Anyone have experience with aftermarket ink carts for Epson?

[gl5]

Does anyone have experience with aftermarket ink carts for

Epson? Such as those from:

<p>

<a href="http://www.printpal.com/

epson_stylus_photo_1280.html">http://www.printpal.com/

epson_stylus_photo_1280.html</a>

<p>

I'm wondering how they compare to the Epson cartridges, as

they are certainly lower cost.

[bobatkins]

The major issue is that if you ever get a head clog, you basically have to junk the printer since the print heads aren't replacable (well they are, but a new printer is cheaper!). With systems like HP and Canon the print head is part of the cartridge, so if it clogs you just buy another cartridge.

 

I've used 3rd party inks in office printers and they work OK. Don't know how stable they are for photo work or how good the colors are for photo work. I had an Epson 660 head clog that I couldn't shift despite soaking in cleaning fluid, cleaning cartridges etc. Was it due to 3rd paty ink? Who knows. The printer is still sitting on my office floor waiting to be junked. I had an Epson Sylus Color running on 3rd party inks for years with no problems.

 

Of course given that there are dozens of 3rd party inks and even the ink from a given brand may change from batch to batch, it's very hard to generalize about ink quality. The better, photo quality, 3rd party inks are as expensive as Epson, even more expensive sometimes.

 

I'm still using Epson ink in my photo printers.

[gl5]

are you saying that the chances of getting a clogged print head

are greater with aftermarket cartridges than with Epson

cartridges?

 

if there's a chance of getting a clogged print head either way,

what do i have to lose? i understand that new legislation states

that the manufacter's warranty is not voided by the use of third

party ink cartridges.

[peter nelson]

The Yahoo digital black and white printing group is a good source of discussion on this topic, because lots of them use 3rd party inks to do quadtone or hextone printing.<P>

 

3rd party inks DO seem to have a reputation for destroying or severely clogging Epson heads, but I don't know why they're worse than the Epson inks.

[bruce_rubenstein___nyc]

I tried 3rd party inks in an Epson 1200. There was no easy way to get colors to come out right with Epson papers. I finally had some luck with a 3rd party paper that give good results, but I'm going back to Epson inks when these are finished.

[bobatkins]

They're probably worse than Epson inks because some of them are dirt cheap. The actual wholesale cost of some 3rd party ink carts may be under $2. Who knows what they put in there (or what, if anything, they filter out).

 

Good luck in getting warranty repair on clogged heads after using 3rd party ink. They probably won't clog for 1 year and 1 day after purchase anyway.

 

Expensive 3rd party inks like Lyson may well be a different animal than the $4.95 generic carts you get from the local PCs-R-US which are filled out of a 55 gallon drum at the back of the store. Even with Lyson inks, Lyson recommend flushing out all traces of Epson ink in case there are some unwanted interactions due to chemical differences.

 

Head clogs are my #1 complaint about Epson printers. They can usually be cleared but occur fairly often. Perhaps if the printer is used daily everything is OK, but sometimes I go weeks between making prints.

[gl5]

the warranty issue seems to be a non-issue since legislation

has been passed that states printer warranties are to be

honored even if aftermarket ink is used:

<p>

<i> MAGNUSON-MOSS WARRANTY IMPROVEMENT ACT United

States Code Annotated Title 15 Commerce and Trade Chapter

50 Consumer Product Warranties 15 Section 2302 �© No

warrantor of a consumer product may condition his written or

implied warranty of such product on the consumer's using, in

connection with such product, any article or service (other than

article or service provided without charge under the terms of the

warranty) which is identified by brand, trade or corporate name;

except that the prohibition of this subsection be waived by the

commission if: 1) The warrantor satisfies the Commission that

the warranted product will function properly only if the article or

service so identified is used in connection with the warranted

product, and 2) the Commission finds that such a waiver is in

the public interest.�

 

This is your lifesaver for purchasing your inkjet cartridges at

wholesale prices. Under no circumstances may any company or

associate, salesperson or service technician deny you service or

warranty work that would otherwise be covered under the

warranty program.

</i>

[gl5]

so where's the cheapest place to get/order Epson brand

cartridges?

[bobatkins]

Great! So if I take a bucket of sludge, pour it into an old Epson ink cartridge, run it through my printer and destroy the printhead, Epson now have to give me a new one for free!

