Seiko h2-74s. 8 heads - a year and a half ago we were quoted $4400 per head, including labor to change them. We had 6 heads all die at once... And we were told it's because the heads last an average of 5-6 years. We had the official seiko engineer who makes the machines fly out from Japan and examine our machine because we didn't like the explanation that 6 heads die for no reason, and we weren't about to drop 25k on a machine to fix and then in 6 years have to do it again.
This is Canadian funds... So a bit Cheaper in usd.
Either way. Let's say all heads need replacing on 6 years ( we were told it's rare for it to happen, but is possible). Lets say 4k a head x 8 heads. $32,000/6 - $5330 a year... Or $440 a month.
We spend maybe $1000 a year to replace our print heads on our latex. The maintenance cart is cheaper and less manual labor also. So in Printhead regards... Unless you get a machine that you can do your own print heads, and they last beyond 5 years.... I'd say latex wins in that regard hands down. People always talk like consumable heads is a downfall, but it's not to us.
And our machine wasn't unique. Search for Seiko heads failing and there's dozens of posts about Neary every head in their machine breaking all at once with no head crashes or nothing. It's why although seikos are beasts and great machines, I'd never recommend one.
But even after that... I'm not against solvents. The new Epson is awesome. If I knew the heads wouldn't all die and cost me 20k to repair in 5 years, I'd probably have one.
