# Epson printhead life time?



## allamerican-aeoon (Aug 14, 2007)

I like to hear about end users real experience of their printhead life.
1. Printer name.
2. How often did you changed? How many times and printer's age?
3. Was your maintenance up to par?
4. If #3 was not what did you do wrong?
5. Was it fairly easy or hard?
6. What is your current printhead age now?
7. What color nozzle was clogged when it was bad?
8. Did you change damper once a while? or keep using until show you a sign of replacement? It is same as oil filter on your car.
9. I want to meet longest record user and send dampers for free. 
10. Please tell us your opinion on "how to extend life of printhead"
11. How much did it cost you?
Anything else do you want to talk about with us?
Also welcome Kornit and Brother too. But I do not have your dampers. Sorry
Copy paste questions will help the readers instead scrolling up and down.


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## stix (Feb 3, 2008)

I like to hear about end users real experience of their printhead life.
1. Printer name. BROTHER GT541
2. changed 1 printhead. Printer built in 2006
3. I clean was every two weeks. I know bad..
4. n/a
5. Easy as pie
6. All the other 3 are original printheads.
7. Black is a mother....
8. Wiper cartridge with every black ink change.
9. I want to meet longest record user and send dampers for free. 
10. Use an industrial printhead
11. 300 bucks (refurb


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## TPrintDesigner (Sep 16, 2007)

1. GT541 & GT782
2. 2006 & 2010 Never changed
3. Yes
4. na
5. na
6. as no 2
7. na
8. na
9. send me beer instead
10. Buy a Brother
11. na


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## allamerican-aeoon (Aug 14, 2007)

9. send me beer instead
 Does UPS accept this? Too much hassle isn't it?
or
Get s**t face when we can meet?
Cheers & Beers!


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## zoom_monster (Sep 20, 2006)

1. Anajet
2. Bought in early 2007, Changed twice. about 2 years per
3. 1st year, not as good(1800 head). better as I learned the tricks
4. NA
5. Easy
6. Changed 3/2011
7. 1st was white. last... got permanent banding on one nozzle magenta. First head was still printing CMYK.
8. switch damper every month or 2. Flush/clean/reuse. Buy fresh once per year.
9. since I'm the only "epson" so far and I cannot win (brothers fault), I'll take consolation beer. 
10. Complete flush of head one per month. (I will get 3 years out of current head)
11. Not sure

Keep capping station clear.


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## allamerican-aeoon (Aug 14, 2007)

"8. switch damper every month or 2. Flush/clean/reuse. Buy fresh once per year."
Good move! I hope others will follow this. Instead of time do it by do by print counts. Every 1000 or 3000----. There are no data available when but often will never hurt. Same as how often you change your oil on your car.
"Keep capping station clean"
Rubber squeegee too and edge of printhead all around.
thank you. 
So far you are the winner.


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## allamerican-aeoon (Aug 14, 2007)

"9. since I'm the only "epson" so far and I cannot win (brothers fault), I'll take consolation beer."
Haha anytime anywhere beers are me on any purpose.
Brother DPI is much lower than Epson will gain benefit of less clog(PL also larger than Epson) and lose benefit of quality print over Epson. So you did not lose all maybe you won but who knows? Answer should come from your customers.
3year usage $450/printhead/36month = $12.5/month maybe print one more shirt per month will meet this number? How many $12.5s do you need to have 782? Something to think about isn't it? So you may do not need my consolation beer.
Cheers & Beers!


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## zoom_monster (Sep 20, 2006)

allamerican said:


> "8. switch damper every month or 2. Flush/clean/reuse. Buy fresh once per year."
> Good move! I hope others will follow this. Instead of time do it by do by print counts. Every 1000 or 3000


Peter, I would say the inverse of this, in some cases. less printing means more settling and build-up in the lines and dampers. Less usage= more clogging. Brother and Anajet are early adopters of closed path ink system. I believe this helped as well. This was main advantage in 2007.


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## allamerican-aeoon (Aug 14, 2007)

Printhead life expectation is 2,5 years with proper steps. Some NeoFamily's are passed 3 years but they are not posting here. Last night after the show 10 of us were talking about this issue while we are having a dinner. Tigers were told me this info.
Richo head cost is $1500 MSRP.
Epson 4900 head(D6) cost $2000 
Epson 4880 (D5) some sells for $450 some sells for $800.
A3 Epson = whole printer is $350. Epson 2000.
Epson 3000 = Best A3 printer from Epson is more.
I wish I know Kornit and Brother head price.
Since we have no data of printhead life we have no idea how much will cost for printhead annually. Printhead is consumable item. Like tires on car.
I just wish all dtg users extend their printhead life at longest.
Clean, Clean and Clean. Capping station, squeegee,pump hose, cartridge pin, change dampers, flush, use mfg recommended ink, Never bulk ink or CISS systems or similar. Bagged ink is best way on any printer. I often think even Kornit should take this system.
What can I say? I just wish your best always.
Beers & Cheers! I will do Cheers at Rodney's party and with TSFMs.


