Lol. Does the 9000 have the same issues? I went to check one out today and both the LC and green were having issues. Couldn’t get them to unclog. I left without it but that’s what brought me here lol.
Dear Jeff, We have a better solution than you showed in your video. We bought a Canon iPF8400 and now we use our Epson 9900 as a $6000 shelf. Nice video, thanks so much. Sad, but nice to know that others have endured the same torture as we have.
Switched my 7900 to a canon IPF8400. Had to replace each head once on the canon in the past 2 years but user replaceable so just swap out and go. Come with 1yr warranty. Never again EPSON!
OOOOOOOh my gooooosh. I really feel for you... You couldn't express your frustration any better. I hope life goes on for you well once you god rid of the "clog" problem! Thanks.
I think a more effective way to never have another print head issue with your Epson PXXXX printer AND give Epson "We Don't Care" Support some much needed feedback, would be to load your new Epson boat anchor into an airplane and fly over the nearest Epson "We Don't Care" Support Center. Then call them, tell them you are returning your printer for service, and ask them where they would like you to put it.
11880 is a fantastic machine also printing on thin card with super fine detail but I had the same problem..head clogged on the magenta . had to get rid of it 2015 as it would not clear. sad as I would give it a 10/10 even today in 2023
We have a bunch of epson 4880 dtg printers we are always changing the heads. But out large format is a Canon IPF 8300 which we love. I know this feeling oh so well.
I LOVE YOU! You're exactly right! Epson's motto is, "We Don't Care"! They truly don't! I live in NYC (the most urban city of America) and when I ask Epson where can I take my R3000 to get it fixed, their answer is, "We Don't Care"! While not quite as evil as Time Warner Cable and Con Edison, Epson is getting up there.
We are very happy each time we see or feel one more EPSON unit has been sold in the local market for a competitor because we know the best way to destroy competitor business (...and life and mental health) is to have EPSON wide printing machine at their workplace! 😈😈😈
I'm also having a LOT of problems with my Epson 9900 printer as well. Mine is 4 years old, and I have had constant banding issues and cleaning issues. As soon as I dont print something for 2-3 days, I ALWAYS need to run a cleaning cycle wasting preciously expensive ink. I also am astonished how the RIGHT side Maintenance tank, needs to be replaced 15 times more frequently than the left side tank. Why is this? In 4 years. Ive had to change / reset my right side tank at least 30 times, and my left tank just twice. Time to look into replacing my printer, with another manufacturer after 18 years with Epson. My previous 9600 printer had constant FALSE Paper Jam issues, aborting a print job randomly.... there was NEVER a paper jam. That printer had some banding issues as well, but not as bad as this 9900. UGH Crazy. An expensive machine link this with expensive inks, should work so much better. No longer a fan of Epson.
Oh I SO know just how he feels. I gave up on Epson printers - after 16 years of customer loyalty and switched to the amazing Canon Prograffe Pro4000 and Pro2000 printers. So glad I did. NEVER EVER get a blocked nozzle and never waste time cleaning print heads and running nozzle checks. AND I can replace a print head myself in minutes for just £500. AND there are other benefits too. Better more efficient use of ink in the cartridges. Replace inks mid print job. Self loading paper. I have never once regretted switching over.
Excellent!1 I was an Epson loyalist to a fault until I had a totally miserable time with their 4000 printer. after that it was on to Canon for me, running an IPF 6300 for some time now with NO PROBLEMS. Sorry to the Epson fanboys but eft you
The *890 series has the same issues, I have five 9890's and so far have bought 7 printheads... only because it was still cheaper than buying a replacement printer. I think I will use Jeff's solution next time :)
Damn you could have sold tickets - I'd buy ten for that whacking. Sadly I was an owner too. This machine is so expensive. I had the same problems, went to the blog community and called and wrote to Epson and they didn't do crap! There should be a class action suit against Epson. I have sold all my Epson equipment. EPSON has been horrible dealing with this issue. I am now with Canon.
Thanks for a sound bit of advice Jeff. I guess I won't be buying Epson. Have you replaced the piece of Epson junk with something better? What are your thoughts about the equivalent Canon printer?
I must confess there were times when I SOOO wanted to do EXACTLY what I so witnessed. I am still having my feeble hopeful towards my Epson 7900 which is showing some serious banding issues in yellow ink. And it will take $ 2000 to fix it.
Great job calling it like it is! I might have had a few more swings for fun! I moved to Canon Ink Jet printers for the sole reason of fewer problems like this!
Gracias por el video. Tengo el mismo problema con una 7900. Ya le he cambiado el cabezal 2 veces y ahora deberia hacerlo una vez mas... Al principio pensé que era un problema aislado pero al parecer es una falla de fabrica. Y realmente el servicio técnico apesta.
GREAT video... ill try this tomorrow, my staff said they tried everything... yeah right!, they didnt watch this I bet, what the hell am I paying them for.
I've had a 9900 for 6 years- cleanings yes- but major problems no. Look on line to find out how to clean a clogged ink head if you have this problem. This printer is awesome. Art was frustrated and wasted 5 minutes of my time acting out. He should have spent the time he took to make the video online to find out how to clean a clogged head.
You are my hero! I knew as soon as you said that “you will never have to do another cleaning” that you were going to smash the ever-living hell out of the printer with a hammer. I looked at my wife and said, he’s doing to sledge hammer that printer... watch. This was an awesome video! I’ll share it in our Facebook printing groups.
