Who uses large format printers? 24" or above. Input Please.

I just had my second Canon 24" printer fatally error out. First an ipf6100, now an ipf6300.

In both cases it was hardware and the cost of repair would be more than the cost of a replacement.

At this point, I am soured on Canon printers. I love the print quality, but I cannot stand the idea of the entier printer being a consumable.

So, I want to replace this with something else. Please let me know your experience - good or bad - with the large format printers you use.

Thanks,

Rad

What kind of errors were you getting? I'm still in the 'research and decision making' mode on getting my own large format printer, but I can't say I've ever seen much on the subject of hardware failures. If you're getting a number of computer hardware failures then I strongly suggest looking into line conditioning of your power source. If you're consistently under voltage, over voltage, or surging, then it is going to take a massive hit on the reliability of anything plugged in. And it can be something as simple as someone down the road having an exceedingly heavy draw electric motor on their swimming pool or something.

Originally (6100) it was an indication that the printheads were shot. These are a $500 item, and it takes two. I negotiated a discount with my vendor, and got them both for $700. Upon install, it would not recognize the new heads. That led them to believe that the problem was not the printheads themselves, but somewhere in the printhead detection. I relayed this to my vendor, and they applied the $700 toward the purchase of the 6300.

On the current machine, there was an error number which appeared, but that was replaced with a message that instructs me to close the upper cover. The upper cover IS closed. Tech support feels that it FIRST I need to have the sensor that detects the status of the upper cover replaced, then it will redisplay the error message. But what has them feeling that this is a fatal problem is the smell of electronic burning - like the smell when you are soldering something - that I can catch when it is powered up. No heat anywhere, just the smell. That, they say, is going to call for a full teardown.

HP Designjet Z2100 Photo. Stunning prints, very economical to run, inbuilt profiling hardware. Quite slow and does not quite have the same gamut as the Canon.

EDIT: Extremely reliable. I have only had to perform routine scheduled maintenance on it and it has done thousands of square feet of prints.

Canon iPF8400. Installed 2 years ago last week. Print 7 days a week, for myself and numerous clients. Have had zero downtime with it. Images still impress me today as much as the first sample prints I saw before purchase. I've owned several Epson machines and a Roland solvent printer. Without a doubt the most trouble free printer I've owned, but I could just be lucky. Approaching the head life expectancy, but they're user replaceable and not pricey considering the income it generates.

Not 24", but my A3+ Epson R2880 ink jet has never let me down and continues to produce excellent prints.

I have a 24" and 44" HP Z3100 printers that I use for landscape prints. Both going strong for the last 5 years. Only replaced 1 print head at $60. Drinks very little ink. Never clogs, even when left alone for long stretches of time.

Love my Epsons but they don't always return the favor. Currently using 3880 (faithful and never complains) and 7900 which is much like a thoroughbred horse. Flighty and always needs watching. Needs pair nozzle cleanings way too often. 3880 replaced an old and very faithful 3800 that finally gave up. 7900 replaced previous 7900 that had a fatal head error and went to scrap heap after salvaging the remaining ink. 7900 is happier with humidity levels in the 40-45% range. I print in spurts and sits idle 4-6 weeks at a time when we travel. The output from both the 3880 and the 7900 is phenomenal. You have confirmed to us Epson guys that it is not a perfect world in the LF Canon camp either.

Hogloff wrote in post #17254960
I have a 24" and 44" HP Z3100 printers that I use for landscape prints. Both going strong for the last 5 years. Only replaced 1 print head at $60. Drinks very little ink. Never clogs, even when left alone for long stretches of time.

Based on this I have to say that HP has gone up several notches compared to other printers.

Well, shoot.

Can't say that I am too happy, but in the end I went with another Canon. This time the next model, the ipf6400.

After a lot of research, it seems that my bad luck with my two previous models was just that, bad luck. Various long term reviews cited the Canon's durability as one of its strong points, so I guess (hope) that my experience was just a couple of flukes.

Also there was a cost issue at play. The repair on my 6300 would have been a flat fee of $1000, regardless of the nature of repair. A new 6400 is $1600 after rebate. Either an Epson or an HP would have been more than $1000 higher than that.

Add to that the fact that on my current printer all 12 of the inks are well over 50% full, with most of them being between 75% and 100% full. These can be moved into the new printer without any problem. (I initially feared that they chipped the carts so once they are installed, they cannot be installed on a different machine. This turned out to not be the case.) So essentially, that will save me about $900 by not having to buy my first set of replacement inks.

It should arrive next week. It feels somewhat like "Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me." but I will be hoping for the best.

Rad

Let me start by stating I'm a sign guy by profession and our printers are a bit different in a few ways than what you guys and gals are using. Our printers are solvent based inks and have much hotter heaters to allow the inks to bite into the vinyl, banners and ettc., and in general much more expensive. In the past I have owned dye based ink jets and that is where my experience I'll add comes from.

There are 2 types of printers thermal ink jet ( HP was always big on using these) and piezo (Epson creates the best piezo print heads in the industry). Piezo print heads are more expensive but last much longer than thermal printheads so in the long run they are cheaper to own, the down side is they want to run daily, but when the print heads go plan on spending around $500-1600 depending on how many colors "share" the print head. Thermal on the other hand don't mind setting a while between prints and if there is a clogging issue you can pull them off the printer station and suck the dye ink through the head. The downside is the heads don't last as long as piezo but when the go they are only $35-$75. Back in the day the heads were replaced when the inks were replaced.
The best advise I can give anyone regardless of the type of printer you have is do the factory requested maintenance, and make sure the docking station is always clean. Some of the cheaper printers are considered disposable and not really set up do maintenance. But if you can do maintenance save yourself the aggravation and keep it clean. If your having issues with the printer clogging often your docking station may be part of your issue, it doesn't take a very big piece of ink or debris to keep the head from sealing. Also if you aren't printing every day your best preventive maintenance you can proforma is create what I call a primer strip. These are a stripe across the width of the printer in each color your printer has. C M Y K ( Lt M, Lt C, O, G) whatever your inksets are, then a gradient of each color.

Hopefully I helped

well, the 6400 got delivered yesterday. As far as print quality goes, I have to say that this is the best interration of this printer. using the Photoshop plugin, and only the generic color profiles, the fidelity of the print was closer to the screen than anything I had with my 6300 using custom color profiles.

it was truly amazing, and I would have never imagined that that was out of the box.

the printer has three internal lasers, one for each primary color, that does self-calibration. When I first read about this, I thought it was just a gimmick. It works.

my test print has a fairly wide range of colors and luminosities, but I will admit that everything is in gamut. the only thing that remains to be seen, is how it handles out of gamut renderings.

But for right now, I am astounded, and had I known this, I probably would have bought a new one even if my 6300 hadn't broke.

Rad glad you like the printer which ink set do you have in it? In the sign industrythere are some chrome vinyls that are printable with different ink sets. Mine are on the list so I'm thinking of trying some prints to see if I can create a poor man's metal print. My only concern is while my printer is capable of printing white ink, I have it printing double cmyk so we get the added speed from the printer for production. I can print a 4'x12' sign at 540x720 in less than 12 minutes.

good luck