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good questions I would like to hear answered.
- Thread starter skyhigh
- Start date
2NinerNiner2
New Member
Those sound like "I'm dusting off the check book" questions! 
Hey, my 1,000th Post!
Hey, my 1,000th Post!
Last edited:
skyhigh
New Member
dust heck....mine has cobwebs
(no money, no sense in opening it...haha)
One more question. How is the print quality compared to the valuejet or Mimaki's? I read the "drop" is at 12 pl and some of the others are much less. So how much of a factor is that?
ps. Congrats on the milestone Lyle.
(no money, no sense in opening it...haha)
One more question. How is the print quality compared to the valuejet or Mimaki's? I read the "drop" is at 12 pl and some of the others are much less. So how much of a factor is that?
ps. Congrats on the milestone Lyle.
ProColorGraphics
New Member
I would take the quality of my new L25500 over the VP-540 I had any day. I think mine prints pretty much just as good as the samples I have received off of a Epson GS6000.
For the ink consumption, that varies largely on how much you print. I have gone through a set of inks in the last month, but I have also printed over 5500 square feet of vinyl alone. From what I have heard, the average life for the heads is about 5 cartridges. I haven't gotten that far as I have only had my printer for a little over a month. The longest mine has sat is 1 day, maybe 2. It started back it and printed perfectly. It also nice not to have to do the cleanings like you do with a solvent printer.
For the ink consumption, that varies largely on how much you print. I have gone through a set of inks in the last month, but I have also printed over 5500 square feet of vinyl alone. From what I have heard, the average life for the heads is about 5 cartridges. I haven't gotten that far as I have only had my printer for a little over a month. The longest mine has sat is 1 day, maybe 2. It started back it and printed perfectly. It also nice not to have to do the cleanings like you do with a solvent printer.
skyhigh
New Member
The GS6000 has a 3.7 pl drop size compared to the 12 pl for the HP.
Are these numbers deceptive?
ProColorGraphics
New Member
You would think the Epson would be a lot better. That is how I have always understood it. I use Caldera to run my HP and all of the profiles that I have, except a few, only use the 600 dpi setting too. So if I could get some profiles for the 1200 dpi setting, I would think my prints would look even better.
I am just going off of the test prints that I have received. I have no idea how they were printed either.
I am just going off of the test prints that I have received. I have no idea how they were printed either.
skyhigh
New Member
http://www.epson.com/_alfresco/proi...ds/HP Latext Printer Competitive SRG v1.3.pdf
This was an interesting read. Of course Epson is primarily comparing their printer to the HP....... feeling the heat maybe? They even go as far to say the HP isn't competive (good enough) for vehicle wraps.
This was an interesting read. Of course Epson is primarily comparing their printer to the HP....... feeling the heat maybe? They even go as far to say the HP isn't competive (good enough) for vehicle wraps.
GAC05
Quit buggin' me
That is interesting.
Epson saying you may get up to a year and a half outdoor without lam.
Seems like that extra HP heat might be a plus for some shops up north about now.
I wonder how close they are in price with HP aggressively discounting their stuff to move.
wayne k
guam usa
Epson saying you may get up to a year and a half outdoor without lam.
Seems like that extra HP heat might be a plus for some shops up north about now.
I wonder how close they are in price with HP aggressively discounting their stuff to move.
wayne k
guam usa
ProColorGraphics
New Member
Now that it is getting cold here, I like the heat that it puts off. My furnace doesn't ever run during the day and it stays 75 - 78 degrees. My shop is only about 850 square feet, so that helps.
I have read this report before too. I don't think it really compares apples to apples. They post all of the best scenario info from the Epson with the worst scenario from the HP. Like the voltage, the only time the HP takes that much is when it is initially heating up.
It all depends what you want to do. I came to the conclusion that if you want a sign printer, that is what you get. If you want to do fine art, get a fine art printer. A solvent will never touch the color and quality of an aqueous. That is why I also bought a Canon iPF8300 for doing photo, fine art and canvas printing.
I have read this report before too. I don't think it really compares apples to apples. They post all of the best scenario info from the Epson with the worst scenario from the HP. Like the voltage, the only time the HP takes that much is when it is initially heating up.
It all depends what you want to do. I came to the conclusion that if you want a sign printer, that is what you get. If you want to do fine art, get a fine art printer. A solvent will never touch the color and quality of an aqueous. That is why I also bought a Canon iPF8300 for doing photo, fine art and canvas printing.
We have had our for a couple months now. It has only went one day without running. I just put the 20th different ink cartridge in today. I had to replace my cyan/lightcyan printheads after 5 inks, yellow/black after 7 inks. We have printed about 30-35,000 square feet of material.
Locals Find!
New Member
Just curious how much are the heads to replace??
cdiesel
New Member
We've used ours to print photographic prints and canvas prints for a couple of very discriminating clients that loved them. Keep in mind our latex is the 126" version. I challenge you to find another 10' machine that can print 2000sf an hour one minute, and photographic quality the next.
