Epson DO cheat with the ink cartiges.

[mymemory]

I read the old therad about the Epson ink cartige and that week my month old new Epson C60 printer ran out of ink, just today I saw one of those places where the refill the used cartiges and started to talk to the guy... I came to my house, took both cartiges and went back to the place just to have the memory chip reseted. My sorprice is that I'm printing 20 pages for a catalog, full color and the ink still there.

The guy told me that the cartiges where heavy still and that mean with 75% of ink at least. He told me that looks like the printer make a calculation of the ink used but there is no actual way to measure the real level of ink inside.

Now, that sound very logical because I had a old Epson Stylus 660 and I sold it because it was serial and I need a USB printer. With that Epson 660 I printed a 80 pages catalog (plus the defective pages) and my girlfriend printed her tesis too. With the new generation C60 I may printed about 20 pages with a lot of colors may be, not even the shadow of the old technology.

For all of you I would recomend you to use no Empson cartiges or to find a way to reset the ink cartiges, it just take 2 minutes.

 

[King Cobra]

-->For all of you I would recomend you to use no Empson cartiges or to find a way to reset the ink cartiges, it just take 2 minutes.

Bad idea. Epson specificaly says in their printer manuals to use ONLY Epson cartridges. You should never use refill cartridges for two reasons:

(1) You MUST be an expert in behaving after a catastrophic ink spill

(2) No inexpensive refill cartridges are near 100% as effecient as standard ink cartridges manufactured for specifically Epson.

F*** every commercial $19.95 refill cartridge special offer you see on TV. You will only spend more money, time and effort towards wasted ink. Save yourself the trouble and buy a $30 Epson cartridge or two.

The newer Cxx model Epson Stylus printers have had issues with ink consumption.

The Epson manual also advises to avoid taking out a used cartridge just to use it again. But this is a precautionary measure for calculated readings. On your Cxx model Epson printers, when your ink runs out, take the cartridge out, tap it a few times, then reset it.

My Epson SC 880 works very will with ink management, and printouts are exceptional. I recommend anyone without the need for a Photo printer to use the 880 or the 880i model (or even the 888 model). It is completely supported under OS X. The printer price has dropped since its release, and it uses cheap, but effecient, ink cartridges.

Black + Color is about $20.

 

[G4scott]

Epson has been having issues with some of their newer printers.

When my Stylus C80 told me that my yellow cartridge was out of ink, I was suspicious, and took it out back to open it up. I ended up completely soaking 2 8-1/2 x 11 sheets of paper in the ink, and getting it on several other sheets of paper.

I've also read an article about it, but the real problem is with the print heads, and not really the ink.

Epson printers have very sensitive print heads, and when left standing for over a month, they may start to fail. My epson printer printed great when I first got it, but now, after excessive cleanings, I can see lines across my printouts.

Of course, I have a HP 1200 Laser Jet for my text stuff, so I don't use the Epson very often. When I do, I spend half my time cleaning the heads, just to get a decent print out.

 

[alset]

How does the head fail from sitting for a month? Does this mean i should print gibberish every couple weeks just to keep it operational? I imagine this is like running a car that's been in storage to keep the engine in shape?

Dan

 

[acj]

Every printer I've refilled has had far more problems than printers I have left alone. There are many poor quality inks out there for todays 2-3 picoliter ink droplet printers.

My work printer, an Epson 2200, goes through lots of ink, but each dollar of ink used brings back $20-$40, so saving 50% would mean little. I looked into some CIS (continuous ink system) products, but in reality they are only 30% cheaper or so according to their specs. I'd rather pay more to have ink that doesn't leak, doesn't require the top to be open collecting dust, has perfect colors, and doesn't waste much if it dries up.

Things may be different for consumers, but i don't know why they need a photo printer at all when they can get better digital prints at Wal Mart and many other stores, for cheap.

 

[Wyrm]

Originally posted by alset
How does the head fail from sitting for a month? Does this mean i should print gibberish every couple weeks just to keep it operational? I imagine this is like running a car that's been in storage to keep the engine in shape?Dan

Sounds funny, but the ink used in inkjets dries out quickly - if the ink in your print head dries out it can jam up a few nozzles - and then needs a cleaning (literally blowing ink out the nozzles) to clear any dried ink. Leaving a printer for a month is a sure way to get dried ink in the print head, and the only way to avoid that is to print regularly, or clean before you print. Cleaning however uses a ton of ink.

Epson's scheme for calculating the ink usage in their current printer is too conservative - but since they make most of their money on ink sales, they probably saw it as a win-win solution... never have a customer complain about a bad printout, and fill the company coffers with cash. Probably didn't think too much about customers getting pissed that their ink was always running out... maybe that will change when the EU passes a new law against proprietary expendibles?

-Wyrm

 

[mymemory]

Yeah, the guy at the store told me the same about the heads, I should print at list once a week because the ink get dry in to th heads.

Wha is "the proprietary expendibles law"? it sound interesting.

 

[Gus]

I have always owned Epson printers, and never had an ink problem. I currently own a CX3200 all in one which prints great, and uses ink very efficiently. I also apways buy my ink from http://www.ink4art.com where I get GREAT ink deals, and they have never caused any problems on any of the Epson printers I have owned.

Regards,
Gus

 

[e-coli]

I once used a cheap refill cartridge on my Epson, and the ink dried in the print heads. I had to buy a whole new printer. (It was cheaper than having the head replaced or professionally cleaned).

Always buy genuine Epson ink.

 

[Daveman Deluxe]

We have an Epson Stylus Color 760 that we used to print flyers on for the office, to the tune of 500-1000 pages a month. We used inksell.com's inks which has saved us probably a thousand dollars in ink. A guy at the local Apple reseller told me that they've seen printers get ruined after about two years from using those inks. We figured that the printer's been doing fine these last two years and saved at least a thousand dollars on a $150 printer, and on work that's not terribly dependent on color accuracy or ink longevity (c'mon, they're real estate flyers. They don't need to last longer than six months at the most).

 

[Marble]

I believe that HP printers have a set of print heads in their (notably more expensive) ink cartridges, so you replace the big problem-maker every time you run out of ink. Epson (I think), has only one set of print heads in the printer.