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## Stitch-Up (May 26, 2007)

So why do these printheads fail?

Do they fail electrically or just get blocked? In either event, are they recoverable?


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## allamerican-aeoon (Aug 14, 2007)

Stitch-Up said:


> So why do these printheads fail?
> 
> Do they fail electrically or just get blocked? In either event, are they recoverable?


Very good question.
I wish I know all the answers.
1. Ink we are using is not perfect match to Epson's ink. dupont did their best to match or detour it. Dye vs pigment.
2. Air bubble in line will burn printhead. Printhead keep firing when ink is dried. Similar as no oil engine.
3. Clog: 
a. Comes from not cleaning well 
b. Not recommended ink
c. CISS system
d. Not shake ink.
etc
I will say #1 is not the biggest reason of shorten head life because there are so many long time users out there as same as original Epson ink users.
Recover printhead:
There are people who make living with doing this job. #2 reason is impossible to recover. #3 often recover with using Ultra sonic and Acid.


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## IYFGraphics (Sep 28, 2009)

1. Printer name.

Fast T-Jet 2 (Epson 2200) (EZ Refurb)

2. How often did you changed? How many times and printer's age?

First print head lasted 13 months on bottled ink, changed it out for a new one and switched to bagged ink, switched between Belquette and Equipment Zone bagged ink with no problems for several months until we finally settled on using Belquette bagged ink exclusively.

Lost the second print head about a month ago from letting the printer sit for a few weeks without any maintenance or printing (mistake) it had a white ink channel that clogged but the other channels worked fine.

I've come to understand the Epson 2200 print head very well, what happen with the second print head was the ink manifold that feeds the head from the cartridge clogged starving that channel, I have since figured out how to effectively clean a clogged 2200 print head and bring it back into service and I'm back printing on the original 13 month print head.
I'd guess that now the print head has made close to 10-12k prints or around 6k shirts.

I do plan on posting this winter a extensive "how to" on bringing a 2200 print head back to life. 

3. Was your maintenance up to par?

Normally yes.....but read #2

4. If #3 was not what did you do wrong?

Letting the printer sit unused.....

5. Was it fairly easy or hard?

On a scale of 1-10 it is about a 4 for me, of course I used the replacement instructions for a guide and did it my way which was much faster/easier but more dangerous. 

6. What is your current print head age now?

If you count pre-cleaning usage (13 months) we should be close to 15 months now.

7. What color nozzle was clogged when it was bad?

White (light black) if I remember correctly.

8. Did you change damper once a while? or keep using until show you a sign of replacement? It is same as oil filter on your car.

Printer doesn't have dampers but has cartridges, and no they haven't been changed but have been flushed at least once a year since we have owned the printer. (they have no filter element in them)

9. I want to meet longest record user and send dampers for free.

Very good of you Peter...

10. Please tell us your opinion on "how to extend life of printhead"

Print, print, and print more....as long as the ink is flowing we never have a problem, of course regular maintenance of the capping station/wiper, and periodic head/cartridge flushes if the printer is going to sit for a extended period are important also.

11. How much did it cost you?

Replacement print head was $200+ don't really remember now lets just say $265, labor was free.

Hope this helps.


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## silverarrows (Mar 13, 2009)

I have two DTG Vipers with Epson 4880 heads. 
I changed 8 printheads in total for the last 2,5 years. An Epson printhead lifetime is max 6 months, it doesn't depend if you are printing hard or not.
BTW I don't have serious accidents like printhead hitting a pretreated fabric etc for more than 1 year.
I do daily cleaning. I don't really suffer from clogging. 
Normally yellow or magenta channels start to misfire.(on the transparent paper for nozzle check there are some irregularites but not missing lines) This causes parallel lines on the print when printing with 720x720, which is default printing resolution in my country.

I think Dupont inks (especially magenta) in my area (Turkey) have a problem, which make printheads go bad.
I don't know any solution or precaution to prevent this problem. Any ideas
I pay 350€ for one Epson 4880 printhead


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