We bought ours bundled with a graphtec 64" plotter 3 months ago from advantage. We paid a bit more than what you are listing, but we also got a new plotter. After 3 months of having the machine running pretty much non stop, these are my thoughts:
Quality: A+
We upgraded 3 older roll to roll printers (2 solvent + 1 aqueous) with 1 epson gs6000. It can produce a better resolution print than our previous aqueous machine without having to sacrifice the outdoor durability that our solvent machines had. The inter-weaving technology is nothing new, but it is new to us and we love it. No more banding!!! The orange and green print heads widen the color gamut and allow for us to nail the UT orange that is so common in our town. Quality on this printer deserves an A+ because it is outstanding.
Speed: A
Apparently this machine is the fastest of the eco-solvents on the market topping out at around 300/sf/hour in banner mode. We have yet to print in this mode, but I am sure it is still acceptable quality. We just finished a run of 10,000 static clings that took (7) 75' foot rolls. Due to the fine print and static cling being b&#$! to print on, we had to run these on 1440 x 1400. It took us around 42 print hours to complete the job, wich averages out to about 50/sf/hour. Keep in mind that this is printed on 1440 x 1440 (16) pass mode. This shows that the printers fastest speed is 300/sf/hour and the slowest is 50/sf/hour. Your typical print job will fall about right in the middle of the two. Speed has never been a huge issue for us, as it has always been quality over speed. But if you were a balls to the walls print shop, you may give it a different rating.
Reliability/Maintenance: A
This section has nothing to do with Advantage and their service, but focuses primarily on the machines reliability. Other than the few hiccups we had (bad print heads) at first, this machine has been solid. You come in, fire it up and its ready to go. The most important part is you go home at night knowing it will run the next morning. It runs its own light cleaning cycle ever 12 hours so you don't have to. The reliabilty has been very good and maintenance is next to none.
Ink: B
This machine is being sold as a solvent minus the harsh chemicals (nikel) so there is no ventilation required. It is true that you do not need to ventilate the working area, but I would be hesitant to sell this as a solvent machine. Coming from (2) true solvent printers, we never had to overlaminate any prints off those machines. We now find ourselves overlaminating everything to prevent any scuffing of the ink and to prolong the life of the print. This may be typical for eco-solvent machines, but it sure isn't the case with true solvents. We were sold this machine with the intention of operating it like our old solvents, but we now have to be much more careful when handling prints (scufs, scrapes, etc). We have noticed on banners with heavy coverage and dark colors that the ink can be scuffed/scraped fairly easy.
Service: B+
This is one of the most important factors when buying a new piece of equipment. If something breaks, how and when is it going to be fixed?
Like I said above, we bought our printer from Advantage and have a 1 year bumper to bumper service contract through them. Any issues that we have had have been fixed, but the real question is: who is doing the fixing?
I have never had so many hands involved in a service contract as this one. I was told that my first line of defense is Advantage. So when I have a question/problem (either simple or complex), I call Advantage and leave a message to call me back. Sometimes its 1 hours or sometimes its the next day (if at all) before you hear back from them. I am not in the business of playing phone tag, I am business to do work and get paid. This become imensley frustrating when all you want is a simple question answered. After becoming so frustrated with the "leave a message and wait" tactic, we started bypassing Advantage and calling Epson direct. It's great! You call and get a tech with in 1 minute. If the tech diagnosis a problem that cannot be fixed over the phone, they issue a work order with a company called Descision 1. Another party that is contracted by Epson to come on site and fix any issues that you may have. After a work order has been submitted you are to be contacted by a tech with in the next 24 hours to schedule a service time. So lets break it down:
1. Call Advantage and leave a message. You will hear back from them in 1-2 business days if at all. They will walk you through what they can and then have you call Epson direct.
2. Call Epson direct. You get a phone tech very quickly that will trouble shoot over the phone. They will then issue a work order if neccessary through Descision 1.
3. Wait for Descision 1 to call you in the next 24 hours to schedule a service time. Descision 1 will give you a techs cell phone # to deal with directly.
4. Deal directly with tech from D1 to coordinate a onsite visit.
Holy sh!# this is exhausting.
We have learned to contact Epson direct and deal only with their tech department. Not that Advantage is not knowledgeable, but I am not interested in waiting for simple questions to be answered. No hate towards any of these companies, there is just to many hands in the pot. It should be one company handling it all.
Over all: A
This printer has been great. We had a few little issues, but nothing that couldn't be resolved. The reliability/quality/speed are incredible for the price of the machine. A few things to work on are the service and developing a more aggressive ink. Over all, I would definitely buy it again.
