Epson Stylus Pro 4000 Inkjet Printer

There has hardly been a day without trouble on my Epson Stylus Pro 4000. Invalid media, wrong feed location, misaligned paper, clogged nozzles etc my log book is full of the problems I have with this printer. It takes considerable time to persuade the printer to do a print job. I have the latest firmware v1.01564 yet it does not recognise my media "Epson Photo Paper SO41857". After being away on holiday for several weeks I wanted to print with the 4000 - but I get message "nozzles clogged" and after many cleaning cycles the printer closed down because the maintenance tank was full. I hurriedly obtained a new tank only to get message "No maintenance tank" then I find that one of the 7 small spring contacts on the Ink Eject Board which registers with the chip on the side of the tank was bent. I managed to get a new part after weeks of wrangling with Epson before I was given a supplier of parts - the part only cost me £10 and it was delivered quickly and I fitted it in maybe 30 minutes. However I still have the problem that the nozzles are still clogged and the printer refuses to do anything in the meantime. So it looks as tho I will have to manually clean the nozzles myself since the printer is unable to do this. If you do not use the printer every few days DO NOT BUY THE 4000 - it is not meant for modest or light commercial or home use. The printer will be unusable after being idle for a couple of months - and it seems that the ink has a use by date of 6 months. Not very useful if you buy the large ink refills. I do have other printers Canon BJC 5500, Epson Stylus Photo R200, HP Laserjet 2420, Samsung Laser ML1755, Canon Pixma MP600R which collectively give me very little trouble.

FACTS
When the ink jets are not clogged in works great.
I spend more money on head cleanings that I do prints.
Buy a few extra maintence tanks, you'll need them.
Eight of the the big cartrages will cost you only 800 dollers !
The printer cloggs overnight so If you dont print every day you will have to clean the heads at least five times. and as you know cleaning uses lots of ink.

For conveince just send Epson the # to your bank account.

This printer delivers a Giclee quality print that makes it impossible to distinguish the original from the print. With it's ability to print on Canvas, Water color paper and Heavier materials in widths up to 17 inches wide by up to 100 feet long, it's archival inks estimated to resist fading for 200 years and it's ease of use. This printer puts printing into the hands of the artist. It also does Photos in a quality that rivals the photolab. I highly recommend this printer.

The wait to get this printer was well worth it! I love the speed and quality of the prints. I not all that happy about how hard it is to find paper in the 17" x 22" or 17" roll sizes. The other thing was finding ink cartridges and the maintain tank replacements. These items seem to be out of stock just as much as the printer. There is a little bit of a learning curve but in the end the pictures are outstanding and worth every bit of the current problems in getting ink and the maintain tank. I was surprise by the size and it does need heavy duty desk or stand. But again it works great out of the box and better once you learn how to use all the settings. I suggest if you get this printer that you plan ahead in ordering extra ink and other maintain tank if you going to do a lot of printing. Everyone that has seen the pictures are very impress and I had one person wanting buy a picture I was just showing off. This is a great printer!!