 

This interpretation of the MAGNUSON-MOSS WARRANTY IMPROVEMENT ACT wasn't given by a supplier of 3rd party inks by any chance was it?

[jack_kennealy]

<b><i>so where's the cheapest place to get/order Epson brand cartridges?</b></i>

<br><br>

<a href="http://www.atlex.com">http://www.atlex.com</a>

[mark_davidson]

As Bob says, head clogging seems to be a real problem for Epson. This is

true even using their inks. When I tried third party inks, the problem was

aggravated.

 

I also make large format prints, and specifically did not choose the Epson

because of the head clogging problems. I use an HP 5000 with excellent

results. I also never fear that I will miss a deadline because of a head clog.

[bobatkins]

Of course on the other hand there are lots of people using continuous ink flow systems on printers like the 1160 and these use 3rd party inks all the time (since you can't get bulk Epson Inks). I don't hear reports of head clogs, but then again I guess if you go to the trouble of a continuous ink flow system you're probably doing a LOT of printing and they may help to keep the heads clear.

[jack_kennealy]

I have five Epson printers, none of which is run every day or even every week. I do not use any CIS. I use ink cartridges on all. The only printer in which I've ever had serious clogging problems is the one in which I run third-party hybrid dye/pigment ink cartridges. One (the 7600, running Epson UltraChrome pigment-based inks), is too new to report on but exhibits no serious problems (yet). Since my printing can be sporadic in nature, I always run the nozzle check test before I begin printing on any given day. Occasionally, it advises me that I need to run a "head cleaning" and one or two cycles of that gets things going fine. I certainly don't consider any of this indicative of serious problems with the Epson printers. In fact, because it's such an important part of my professional work, I've looked around quite a bit, and (IMHO) no other ink jets can match Epson for print quality.

[emre]

<a href="http://canon.com/press/pelikan2003.html">Canon wins patent-infringement lawsuit against Pelikan Hardcopy in Germany</a>. Okay it's not EPSON, but it's a precedent.

[suchismit1]

I think I am the only one who is gonig to answer your real

question, which was how Printpal compares with genuine Epson inks.

<p>

The short answer is - Printpal inks are incredibly cheap, and

surprisingly good. Not too many inks cost in the single digits

*and* have tolerances well within manufacturer specs. I have

concluded this from side by side tests. IMHO the paper will have FAR

MORE of an impact on your prints than the inks. I can't comment on the light fastedness of Printpal, but its water resistance is

not good. However if you keep your prints secure behind glass I

would expect them to last years. <p>

 

Now for the real important bit. DO NOT economize on paper. Try to

stick with genuine Epson paper, or equivalent such as those from

Kodak (Ultima is good), HP (Premium photo matte, my favorite), etc.

<p>

And finally the MOST important bit. Only use Epson ICC paper profiles

for printing. They will work best with Epson paper, but will work

reasonably well with others too. Here is a step by step of what you need to do: <br>

 

1) Download the ICC profiles from Epson Australia, or Epson UK.

Don't ask me why Epson USA doesn't provide them. <br>

http://tech.epson.com.au/downloads/downloads_categories_inkjet.html

<br>

2) If you are using win 2000 or xp, copy them to WINNT\system32\spool\drivers\color <br>

 

3) In Epson's print dialog box, choose No Color Adjustment under Advanced. <br>

 

 

4) In your image editor's (~ Photoshop )print dialog box, select the appropriate paper profile under Print Space.

<p>

And yeah, don't forget to soft proof your image before you print.

It will give you an idea of what your image is going to look like

on paper. In Photoshop go, View -> Proof Colors -> Custom -> <<i>paper profile</i>> Check simulate white paper.

[suchismit1]

Forgot to mention about clogging. My 1280 will occasionally clog,

but thats only if it lies for long periods ( > 2weeks) without

printing. A couple or more of head clean cycles usually clears that problem.

Sometimes it takes more depending on how long its been idle. Its

a good idea to print at least a page every week ,or run a clean cyle.

However never a serious problem with Printpal.

[jess_lantz2]

I have been buying ink for my Epson 1280 for over a year now from Ebay vendor "Abacus 24-7". just bought 10 color cartridges for a total of 50.65 including shipping. The ink is fantastic! only had a problem with one cart the cyan wasn't printing so I just run the head cleaning twice and the problem went away. I would say that I have went thru about 30 of the color carts so far.

 

Jess

 

www.jlantz.addr.com