We have owned our machine since March of 2010. We bought ours from Pitman which was a nightmare. They shipped the machine all the way from HP to a warehouse about 20 miles from our building. They then SHIPPED the machine FedEx from that warehouse to us! 3 days later FedEx calls us to schedule delivery, for 2 days later. We told them to hold it (which was now 20 miles away the other direction) and we loaded up in the pickup truck, went to FedEx warehouse and picked it up ourselves. Brought it back, set it up and started printing that afternoon. Then we billed Pitman the $2000+ that we were supposed to pay for install and training. Got a few sets of ink, some media and the bill for install and training (from them to us) was written off by both parties. Then one day, TWO WEEKS later, a guy in a Pitman shirt shows up at my front door and says he's there to install and train me on my machine. Flew in from out of state! Of course he didn't know a thing about my machine and just kept referring to it as a z6100. So we taught him a few things about the printer, went and ate some bbq and sent him on his way.
1.) how many head have you gone through?
We have owned our machine since March of 2010. I replaced both magenta heads back in March of this year I believe. (one of our biggest clients has a red logo, and red everything for that matter) And then last month I replaced all the other heads. They didn't really need replacing, quality hadn't diminished AT ALL and replacing them I didn't notice an improvement in quality or anything, just figured after 18+ months of printing and 61,362 ml of ink it was time to replace them.
2.) How many ink cartridges?
Cyan - 11
Magenta - 19
Yellow - 18
Black - 17
Light Cyan - 10
Light Magenta - 10
3.) What is the longest it has sat without printing?
We went an entire week once with the machine not working when we were all out of town for a job.
3a.) Did it print fine after this time and what did you have to do to get it to print if it didn't just start printing fine!
We came back from out of town, turned her back on, and started printing like she didn't miss us at all! I did to a printhead cleaning but I don't really think I needed to do that.
I can tell you that having gone from a mimaki to this machine, I will never go back to a solvent/eco/mild/bio anything! This machine is awesome!
BTW, we are primarily a vehicle wrap shop and have wrapped a ton of cars off this machine in the last 18 months. Epson sounds like they're in panic-mode there. I would be if I were them...
1.) how many head have you gone through?
We have owned our machine since March of 2010. I replaced both magenta heads back in March of this year I believe. (one of our biggest clients has a red logo, and red everything for that matter) And then last month I replaced all the other heads. They didn't really need replacing, quality hadn't diminished AT ALL and replacing them I didn't notice an improvement in quality or anything, just figured after 18+ months of printing and 61,362 ml of ink it was time to replace them.
2.) How many ink cartridges?
Cyan - 11
Magenta - 19
Yellow - 18
Black - 17
Light Cyan - 10
Light Magenta - 10
3.) What is the longest it has sat without printing?
We went an entire week once with the machine not working when we were all out of town for a job.
3a.) Did it print fine after this time and what did you have to do to get it to print if it didn't just start printing fine!
We came back from out of town, turned her back on, and started printing like she didn't miss us at all! I did to a printhead cleaning but I don't really think I needed to do that.
I can tell you that having gone from a mimaki to this machine, I will never go back to a solvent/eco/mild/bio anything! This machine is awesome!
BTW, we are primarily a vehicle wrap shop and have wrapped a ton of cars off this machine in the last 18 months. Epson sounds like they're in panic-mode there. I would be if I were them...
One more question. How is the print quality compared to the valuejet or Mimaki's? I read the "drop" is at 12 pl and some of the others are much less. So how much of a factor is that?
We had a client literally walk in our front door a couple months ago. He had 4 trucks to wrap, already had 1 wrapped. Mostly a solid "midnight blue" with a bunch of info and pictures on it. He was so upset about the banding on his first truck that he was willing to pay another $600 per truck to use us over his current guy. I will say this, the quality of the INSTALL the other guys had done was pretty good. And the layout/design was pretty good as well. But good design, and good install mean NOTHING if you can see the banding from 10 feet away. We actually had a hard time figuring out what the blue was supposed to be because it was banded so bad.
The L25500 printed that solid blue so well, it looked like the truck was blue! I leave my machine printing over night most of the time and I never have to worry about quality dropping out or heads clogging or anything!
We had a client literally walk in our front door a couple months ago. He had 4 trucks to wrap, already had 1 wrapped. Mostly a solid "midnight blue" with a bunch of info and pictures on it. He was so upset about the banding on his first truck that he was willing to pay another $600 per truck to use us over his current guy. I will say this, the quality of the INSTALL the other guys had done was pretty good. And the layout/design was pretty good as well. But good design, and good install mean NOTHING if you can see the banding from 10 feet away. We actually had a hard time figuring out what the blue was supposed to be because it was banded so bad.
The L25500 printed that solid blue so well, it looked like the truck was blue! I leave my machine printing over night most of the time and I never have to worry about quality dropping out or heads clogging or anything!