# My experience with buying a refurbished Easy T - printhead problems



## 2Palms (Feb 20, 2013)

Hello everyone, I hate to beat a dead horse, but I am beyond frustrated. I purchased a refurbished Easy T Deluxe in March. I actually went to the warehouse in Tempe AZ to pick up the printer. Unfortunately I have been unable to use the printer for any jobs. It is currently sitting, in need of a printhead. I won't bore you with the details suffice it to say that I don't feel I've received adequate responses from Andy regarding a replacement printhead. Being a business owner I am aware of the need for good, no GREAT customer service. Buyer beware, when doing business with Easy T Printers, get written confirmation of their warranty policy. It was recently added to their website. (I had someone look at past entries and it wasn't there). All I want is a call from Andy, he has responded to emails and basically he is saying that the most expensive part of this printer isn't covered under warranty.. That it has NEVER been covered. Again nothing on the website prior to last month that states this. Please let me know your feedback and if this is common practice from other vendors regarding replacement parts.
Kindly,
Larraine
2 Palms Merchandising


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## estrada (Jun 5, 2009)

Print heads are never covered under warranty as it is a consumable. If you had a new print head installed, it's duration depends on the user. Proper maintenance, humidity and usage is the key factor here. A new print head should cost you about $500-600.


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## lurkyloo (Oct 1, 2012)

I also have an Easy T. I had to purchase a new printhead because the last one became clogged (my error).

The new printhead I just purchased 30 days ago needs to be unclogged as well. I'm not sure what the problem is at this point. I'm assuming bad cyan ink that was sold to me by their sales rep in Jacksonville, Florida. I print in white and CMYK , and I don't have any problems with these colors, only cyan. White is obviously the most challenging color to work with when it comes to DTGand I don't have a problem with it . 

What happened to your printhead and why is it giving you a problem?


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## lurkyloo (Oct 1, 2012)

Estrada is correct. 

You'll be out $600. It was $637 for me (i chose rush shipping). I had to purchase a brand new epson printer just for the printhead. Printheads are always on backorder and Easy T doesn't stock printheads from what I've experienced. 





estrada said:


> Print heads are never covered under warranty as it is a consumable. If you had a new print head installed, it's duration depends on the user. Proper maintenance, humidity and usage is the key factor here. A new print head should cost you about $500-600.


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## BandPrints (Feb 4, 2007)

Our FreeJet had the first year warranty covered and 2 years on the rest of the machine.


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## 2Palms (Feb 20, 2013)

lurkyloo said:


> I also have an Easy T. I had to purchase a new printhead because the last one became clogged (my error).
> 
> The new printhead I just purchased 30 days ago needs to be unclogged as well. I'm not sure what the problem is at this point. I'm assuming bad cyan ink that was sold to me by their sales rep in Jacksonville, Florida. I print in white and CMYK , and I don't have any problems with these colors, only cyan. White is obviously the most challenging color to work with when it comes to DTGand I don't have a problem with it .
> 
> What happened to your printhead and why is it giving you a problem?


Never got a clean nozzle check when I started using the printer. then it just stopped printing. Communicated with Support and performed diagnostics (per their requests). changed printer cables, cleaned printhead, did a "waterfall" cleaning of printhead, mainted humidity per instructions, never printed. pulled the printhead and noticed the connectors looked corroded, sent them pictures and they had me run diagnostics, that confirmed my suspicion, that printhead was fried.


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## treefox2118 (Sep 23, 2010)

Without knowing much about this particular printhead, I can't really comment on it. Was it having problems since day 1?

I watch Amazon like a hawk -- the Epson R2880's have gone on sale for $399 free shipping, so I bought two just for the printhead, capping station assembly, and motors. If it falls to that price again, I'll buy another one. Printheads are consumable parts. If I can get 6,000 shirts out of one, I consider the price-per-shirt to be about a nickel. I'm sure I can get more than 6,000 shirts out of one, though, so the consumable cost per print should be far lower than that.

With all printer parts, of any printer, I always figure in maintenance costs per print. For our solvent printers, the printhead is expensive ($1200) but the cost per square foot is nothing. Maybe a penny?

For DTG, I try to factor in ALL my maintenance costs (including ink loss during a head cleaning) into the shirt overhead. If I'm paying $2.50 a shirt, $0.50 in ink (CMYK), and $0.25 in maintenance costs, I feel pretty solid at my pricing.


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## lurkyloo (Oct 1, 2012)

first printhead - user error, left printhead out of capping station. It was a gross oversight on my part. I became distracted due to a family emergency. I felt like a dunce because I had been so careful with it. anyway, all colors seem to print fine after a good clean , then I realized cyan was giving me issues. after a while, it stopped printing all together.

second printhead - cyan banding after first 25 prints. It was a brand new printhead from an R2880 PURCHASED in may. I received the brand new 'engine' with printhead and installed it myself (took easy t printer apart). After those initial 25 prints, there was banding only with cyan. I ran a clean with the cleaning cartridges, and cyan became blocked. 

did a waterfall clean with michael on the phone - that seemed to work, then cyan became blocked again. 

rather than mess with it more, and since it was a brand new printhead - I sent it to andy for a cleaning. I purchased new cyan ink (maybe old one was bad? who knows..) . I'm waiting on word from Easy T as to what could possibly be wrong with a brand new print head. 

I started printing in white, and it's not giving me any issues. neither is yellow, magenta, or black. just cyan. 

