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Equipment Redundancy - Bad idea to rely on one printer?

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victor bogdanov

Active Member
My Canon Colorado 1650 has been down for almost a week, I'm backed up with about 10k sq/ft to print and repairs could take a few more days. This is the first time I've been down for more than a day and the down time has made me realize it is probably a bad idea to rely on one printer without any redundancy. i have been able to print the most urgent orders on a friends epson 40600 and using that printer is making me wonder if switching the Colorado to 2x epson 60600L printers is the smart thing to do for redundancy.

I can buy a new epson every year for the price of the Colorado service contract, inks will be slightly more expensive on the 60600L and I'll lose out on some of the UV ink benefits but overall the printers will work for what I print and 2x 60600L will be about as fast as 1x Colorado. Way cheaper printer cost too.

Close to 800k sq ft on the Colorado in 2 years, almost no issues but now service tech is struggling to get it running, switched a few components so far, still same "48V voltage too low on Carriage PBA", switched out just about every part in that chain with 0 progress.

Now the printer has been sitting there without mixing inks or cleaning printheads for almost a week, so those two systems will need an overhaul too once the original problem is sorted

with 2 printers there is a good chance both won't break down at the same time and with the cost of 60600 compared to the cost of the colorado service contract I can buy a new printer every year....

Hmmm...
 
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damonCA21

Active Member
If you are doing that sort of quantity of work then having a backup printer is always a good idea. If you run two you can run them both at the same time, so be a lot more productive, or use them on alternate days when you are quieter. Add a small amount to the cost of each job and it will soon cover the costs
 
cmoist

cmoist

New Member
It all boils down to whether you can stomach downtime. I applaud you for taking ownership of the problem instead of blaming the service company or parts company.

We have redundancy in every aspect of our shop, from printers to computers to cutters. Sometimes the redundant measure isn't as effective as the preferred machine, but at least we won't grind to a complete halt.

As an aside, if you switched to Epson, there may be a greater chance of part availability in the event of a machine down.
 
N

netsol

Active Member
cmoist said:
It all boils down to whether you can stomach downtime. I applaud you for taking ownership of the problem instead of blaming the service company or parts company.

We have redundancy in every aspect of our shop, from printers to computers to cutters. Sometimes the redundant measure isn't as effective as the preferred machine, but at least we won't grind to a complete halt.

As an aside, if you switched to Epson, there may be a greater chance of part availability in the event of a machine down.
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agreed regarding the redundancy

not so sure it is a great idea to replace the colorado with epson (we have SEVERAL older epsons, LOVE THEM but they are not a colorado
repairs are always luck of the draw, and at the moment, he isn't having any luck, but the colorado is a great printer, ,when it is working
 
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CanuckSigns

Active Member
If I remember correctly, you mostly make printed wallpapers etc correct? We have a Epson S80600 for the past 6 years and it's a great machine, but the scratch resistance is not great, it's fine for our uses because we laminate almost everything, but if we were printing wall paper I would be cautious.

Thant being said, our Epsons have had extremly minimal downtime in those 6 years, Less than 4 days I would say. Service is pretty good here, but we deal with Grimco, not directly with Epson.
 
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victor bogdanov

Active Member
cmoist said:
It all boils down to whether you can stomach downtime. I applaud you for taking ownership of the problem instead of blaming the service company or parts company.
Click to expand...
Service could be way better, tech has been showing up 4 pm getting ready to clock out 5 30pm.

There are things canon could've done to get this fixed faster starting with tech coming at 8am instead of 4pm ready to clock out and not enough time to get parts shipped out that same day.
 
Johnny Best

Johnny Best

Active Member
If the cost does not kill you the idea of getting a new printer every year or two printers is a great move so this problem you have encountered does not happen again. You will have comfort in the thought you will be covered.
 
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victor bogdanov

Active Member
Johnny Best said:
If the cost does not kill you the idea of getting a new printer every year or two printers is a great move so this problem you have encountered does not happen again. You will have comfort in the thought you will be covered.
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A new epson costs the same as Colorado service contract for 1 year, im supposed to have comfort that I'm covered with the service contract but not looking good right now.
 
