The print head is the part of a wall printer that wears out. On The Wall Printer® machines it costs about $2,000 to replace, and it’s treated as a wear item, like tires on a truck. With good care, a print head lasts about two years. How long yours lasts depends mostly on how the printer is looked after. This article covers what shortens a print head’s life on any UV printer, and the routine that protects it.
What the print head does
The head fires tiny drops of ink through rows of nozzles onto the surface, and a UV lamp cures the ink as it goes. The Pro Series runs an Epson i3200 head. The Tech Series and the Floor Series run a DX7. Every nozzle has to stay clear for the print to come out clean.
What shortens head life on any UV printer
Skipped maintenance. Ink that sits in or on the nozzles can dry and block them. Cleaning on schedule keeps them open.
Ink that doesn’t move. UV ink, white especially, needs to circulate. That’s why the pump box on these printers circulates the ink every twelve hours on its own, including when the printer isn’t working.
Contact with the surface. The head prints a short distance from the wall. On deep texture or uneven surfaces, it can touch. That’s one reason corrugated metal is a surface we tell people to avoid.
Dust and debris. A wall that hasn’t been cleaned, or a dusty jobsite, puts more on the head than it needs.
The routine that protects it
Maintenance takes about twenty minutes every other day the printer runs. It’s covered hands-on in training, and your training is recorded so you can go back to it. Once a year, timed to a new ink cycle, the team does a health checkup with you on a video call.
If something looks wrong in a print, call before you keep printing. Support is there from 9am to 8pm ET, seven days a week. A lot of print problems are settings or cleaning, not hardware, and it’s cheaper to find that out on a call.
Planning for it
Since the head is a wear item, put it in your numbers from the start. At about $2,000 on the Pro every two years with good care, that’s roughly $1,000 a year. Set a little aside from every job and a replacement is a planned expense instead of a surprise. New machines carry up to five years of hardware warranty. Ask the team what’s covered for the model you’re looking at, including the print head.
Questions people ask
How much does a wall printer print head cost?
About $2,000 on the Pro. It’s a wear item that lasts about a year to a year and a half on UV ink, so plan for replacement in your numbers.
How do you keep a print head working?
Do the maintenance, about twenty minutes every other day the printer runs, keep the ink circulating, avoid surfaces deep enough for the head to touch, and print on clean walls.
Which print head does each model use?
The Pro Series uses an Epson i3200. The Tech Series and the Floor Series use a DX7.
Thinking about a printer? Tell the team in Wilmington what you want to print and where, and we’ll give you a straight answer on whether it fits.
Before you buy: straight answers to the questions buyers ask us.
- The first 90 days with a wall printer: what actually happens
- Five assumptions that make any wall printer calculator look better than real life
- How a $500 wall printing job can lose money
- Print heads: what wears out on a wall printer, what it costs and how to make it last
- Walls to think twice about before you print on them
- Where a wall printer struggles, and how owners plan around it
- A $40,000 printer package or a cheap import: what you’re actually comparing
- What support looks like after you buy a wall printer
- Who shouldn’t buy a wall printer
- What it takes to do well with a wall printer: the five pillars
- Questions to ask a wall printer owner before you buy
- The three kinds of wall printing jobs, and what each one sells for
- How fast does a wall printer print?