Epson printers ?

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Inspired by a comment from nigelcampbell :thumbs:

Epson printers seem to use/waste/ignore more ink than a little.

I've seen ads for a bit of software to mess with them and get them to work more efficiently.
I also noticed a 'zapper' in a local stupidmarket.

Are either of these options worth trying out or are they pointless?
It would be nice to use the last half of the ink in my cartridges occasionally.

Ta.
 
just my two scents as it were... Epson are a rather large printer manufacturer, if their printers waste ink then anything you do to stop that is more than likely going to have a knock on effect on quality etc... they have a pretty big R&D department and although some might disagree I don't believe they would intentionally make a printer use more ink
 
I should just qualify that I think Epson Printers are excellent quality - but if you don't print for a couple of days - the heads need cleaning. Using Epson's cleaning routine does use up ink (Epson themselves will tell you this). The cleaning routine cleans all the heads (so if the magenta head is the only one with problems - all will still be cleaned) There are cheats for this like printing a solid block of Magenta from photoshop to clear the blockage - but this is much harder to do with the special lighter inks in the 6 colour systems.

At around £100 per replacement set of inks I think online printing is just better value for money
 
Brains said:
Try cheaper cartridges such as JetTec
Click to expand...

JetTec is one brand of after market cartrages I would stay far far away from. Once in an emergancy I got one from a swap meet, and it cloged the head in my printer so bad, I spent the whole cartradge trying to clean it. The half a print I did get from the cartrage had colours that was just too red.
 
Have a google for the ssc service utility. Works a treat if you follow the instructions. Empty carts every time. No wastage, no clogged nozzles.

DO NOT UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES.......accidentaly store some empty cartridge values and then accidentaly send them to a set of full carts like I did. Fortunately a certain shop believed me when I told them the carts were faulty ;)

I can't say I've ever had a probllem with blocked heads. I leave my printer on all the time too to prevent the usage of ink when the printer starts up and flushes the system!
 
FranchiseJuan said:
JetTec is one brand of after market cartrages I would stay far far away from. Once in an emergancy I got one from a swap meet, and it cloged the head in my printer so bad, I spent the whole cartradge trying to clean it. The half a print I did get from the cartrage had colours that was just too red.
Click to expand...

Think you must have been unlucky. I've been using them for years and there is little noticeable difference in print colours between them and the originals.
 
I used compatable inks in my Epson 830 photo for awhile from activ and later from value shop "all of a sudden" I started to get hassles with the compatables from both sources
(a lot of cleaning was required on a very regular basis) so I switched back to "originals" with little or no hassle. http://www.valueshop.co.uk/
these being the cheapest I found for my particular printer. I have not used the on line printing options yet but they look like a good deal and may well try them out soon.
 
Cheers all.

nigel, I agree , wasn't implyign you'd said any different tbh. I think they are great in all aspects other than ink usage.

Mine sometimes get's left for weeks without use. Adn I know with some cartridges it only uses half of the ink.
Don't fancy paying a fortune for originals when some of the others give pretty good results.
I'm also thinking of using online printers for anything good/important.

Ghandi, I think you got to the meat of it for me TBH :thumbs:
 
Imagine how i feel, my printer prints upto 60 inches wide. When you have to buy ink by the litre things really do get pricey.:lol:
Dean:)
 
That's your own fault for having stuff worth printing :lol:
 
Gandi got it, SSC service utility.
 
I have the R220 & having tried several different combinations of cheaper ink / paper and I've returned to using only originals of both.

Ultimately I bought the printer for it's great print quality & in my experience at least, anything other than original compromises this

The R220 cleaning cycles are wasteful though !!

simon
 
FranchiseJuan said:
JetTec is one brand of after market cartrages I would stay far far away from. Once in an emergancy I got one from a swap meet, and it cloged the head in my printer so bad, I spent the whole cartradge trying to clean it. The half a print I did get from the cartrage had colours that was just too red.
Click to expand...

I have used JetTec inks for years now and never had a problem with them in my Epson printers. Got 6 Epson R220s running around the house etc and they all run on JetTec ink and can be left months without printing and never get clogged heads, maybe I am just lucky. The only one downside to JetTec ink is that the greys are a bit green, therefore if I know I am going to be doing a print job with greys in I stick some Epson Blacks in and bobs you aunt it works a charm.

Epson + JetTec = Damn good value (in my book)

on a side not I also use Verbatim Glossy Photo paper for printing, which is also great value and seems to work really well with the printer and the inks.
 
Jimmy_Lemon said:
I have used JetTec inks for years now and never had a problem with them in my Epson printers.
Click to expand...

I guess it does come down to what printer you have. I have been using Xprint cartrages in my 1290 for about 8 months (purchsed used) and in 50+ colour cartrages and 20+ Black cartrages I have never had a problem with it. I used JetTec once and it caused heaps of problems, the Xprint cartrages arrived, I put them back in, and did one clean cycle and everything back to normal.

Incidentally the one time I tried to use JetTec I was printing BW and they all came out too green. Never had this problem with the Xprint cartrages. I don't really want to resort to RIPs to use JetTec when Xprint is the same price.
 
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