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Epson GS6000
- Thread starter Ajmotofx
- Start date
Letterbox Mike
New Member
Do a search for my name and GS6000, there's a mountain of info there too... I'd give you mine for free but then you'd come back and kill me and my family and my friends.
Some people have zero problems with them ever, others have nothing but problems and can hardly get a sellable print off of one. I fall into the latter category. We've had nothing, and I mean NOTHING but problems with ours. If it were out of warranty at this point we probably would have spent over $6000 on service calls and repairs. And we've had it for about 6 months. And that doesn't take into consideration the ruined prints from it, I don't even want to think about that.
It's expensive to run. It's not a production machine like our Mimaki printers, it requires too much babysitting. It's over engineered but still has a hard time pulling or rolling heavier media. It freaking drinks ink. Ink durability looks like it's going to be a major problem, we're hearing stories of unlaminated prints showing some fading within 6 months and in a year with laminate. The green ink is known to be problematic, it's already ruined one of our heads. It's proven difficult to get decent speed out of it while maintaining good print quality.
On the plus side, when it prints well, it prints well. But honestly, we can squeeze nearly the same quality and color gamut out of our JV33, and we can get that color and quality over twice as fast and for half as much, and we know it'll last longer.
I keep saying this, but I really regret buying it. But others love them and that's great. You may get lucky and get a good machine, and it may fit into your needs really well. For us, we got a bad one and as it turns out it's not a good fit for the demands we need to place on it.
Some people have zero problems with them ever, others have nothing but problems and can hardly get a sellable print off of one. I fall into the latter category. We've had nothing, and I mean NOTHING but problems with ours. If it were out of warranty at this point we probably would have spent over $6000 on service calls and repairs. And we've had it for about 6 months. And that doesn't take into consideration the ruined prints from it, I don't even want to think about that.
It's expensive to run. It's not a production machine like our Mimaki printers, it requires too much babysitting. It's over engineered but still has a hard time pulling or rolling heavier media. It freaking drinks ink. Ink durability looks like it's going to be a major problem, we're hearing stories of unlaminated prints showing some fading within 6 months and in a year with laminate. The green ink is known to be problematic, it's already ruined one of our heads. It's proven difficult to get decent speed out of it while maintaining good print quality.
On the plus side, when it prints well, it prints well. But honestly, we can squeeze nearly the same quality and color gamut out of our JV33, and we can get that color and quality over twice as fast and for half as much, and we know it'll last longer.
I keep saying this, but I really regret buying it. But others love them and that's great. You may get lucky and get a good machine, and it may fit into your needs really well. For us, we got a bad one and as it turns out it's not a good fit for the demands we need to place on it.
Custom_Grafx
New Member
I get people saying how good my colours are on photos I print, using just cmyk. I think the importance of basic (and my knowledge is still basic IMO) colour management/profiling is way underrated in our industry. It's not how many inks you have (to a point), it's more about the profiling, soft proofing and understanding of ink limits and the such.
In other words... if you're going to get it just because you think it's going to print more colours, and that is your only point, then I would seriously put that aside and start to compare more relevant features and characteristics such as ink longevity, print speed, media handling, price of ink and maintenance, resale value etc etc.
In other words... if you're going to get it just because you think it's going to print more colours, and that is your only point, then I would seriously put that aside and start to compare more relevant features and characteristics such as ink longevity, print speed, media handling, price of ink and maintenance, resale value etc etc.
boxerbay
New Member
Insignia is a mimaki lover and he got a lemon epson. so sorry to hear that. I like the mimakis but we just could not use it in the environment where we are set up. we would need the added air scrubber so for us it was not a good fit.
We have had ours since December 2010 and we have not had any issues. I dont even know the techs phone number as we have never had to call them for anything. We run colorburst. It hits all the colors very accurately and we dont waste time playing around with ink levels and profiles. Load, RIP, print, cut, and assemble, all day long. Makes life easy. I really like the Oracal 3640G profile and find it very good for a lot of media. The updated colorburst rip corrects the low green ink usage which was causing the green head failures so that is no longer an issue. The whole media feed/take up issue - I have found the only time I have problems with it is when I did not tape the media squarely onto the take up roll or used a crappy tube with slightly crushed end which will cause the take up to creep a bit. Also the take up has an adjustment to align the rollers. But again this is all operator error. Since December of 2010 we have only used 2 sets of ink. We've had enough revenue to cover what we spent on the machine plus laminator. Hardly an ink hog.
Be sure to search the forums and find all the info you need.
We have had ours since December 2010 and we have not had any issues. I dont even know the techs phone number as we have never had to call them for anything. We run colorburst. It hits all the colors very accurately and we dont waste time playing around with ink levels and profiles. Load, RIP, print, cut, and assemble, all day long. Makes life easy. I really like the Oracal 3640G profile and find it very good for a lot of media. The updated colorburst rip corrects the low green ink usage which was causing the green head failures so that is no longer an issue. The whole media feed/take up issue - I have found the only time I have problems with it is when I did not tape the media squarely onto the take up roll or used a crappy tube with slightly crushed end which will cause the take up to creep a bit. Also the take up has an adjustment to align the rollers. But again this is all operator error. Since December of 2010 we have only used 2 sets of ink. We've had enough revenue to cover what we spent on the machine plus laminator. Hardly an ink hog.
Be sure to search the forums and find all the info you need.
rshacklett
Wholesale Sign Specialist
We have two GS6000s, one from 2009, one from 2010. We typically run 16,000 square feet out of each machine every month. They've been great! I think they (as probably most machines) do better the more they're run.
