Is this epson7600 worth buying?

[rawfreedom]

I am talking with someone who is selling his epson 7600. He says the printer was not used very much and babied but has been sitting idle for awhile. our latest communication was as followed:

Me:
> You say the printer has been sitting idle for some time. Do you think the heads (spray nozzles) are in good shape ie. not clogged?

Owner:
> No, they're definitely clogged, but I can't afford to re-populate the whole ink set to run enough cleaning cycles to clear them... kind of a catch 22! lol. I made some prints last year for a show and had to run several maintenance cleaning cycles to clear it then (had been sitting for about a year before that), but it was working perfectly after that. Tried some printing this Christmas and couldn't get it completely resolved without buying new inks. It's my opinion that with a few maintenance cleanings and new ink cartridges, the heads will be 100%. I think the ink cartridges in it right now may be part of the problem - the check print shows solid patterns for all colors, but there was obviously something funky about the colors in the prints. I assume the shelf life on the inks themselves is probably to blame.

It's been "babied" though, with minimal use - just sat idle too long.
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Should I buy this printer? Do you think I can get it going? What do you suggest? Thank you so much!

 

[ghwellsjr]

Looking at Epson's webpage on this printer, I see that you can put either dye inks or pigment inks in it. It takes very large cartridges that cost $55 for dye and $79 for pigment. Pigment inks tend to have a greater chance of clogging and are harder to unclog. This is a professional printer. Obviously, the seller was not a professional, that is, he was not selling his prints or he would not have let it be idle for so long.

Before a good answer can be given, several questions must be answered:

Are you a professional?

What kind of cartridges are currently in the printer--dye or pigment?

What is the price of the printer?

What is your experience with inkjet printers?

What are your plans for this printer?

 

[lolopr1]

Unless the price is right I will stay away from a clog printer. It's a great printer (a workhorse) but you are better of with a good 7800 if possible you won't regret spending the extra $$$.

 

[embguy]

Since the print head is clogged and the new cartridges are expensive, average "Joe Six Packs" will not touch it. There are no competitor for this printer. Take your time to negotiate the price.

All bets are off if you do not know how to unclog Epson printer. With my limited knowledge on Epson printer, the tubes on the purge unit are often clogged. When this happens, doing simple cleaning cycle will not unclog the print head.

 

[rawfreedom]

Thank you so much for your response. My understanding is that the seller used the printer for only a few projects semi-professionally. He is asking $700. The machine is loaded with an Ultrachrome inkset - which is a pigment based ink. Inks are almost empty. My use would be not for color printing but for film positives for screenprinting. I would be running black ink only. I am a professional screenprinter with inkjet experience limited only to small desktop hp inkjets. Thanks for your help.

 

[ghwellsjr]

Will you be using pigment black or dye black on your film?

Most printers will not let you print anything unless you have ink in all your cartridges--rather unless the printer thinks you have ink in all your cartridges. I don't know if these cartridges have chips in them to keep track of the ink usage but you should find out if this will be a factor with this printer. It would be a real shame if you have to buy hundreds of dollars worth of cartridges that will never be used.

Also, some printers will mix colors in with different shades of black so even if you think you are not using any colors, you may find them being used up. In addition, most printers will do periodic cleaning cycles and that uses up ink from every cartridge.

So, you should find out if this printer will force you to buy color cartridges periodically, or at least reset them if they have chips and maybe refill them just to keep it going printing black.

This of course assumes that you can get all the nozzles to work which is not a foregone conclusion.