Repair or Buy A New One

I acquired my Epson T60 printer a year ago and really impressed with its performance and capabilities as a whole. I used it for document, transfer paper, and photo printing using pigment inks. So far I was able to recoup the amount I spent in buying it. 

It is already converted to continues ink system to avoid hassle of buying expensive genuine ink cartridges. However, it started to fail a few months ago (last year) when printing one time on a bond paper, not knowing that the tip of the paper is a little bit crumpled. The paper stuck which cause the head to create grinding noise that I hurriedly put it off. This happens few times especially when the printing option is set to draft. So, I avoided using that setting anymore.

Sad to know, when I decided to remove and checked the Printer Head, I found deep scratches that prevent the inks from passing through the holes resulting to bad print out. Nozzle checks are almost impossible to resolve the problem. So I removed and cleanse the head with Isopropyl Alcohol and force a little bit to clear the holes from scratches. I let it dry for a while then put it back to test it if works again.

Yes it did! The printing seems fine using the text and image, photo and best photo option with a little lines missing but works fine on printing black text. But I usually prefer best photo to get a better printing on image as photo option is not capable anymore of producing image quality print out. Until one day, my printer suddenly pop-up an error related to unrecognized ink cartridges. Usually, this is done by merely pressing the reset button for seconds but that won't work anymore though I tried it over and over again.

I sought for second opinion regarding unrecognized ink error from a certain printer technician and told me to change the chips attached to cartridges at a cost of P450. I bought a new chips but felt disappointed seeing the same error exist. I don't know what to think next. I asked another printer technician regarding my problem and told me that the problem might be on the printer head and the logic board. It means a major repair is needed for Epson T60 which summed into trial and error and no guarantee that the printer would be fixed. The head or the logic board is shorted. I don't know if it's true that replacing the logic board you need to change the printer head too for compatibility reason.

How much will it cost? The amount is tantamount to almost buying a new one. He quoted expenses as followed: Labor P500, Flex P300, Printer Head P5000 and the Printer board P2500. It really sounds risky to me and the probability is unsure. But thanks for his honest advice to buy a new one instead. 

He further said that in that scenario, if either the head or the logic board is replaced alone damaged may take place on one of them. He wants to avoid the liability on his part being a technician. But he said he can fix it. But that made me reluctant and made me think twice. 

It sounds goodbye to my Epson T60 Printer.

Brand New Printer Head For A Used Printer

Last year, I bought a used R230 Epson printer for a package deal. All these units got a defective printer head due to its long use by its previous owner. I got them all for P3,000 pesos (4 units) hoping that I could use them to a great advantage. However, only three of them I found in working condition. The owner junked all those because he had no time taking them to a printer repair shop. But obviously, maintenance was the basic reason for selling them as a brand new printer head is expensive enough and taking the possibility of spending without guarantee that they may be of good use is out of his context.

For me, the possibility of taking the risk lies mainly in my belief that maybe one of them will work. I'm hoping that I could use one of them (even one only) in return to my investment. Imagine the price of a brand new R230 which is around P11,000 is just expensive enough for anybody like. Beside, I just wanted to try whether it is really good to have an R230 or not. It's been just a few months that I've been thinking of buying a brand new printer head for one of these Epson R230 printers which is needed in my digital printing business.

It's really hard to find a local seller of brand new printer head for these R230 printers especially here in the Philippines. I've visited a lot of site which locally sell parts of Epson printer but only few I found selling locally. You can find some from EBay, Alibaba, Ayosdito, Sulit and Tipidpc.com. Most of the producer and sellers are from China. Nevertheless, I got one from the Southern part of Laguna - here in our country. A mere seller of parts and others computer peripherals. I guess they were Chinese merchant too. I wonder why they had to build their business outside the Metropolitan area. It cost P3500 a piece which seems a little bit expensive and is almost the price of a brand new Epson T10 or the cheapest printer available in the market but I don't mind it anyway as it was really needed for the printer.

My relentless effort is bit rewarding. I can now use one of the units in printing digital photos. The printing results are excellent. Compared to Epson T10, R230 are much better because it uses 6 inks combination. It prints quite and smoothly. For the first time, I was able to print 87 copies of 4R photos. My regrets had gone away and hoping to buy another brand new head for the remaining R230 Epson printers.