I will agree on not pulling heavy rolls very well, but we just always leave them in "high friction mode". The biggest issue I have is that they will often times not pull the material off the end of the roll -- so when rolls hit the end, rather than the printer pulling the material off the end of the roll, it will slip and keep printing in that spot. Not a huge problem if you catch it. If you don't stop it, and it keeps printing -- it can be a huge problem. We had it happen twice with 3M product and the ink dissolved the vinyl and it clogged the heads to the point of where they had to be replaced.
My only other problem with them has been that the rubber carriage belt seems to regularly fail -- we have to get it replaced every 2-3 months on each printer. ...and it doesn't look terribly easy to replace either.
Otherwise, they've been great. Awesome quality (holds 6pt reversed type), decent speed (we usually run 4 pass - 160 sq ft/hr). If you do want to run 2 pass (340 sq ft/hr), unlike other machines ("er HEM H.P.") who say it can do it and the ink fades during printigng -- the Epsons WILL DO IT FINE. We use 2 pass on banners typically, and it cranks them out beautifully.
Our ink cost hasn't been bad -- we're around .22 per square with decent coverage. I think they do run frequent cleanings -- which will rachet up your ink cost. If you turn down the frequency of the cleanings, that should save you money. Also, I learned that you can dial back the ink limit considerably, which really helps cut your ink cost.
I will agree on not pulling heavy rolls very well, but we just always leave them in "high friction mode". The biggest issue I have is that they will often times not pull the material off the end of the roll -- so when rolls hit the end, rather than the printer pulling the material off the end of the roll, it will slip and keep printing in that spot. Not a huge problem if you catch it. If you don't stop it, and it keeps printing -- it can be a huge problem. We had it happen twice with 3M product and the ink dissolved the vinyl and it clogged the heads to the point of where they had to be replaced.
My only other problem with them has been that the rubber carriage belt seems to regularly fail -- we have to get it replaced every 2-3 months on each printer. ...and it doesn't look terribly easy to replace either.
Otherwise, they've been great. Awesome quality (holds 6pt reversed type), decent speed (we usually run 4 pass - 160 sq ft/hr). If you do want to run 2 pass (340 sq ft/hr), unlike other machines ("er HEM H.P.") who say it can do it and the ink fades during printigng -- the Epsons WILL DO IT FINE. We use 2 pass on banners typically, and it cranks them out beautifully.
Our ink cost hasn't been bad -- we're around .22 per square with decent coverage. I think they do run frequent cleanings -- which will rachet up your ink cost. If you turn down the frequency of the cleanings, that should save you money. Also, I learned that you can dial back the ink limit considerably, which really helps cut your ink cost.
boxerbay
New Member
thanks for the info Shack. guess it depends on the roll manufacturer. mine has pulled off a few rolls from the tube. I usually check my roll before running them to make sure I have enough media. almost caught me the other day. I was running a box truck and gambled the last 16' panel would fit and came up with only about a foot to spare.
Luckily, I have not had the belt go bad. Our unit was purchased in Dec 2010 so maybe they corrected what was causing it.
We ran a two color banner on 2 pass and it was done in like less than 5 minutes. First time we ran it in 2 pass people walking by stopped and watched it haul butt. We almost always run it at 4 or 6 pass mode so when they saw it moving 2 pass everybody was like "whoa that thing is flying"
Love the 6 pt clean type. My last Seiko 64s could not print it clean.
Yup, we also turned down the factory setting of the frequency of cleaning. Learned that here on another post - reset it to every 12 hours. thanks.
Luckily, I have not had the belt go bad. Our unit was purchased in Dec 2010 so maybe they corrected what was causing it.
We ran a two color banner on 2 pass and it was done in like less than 5 minutes. First time we ran it in 2 pass people walking by stopped and watched it haul butt. We almost always run it at 4 or 6 pass mode so when they saw it moving 2 pass everybody was like "whoa that thing is flying"
Love the 6 pt clean type. My last Seiko 64s could not print it clean.
Yup, we also turned down the factory setting of the frequency of cleaning. Learned that here on another post - reset it to every 12 hours. thanks.
SightLine
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Most any machines will have that problem.... especially on materials that are attached to the core full length with industrial strength double sided tape which 3M seems to favor as the preffered method. Our JV33 (nor our older JV3) could detach 3M 180 from it's core. Rollers just start slipping and the machine things it's still advancing - same thing.... gobs of ink on one strip. Some brands will release from the core but it's hit and miss. Over the years I've come to realize you should never expect it to, no matter the brand or material. Not worth the risk of machine damage. If we are letting it go unattended overnight I am either sure there is enough material on the roll or it is not going to get left unattanded. Its either that or re-roll your material onto a new core with nothing attaching it to the core.
StuckUp Walls
New Member
We print adhesive wallpapers, its not good for that, wish we got a latex printer...
Ink isn't water resistant or scratch resistant. its crap. I splashed a wallpaper we printed and erected intentionally with water, the panel had a been on the wall for a month...there was obvious water damage and drip marks.
Tried the same thing on a wallpaper we printed with a water based ink - HP z6100 - and the water damage was much less noticeable.
-> That aside, it does print really great images, as long as you dont need them to be durable whatsoever.
Ink isn't water resistant or scratch resistant. its crap. I splashed a wallpaper we printed and erected intentionally with water, the panel had a been on the wall for a month...there was obvious water damage and drip marks.
Tried the same thing on a wallpaper we printed with a water based ink - HP z6100 - and the water damage was much less noticeable.
-> That aside, it does print really great images, as long as you dont need them to be durable whatsoever.