Dye Sub Printers

[James & Zelma Litzmann]

Does anyone here have any information on sublimation printers? We have a Epson Stylus Pro 7890 and the print head has gone out again in 11 months. Does anyone know how to fix this on our own? I have watched a couple of youtube videos on how to clean them but not replace them, Epson says they will sell us the part but that we have to have a "service utility" to replace them.

Thanks for any help anyone can spare.
Zelma

[AL Ursich]

I was a Epson R1800 Sublimation User and finally Sawgrass just quit making the ink so I went with the Ricoh.

As for the Utility... I had one for the R1800 that let you reset the ink waste tank counter. Once it reached a number it started flashing 2 LED's and would be brain dead. The Utility reset the counter to zero... I had 5 printers over time and reset them many times and never changed the ink waste pad in the bottom of the machine. Was lucky...

So likely the utility they are talking about does the same and more...

I would look around the T Shirt Forums as I found many Epson Posts over the years and someone may have the utility you need. Also check eBay... I saw the utility offered on ebay but I got it free from my Ink Supplier.

I had a problem with my Ricoh printers givng me a proper red with the "R" version of the inks. You can find a post here about it. A year later Sawgrass came out with the "HD" ink that has a 26 % bigger color gamut and I get a Great Red...

I have had NO ink related clog problems in the almost 2 years with the Ricoh printers. I have 2... And they have a vacuum detector that lets them suck the Cart dry so out of ink is DRY... With lots of low warnings.... A Good Deal....

4 of my 5 R1800's had blown heads when it ended.... and I was doing a Cleaning to unclog when I ran dry on the 5th when the Yellow ran out that was already out of stock around the country. So it was over...

I would recommend a Ricoh GEL INK Printer... Like I have or a larger format version.

Sawgrass now sells the Ricoh Printers and calls them the 400 and 800. It has updated firmware and will only use the "HD" Ink. I use my older 3100 and 7100 with the new "HD" ink by cutting the plastic keyway on the carts so they will fit and use the 400/800 Sawgrass V4 Print Deiver. Works....

Did find a problem the other day... I accidently selected the old "R" Ink driver when going to print and it came up with a message that the printer was un able to make the proper colors as I had "HD" ink installed... Locked up the printer. Had to re boot both computer and printer and back to normal selecting the proper driver.

I did play with the eBay aftermarket ink in auto reset carts and found it was just the same as the "R" ink. In the last picture I printed the CMYK Test in the Sawgrass "R" and "HD" with the HD having the big letters. Did see a difference between the colors.

On the keyway on the "HD" carts. One is for the color so you don't install the wrong color in the wrong slot. I did not remove them. The other keyway's needed to be removed to insert the "HD" Cart into a 3100 and 7100 printer. Sawgrass would like you to buy a new printer to use the "HD" ink. I found a way around it for now. Likely a V4 update might prevent that in the future. So for now, it works and works GREAT... GO "HD" ink...

Good Luck,

AL

Edit... with all that being said... I looked up your printer and it's a large format printer... I can do up to 11 x 17 with the back loader.... :) If you went with a Sawgrass 800 and needed bigger prints you could order them from the printing services or piece together smaller prints. I have done that on some larger Accountability Boards.

And I see you are from Texas... Got a call one day from a guy in Texas that saw my post about the Red problem and he was having it too with the "R" ink with the Texas flag and US flag... The "HD" ink fixed his problem and he called to thank me... :)

Edit 2: Looked at your product lines on your site and the 800 may very well work for you.... Good Luck...

[Amy Shelton]

I have had the Ricoh Gx7000 Gel printer 13x19 for a few years now, and it is the one that has the problem that it shuts down after non-use or old ink, dead. I had bought a warranty, and they sent me a new one. I think they no longer sell it. If the ones Al lists above don't have the problem that the GX7000 has, I'd say go for it.

Thanks, Al, for the info on the HD ink. I have had to play around to get some reds that look better.

[Keith Winter]

Does anyone here have any information on sublimation printers? We have a Epson Stylus Pro 7890 and the print head has gone out again in 11 months. Does anyone know how to fix this on our own? I have watched a couple of youtube videos on how to clean them but not replace them, Epson says they will sell us the part but that we have to have a "service utility" to replace them.

Thanks for any help anyone can spare.
Zelma

They make a sublimation line now, more expensive but meant for sublimation ink, less issues. I used to have a smaller Epson that we hacked for sublimation, always had problems. If you run daily maintainace, keep the room dust free, and keep the humidity up it should help you avoid clogs and make it last a little longer. As for changing the head, I'd suggest checking t shirt forum you might find something there if not here.