Epson 2200 high capacity ink tanks...

[ajpn]

I have a 2200, and when I got it, about a year ago, I saw this

article with pictures of the 2200 with these off machine ink tanks,

with small tubes going directly into the ink tank carriage. At the

time I thought nothing of it, but now that I am staring at a mountain

of empty cartridges I am wondering where I saw that. Does anyone know

what I am talking about? And if so where I may find that article

again. Does anyone have experience using that sort of system? Are the

inks available in bulk?

 

I searched google and only three responses came up on p.net, and they

weren't the one. Otherwise there is the standard ten million...

 

Thanks in advance.

[don_cooper]

Here's one place you can look - http://www.inksupply.com/

Many others available. Use "continuous ink supply" in a Google search and you'll find more than enough to confuse you.

[john_gill]

I have the Epson 2200 (or 2100 to us in the UK) with the Permajet Permaflow continuous ink system and can highly recommend it IF you do a lot of printing.

[pmac]

Try Here -

 

http://www.inksupply.com/index.cfm?source=html/cfs_2200_new.html

[ajpn]

Okay... I see there are quite a few varieties available. So which one is the best? lol.

 

I figure going through 10 cartridges a month is using quite a bit. If it is going to save me money in the long run it is worth it. BUT, I do not want to sacrifice the quality of my prints. How do we know these inks are of the quality they claim?

 

Again, thanks.

[barmijo]

At 10 cartridges a month a continuous inking system seems overkill IMHO. I sometimes go through 10 to 20 cartridges a week and I haven't made the jump for two reasons. I've had trouble finding reliable reviews of these systems over periods of months or years. It's always a short test. It's not that I doubt these are reputable manufacturers, but that if I have down time due to them the savings I'm after would be nullified. Second, after calculating out the cost of inks and the system I figured it'd be a year or more before I'd have saved enough to pay for the system and I'm not sure I'll still be using the 2200 next year.

 

If you haven't already, shop the net for Epson cartridges at discount. I've found www.thenerds.net to be among the lowest priced suppliers. I've also called and gotten bulk quotes to buy 100 cartridges at a time. It's expensive, but if you know you'll use it the savings are pretty good. The lowest I've paid for a cartridge this year was just over $8 including shipping.

 

If you're adventurous, the same folks making continuous inking systems also offer their ink in cartridges but again I haven't found the savings to be worth the effort because there's very little discounting of quality third party inks.

 

Personally these systems interest me and I'd love to try one someday but thus far the only non OEM ink I've ever used in my Epson or Canon printers is Lyson small gamut ink for B&W.

 

Of course, all this is just my opinion.

 

Best of luck,

Bert

[ajpn]

I pay about $12 on average for cartridges, but even at $10 that is $70 a set. You can get a contunuous ink system for $300 and that includes 7 or 8 (matte black) 4 ounce bottles of ink. And it sounds like they last for a long time, plus replacements are, what $20 each. Now Bert, you are going to tell me that you are not going to save money? I figure in three months--probably less, because I will get inspired to print up all of those things I keep putting off--I will be saving.

 

My piss on the cartidges is that on more than one occassion, even though the ink was not entirely empty I have gotten banding. So, not only did I waste ink, I wasted paper, and when you are using something like concord rag (as I was this morning when I decided I had enough) or somerset velvet you're getting into almost as much as the cost of a cartridge. That's upsetting because I can't buy the paper just anywhere. And then all the tweeking I have to do to get it right with different papers. I don't even want to think about how much ink/paper goes into that. That's my story.

 

I 'am' concerned about the ink quality. I have never used anything other than the Epson. But do I really believe that Epson is all that much better. Hmm... One thing I can say for certain... I've been lining their pockets for a long time, and I don't mind spreading the wealth, especially if I get comparable quality.

[rhaytana__tim_adams_]

I suspect I'm a lot less knowledgeable than others who have responded, but no one else has mentioned it so here goes: switching to less-expensive non-Epson ink may not be a free lunch. You may want to investigate the archival qualities of the replacement inks, ICC profiles to yield the kind of results you might expect from Epson inks printing on Epson papers, etc.

 

That said, Calumet Photo sells a 'Cave Paint' ink feed system for the Epson: http://www.calumetphoto.com/ctl?PAGE=Controller&ac.ui.pn=cat.CatItemDetail&ac.item.itemNo=LY1000&ac.cat.CatTreeSearch.detail=y&type=SPDSEARCH

 

And here's a link to the Cone site: http://www.inkjetmall.com/index.html

[rainer_viertlb_ck]

i am using a lyson continuos ink system. works fine. ink is no longer a cost factor for printing.....thats great.

[paul freeman]

For me the whole point of the Epson 2100/2200 is the Ultrachrome inks which are

absolutely fantastic. Using non epson inks in a continuous inking system (CIS) would

invalidate the whole purpose of spending all that money on the printer.

 

I run lyson inks on my 7000 and the look is utterly, completely, different, and the archival

properties pretty dubious (dont trust Lyson's fade testing data which is not kept up to

date). I have made the look of the Ultrachromes a "signature" in my commercial work, I

consider it to be that good.

 

A solution might be to buy Epsons large cartridges for the 7600/9600 and use the ink

from them them to fill a CIS. I have printed about 60M of 24" wide paper on the 7000 and

have yet to use up a set of full size epson cartridges. Admittedly it costs about $500 to ink

up a printer this way, but then you can forget about it for a long long while. I suppose that

these large ink cartridges contain enough ink to fill the CIS cartridges at least twice over,

so it might be possible to share costs with someone. Alternatively buy a couple of sets of

CIS bottles, fill and seal them and then store the ink until you need it.

 

By the way, I have used a CIS for Cone Tech Piezography for a year now. Apart from the

fact that I can't close the lid of the printer I have had no problems with this system. Really

the continuous inking systems seem pretty fool proof.

[john_houghton]

One shouldn't overlook the complication of the matte/photo black issue. In using a CIS, you will normally lose the option to switch between photo black and matte black.

[ajpn]

Thanks to everyone who responded. I'll take all your advice into consideration.

[steverobison]

<p>I wouldn't call the CIS systems fool proof. I recently bought one from Jon Cone's group Inkjetmall, and it has been nothing but a disaster, after 6 good prints one channel plugged completely. Their customer service is by email and they answer slowly and poorly. Touble shooting over days has been a frustrating nightmare that has drawn out over 4 weeks. They have yet to solve my problems with muliple strange fixes including using duct tape to try to hold things in place.<br>

So beware when buying into one of these system particularly Jon Cone's Injet Mall products. They are messy (ink all over the place), use a lot of ink to charge and clean heads and unreliable in my experience.</p>