Anyone having this problem-GS6000

[lzubieta]

GS6000 extended warranty

Donny7833, The reduction belt may be over tensioned. Ask the technician to show you his tension method and spec he is using. He should be using some kind of force gauge to measure this.
The green ink will always be an issue because most rips use the green channel very little or in some cases not at all. Updated versions of Colorburst and Onyx do a better job with using the green channel, but clogging in green could still be an issue with machines that are used less than 10 hours per week.
Head replacement costs can be large $$$. New owners should budget for post warranty service or extended warrantees.

We are about 1 week away from buying the GS6000. I'm getting doubts reading about the take up reel, reduction belt, head strike, green streaks problems... Do you know how much the extended warranty is?

 

[rfulford]

I do not remember the exact amount but it is basically $4k.

 

[lzubieta]

4k? for 1 more year of warranty.

 

[jmcnicoll]

I did call epson a month or two ago and it is $4K for a year.

I have had a tech here twice to replace heads because of the green ink issue, have had the belt replaced too. Take up use to suck but when it's adjusted correctly and media is square and taped up correctly it does do a nice job.

Overall printer has been great!!! The quality of print that comes out couldn't be better.

We still not sure about extending the warranty, but I have to believe the green ink issue will be taken care of after warranty even if extension not purchased. I plan on call epson to discuss that in the near future.

jim

 

[parrott]

We have had our machine a little over a month and it has not skipped a beat until now. It was running at the end of the day yesterday, came in to start printing this morning and it is not laying down any ink at all. The heads run over the media like it's printing, but no ink. Called Epson, they said to run a light, medium and then heavy clean up. Ran all 3 and still nothing. They said it sounds like the motherboard is fried. "We will have a tech contact you with in 24 hours to schedule an appointment."

Really?! I have to wait 24 hours for a tech to call and tell me when he can make it?

 

[Molenbeek]

Epson just changed their warranty options last week.. there are now three options for the GS6000

All are 1 year parts warranties.. the difference is the on-site visits

Silver - 2 on-site visits per year - $1995
Gold - 3 on-site visits per year - $2995
Platinum - unlimited on-site visits - $3995


Matt
Advantage Sign Supply

 

[parrott]

We have had our machine a little over a month and it has not skipped a beat until now. It was running at the end of the day yesterday, came in to start printing this morning and it is not laying down any ink at all. The heads run over the media like it's printing, but no ink. Called Epson, they said to run a light, medium and then heavy clean up. Ran all 3 and still nothing. They said it sounds like the motherboard is fried. "We will have a tech contact you with in 24 hours to schedule an appointment."

Really?! I have to wait 24 hours for a tech to call and tell me when he can make it?

Tech showed up with in 24 hours and had the machine up and running with in an hour. Printed for about 3 hours and then stopped and gave me an error code. Unplugged the printer for 15 minutes plugged it back in and it started right back up. Fast forward to this morning, we are right back at square one. Motherboard is fried again. Tech said he will be back tomorrow to replace the heads and the motherboard and that should hopefuly fix the problem. Anybody else having this issue?

 

[signswi]

I don't have a GS6000 but if you're frying motherboards your machine probably isn't grounded properly. Use a ground fault indicator to check that the outlet you're plugging into is actually grounded. If so, there might be a short in the machine somewhere or the motherboard isn't grounding properly.

 

[Dogvan]

This morning our GS6000 would not boot with a service code 1136. (The curiosity is killing me) There was not even a hint of a problem at shutdown last night. I've been running this printer with zero problems for about 10 months now, so fortunately it's still under warranty.

Statistically speaking, insurance never pays, it attempts to distribute risk at a modest cost. If I were cynical, I'd think having an idiot light pop on at the ten month mark would prod more good machines into the risk pool. Good thing I'm not cynical.

 

[Jack Knight1979]

I was just on the phone with shades of paper looking into this machine.

I'll be sticking with Rolands.

 

[Donny7833]

Service Code 1136 - CR Motor Step Out Error.

Try cleaning the encoder strip, if that doesn't do it, then you may need to have the Encoder Sensor adjusted or replaced.

I noticed you said "shut down last night", are you turning the machine off at night? You should really leave it on 24/7 allowing it to do cleaning cycles.