Billct2

Billct2

Active Member
My biggest client has orders every week that have to be delivered by Saturday night. Years back I added a second printer, it was a refurb unit with warranty.
It''s great to have that peace of mind.
I also do a lot of Edge printing and just picked up a used Edge w/plotter.
 
Gino

Gino

Premium Subscriber
Aren't you the guy who said you had 5 dedicated printers with some sorta backup system in play ??
 
2B

2B

Active Member
redundancy is great, especially if you are trying to be 100% inhouse or have TIGHT timeframes

sounds like the 2nd machine would be used regularly, an idle printer is BAD as all can attest to
 
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victor bogdanov

Active Member
2B said:
redundancy is great, especially if you are trying to be 100% inhouse or have TIGHT timeframes

sounds like the 2nd machine would be used regularly, an idle printer is BAD as all can attest to
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if I go 2 printers it'll be 2 epsons, 0 Colorados

Another business day over, 0 updates. Long wait times on the phone for someone to pick up only to be hung up on by the service department, unbelievable
 
micadesign

micadesign

New Member
as RTR printer i'm running 2 mimaki jv300-160, 1 mimaki cjv150-160 and 1 mimaki ucjv300-160... for me, it's always good to have a second printer for this reasons. if one printer is down, i can continue with my work...
epson sc60600L are great printers, but you do not have the benefit like the canon...
 
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victor bogdanov

Active Member
The epson R5070L looks like might be a good replacement for the Colorado, 3-4 Epsons still cheaper than the Canon.

Tested a 60600 today and the prints were a little too easy to scratch which won't work for me.

Got some quotes, demo in a day or 2.
 
Pauly

Pauly

Printrade.com.au
victor bogdanov said:
Service could be way better, tech has been showing up 4 pm getting ready to clock out 5 30pm.

There are things canon could've done to get this fixed faster starting with tech coming at 8am instead of 4pm ready to clock out and not enough time to get parts shipped out that same day.
Click to expand...

This is poor effort on their behalf.
It's a shame the service there isn't anywhere as good as it's here.

Im not one for redundant printers as cost of ownership doubles.
but if you have no choice, then its your only option.
 
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victor bogdanov

Active Member
Pauly said:
This is poor effort on their behalf.
It's a shame the service there isn't anywhere as good as it's here.

Im not one for redundant printers as cost of ownership doubles.
but if you have no choice, then its your only option.
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Every service call up until now has been great, fixed same or next day, pretty minor issues.

This time a less common problem, printer 100% unusable - even the tech service menus are not working properly but in the 6 days that the printer has been down the tech has spent less than 3 hours looking at it. Waiting on second set of parts that they should've ordered the first time

Full inks ruined and I'm sure all printheads are ruined, sitting for a week without ink circulation/head cleanings, heads aren't even being kept warm. I'm curios to see who canon expects to pay for the inks/heads that are ruined due to the slow service
 
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balstestrat

balstestrat

Problem Solver
Wow this Colorado train went from full steam to crash in an instant. Wasn't the cheap ink supposed to be unbeatable.
Like financially there is no way you can now go out with 4 Epson and say it's cheaper after all.
 
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victor bogdanov

Active Member
balstestrat said:
Wow this Colorado train went from full steam to crash in an instant. Wasn't the cheap ink supposed to be unbeatable.
Like financially there is no way you can now go out with 4 Epson and say it's cheaper after all.
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Big let down, I've had 6 days now to research alternative printers.

I think 2-3 slower printers will be a safer bet than one fast expensive one when livelihood is on the line. Epson R5070L looking pretty good, 2-3 of them will keep up with a Colorado and at a lower initial cost. Waiting to find out ink cost per sqft on those
 
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victor bogdanov

Active Member
3 failed attempts in 24 hours to get an update on the service with 3 promises that service manager will call me.

The best part while waiting on the phone is canon going over all the excellent service awards they have and their commitment to good service :rolleyes:
 
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