I'm going to keep a look out for those amazon deals if I decide to keep the printer. 





treefox2118 said:


> Without knowing much about this particular printhead, I can't really comment on it. Was it having problems since day 1?
> 
> I watch Amazon like a hawk -- the Epson R2880's have gone on sale for $399 free shipping, so I bought two just for the printhead, capping station assembly, and motors. If it falls to that price again, I'll buy another one. Printheads are consumable parts. If I can get 6,000 shirts out of one, I consider the price-per-shirt to be about a nickel. I'm sure I can get more than 6,000 shirts out of one, though, so the consumable cost per print should be far lower than that.
> 
> ...


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## treefox2118 (Sep 23, 2010)

Check my post on the new capping station. If you haven't replaced that, it's a $40 part. You can even take it out of your R2880 if you want to do surgery there. I'd rather spend $40 and not deal with the Epson puzzle

Also, please note that if you're pretty technically savvy, what you can do in a pinch is swap cartridge positions. This works beautifully with EKRip.

Take your cyan cartridge out entirely. Put it in another position (say, a white position). Go to EKRip and tell the RIP where Cyan is now placed. You'll be down to 3 white cartridges, so your settings will be blown completely (re-calibrate) but you can print fine.


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## abmcdan (Sep 14, 2007)

I would like to make a few comments.

As 2PALMS stated they picked up the printer from our office. If I remember correctly we did training and test prints here before they left with the machine.

I'll be the first to admit that my personal response times to emails and call backs are less than stellar some weeks. I wear many hats and constantly pulled in different directions. That being said I too only will beat a dead horse so long before I give up. After 3 or 4 emails with a customer of me explaining our printhead policy and the customer saying I need to give them a FREE printhead I give up. Right or wrong I don't have the time or desire to continuously argue over the same thing with 4 different people at any given time. We try to be as up front as possible by posting the warranty info on the website, during the sales process and in the last few months we now have every customer sign the warranty papers and disclaimers to be 100% sure.

In the past I had bought a few $15,000 to $20,000 DTG machines from other manufacturers and I never was given free printheads when they clogged. So how can you expect someone selling printers for $10,000 less to offer free printheads?

We have a full time tech support guy here at the shop that answers the tech support phone, emails and tickets 40 hours a week. Anyone that owns an Easy T shouldn't have any problem getting after the sale tech support with Michael. However, because we run on tight margins we are sticking firm to our policies on printheads.


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## 2Palms (Feb 20, 2013)

abmcdan said:


> I would like to make a few comments.
> 
> As 2PALMS stated they picked up the printer from our office. If I remember correctly we did training and test prints here before they left with the machine.
> 
> ...


Andy,
i truly appreciate that you are a busy man and wear multiple hats. I have spoken to Michael many times and he is quite helpful. He also explained how NOW he is making changes to the printhead cables and the ink well to keep ink and cleaning solution out. I have reached out to him a couple of days ago in hopes that I get the parts I need. If only my issue was a clogged printhead. As you see from the email Michael sent you our printhead had scorching. The "training" you speak of occurred before we purchased the printer, and we did not sign a warranty (good decision by the way) In spite of this set back we will move forward. I hope you have a good day.


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## abmcdan (Sep 14, 2007)

2Palms said:


> Andy,
> I have spoken to Michael many times and he is quite helpful. He also explained how NOW he is making changes to the printhead cables and the ink well to keep ink and cleaning solution out. I have reached out to him a couple of days ago in hopes that I get the parts I need. If only my issue was a clogged printhead. As you see from the email Michael sent you our printhead had scorching.


I'd like to point out that the printhead being vulnerable isn't only an Easy T printer. There are many threads on this forum of the same thing happening on other printer models from other manufacturers.

DTG machines in general have electronic components that can be damaged by excessive spilling of inks or other fluids. 

Yes we've taken steps to help minimize this issue but the user must still exercise caution when filling inks, adding or removing cartridges or flushing the printhead.


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## 2Palms (Feb 20, 2013)

Thank you Andy for providing those links to your secondary business. The information you've provided has been quite insightful.


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## koldman1906 (Oct 8, 2012)

Consumer Complaints for Easy T Printer - BBB serving Central, Northern and Western Arizona


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## cab8901 (Jul 17, 2013)

Andy has given me the run around for months, every time i emailed he gave me a reason for a "delay", then a time frame. that deadline would pass (1-3 weeks) and I would email asking again. all the while being patient and never sending more than 1 email a week. Now he has stopped responding as of a month and a half ago. I have contacted the BBB the Arizona Attorney General, Paypal, Captial One Bank, and the FBI. Lets see how this works out.


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## koldman1906 (Oct 8, 2012)

*New Address:*

Easy T printer
3215 E. Washington
Phoenix AZ 85031


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## cab8901 (Jul 17, 2013)

yeah he has over $4,000 of mine so he should be able to COMPLETE MINE! He trying to get enough orders to get above water THEN make everyones order.... until then we (who have already ordered) are all screwed ! due to his operating practices... he should have had the stuff built already that he was selling! businesses shouldnt be ran like this! I have been dealing with this since August! I just want my money back!

Andy this is bs, "US" on the forum aren't doing anything to you. If you would refund people when they ask, sell products that are already built, and not await a ton of others peoples orders so you could fix old orders, further screwing the previous orders over... you wouldn't have this problem! People should be able to get a refund when they ask and expect a reasonable delivery date IMMEDIATELY after they purchase!


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