 

[Dogvan]

I found what it is (almost certainly) - a failing solenoid that releases the carriage latch. To the top right of the carriage against the rail is the catch that secures the carriage between jobs. If it doesn't release you get 1136, some kind of home position error. Push the release manually (stab it with a long screwdriver)and slide the carriage out a bit, then reboot and it does fine at first, but when it tries to move the carriage just a bit in a few seconds it gives a "Paper Jam". This is the same problem with the latch but the machine assumes this time it's a paper wad stopping the head.

I am back in business for a bit - limping along. I stuffed a wad of junk in the slot so I can keep the right maintenance cover off. Now I stab the screwdriver in to release the carriage during bootup. Then again at the beginning of a print I have to release the head to start, but once it's going it runs unattended. So hooray I can print.

(Nothing like taking jobs across town to beg the use of a friendly competitor's equipment.)

Oh personally I turn the machine off every night, with the bail arm up. But I have already in the firmware turned the auto cleanings to "Off" or "Never", or whatever. They're disabled. In 10 months I've had TWO nozzle clogs, both fixed with "Light" cleaning during the job. I just don't see pouring $50 of ink a month down the drain preemptively. Then again, I'm not selling ink. (Oops, there goes that cynicism again lol)

No seriously if the seal is good against the heads then what's going to dry out? I print daily, and on Fridays I swab the seal lips, the face of the heads and "squish" a bit of solvent/cleaner onto the drain pads under the heads. I feel the solvent vapor does a great job of keeping it wet, plus the eco-solvent is by nature more oily, dries slower and necessarily lasts longer in an enclosed situation like that.

 

[Dogvan]

BTW don't think I don't love this machine. I totally do and I would recommend it wholeheartedly. I crank out a TON of ControlTac, but when church needs 24x36 posters, I put in paper and the quality looks like a movie theater lobby. The operation of the machine and everything has been just flawless until now.

The rich gamut is gorgeous. Colorburst isn't as polished as I'd like - little things like while it's printing I can't escape out of menus on any other programs or Colorburst intercepts the ESC key and pops up a window "Abort Job?" That's annoying. But if you go preview any job in the queue, it's OWN window can be escaped, which frees up all the other programs in Windows also. (Took me a couple months to figure THAT out!)

 

[Donny7833]

Hey, lost half the green head this weekend. Looks like I'll be having the head replaced this week. Machine is 1 yr old, this will be the 3rd head. Awesome.

 

[astro8]

You must be getting a bad batch of green ink, who's selling it to you? Check the numbers. Is it all from the same batch?...I've put 60 litres through mine and no problems.

Though I did hear that Colorburst wasn't utilising the green ink channel properly...maybe heresay.

Must be frustrating...

 

[Donny7833]

Extremely frustrating, I really thought we were past this. Since the first head went I regularly print large squares of Green and Orange. Also, I order green as needed so I get fresh ink with good date codes. I stock 2 each of all other colors.

And, since it's been running so well, unfortunately, I decided against the $4,600 2nd year warranty. So, this ones on me.

Maybe I'll just say screw it and re-profile to run with 6 colors and turn off the Green and Orange in Ergo. We'll see how much the quote is for the head.

 

[astro8]

I'm also using Ergosoft...no problems here.

I paid for the 3 year warranty, so of course I'll never need it or have problems!

 

[astro8]

P.S.

After hearing these problems with the green I've setup Ergo to run a gutter stripe to keep an eye on it...might want to try that if you haven't already.

 

[tomence]

So what's with the green ink, i haven't been up to date with this thread. I am really considering this printer for my next purchase after hearing lot of good things about it, but now comes this problem with the green ink. Should i consider asking any specific question as to any improvements or what rip it's going to be the best to use with this printer. I looked at Roland VS, Mimaki CJV and JV33 and the EPSON GS. I was first sold on the Roland, Mimaki is very close if not better but still like Roland over Mimaki, its just me and now I looked at the EPSON and fell in love with it. Print quality the best out of this group. I know they are all fast printers so speed wasn't my concern but i am worried about the EPSON, i really liked it but little worried.

 

[astro8]

We've had one GS6000 for 18 months and added another 6 months ago, running Ergosoft Rip, never had a problem...not one dropout, clogged nozzle, ruined print or take-up reel problems, nothing. The things are a dream.