Alternative Inks for Epson R800 or R1800

grumpybadger

grumpybadger

Alan Rickman
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Paul Beastall
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I have an Epson R800 and am hopefully about to get an R1800 as well.

Although I am happy with the print quality, the cost of inks is quite high (mainly due to the stupidly small cartridges)

I've been looking at continuous ink systems or refillable cartridges (or even just using third party cartridges) but the Internet seems to be filled with reports of doom and gloom with blocked heads, etc.

Does anyone have first hand experience of running third party inks in some form or other in an R800 or R1800?

Thanks

Paul
 
I run 3rd party refillable cartridges in my R2400 (almost the same printer) and when the ink runs out I will be replacing them with a CISS. The best there is is the LYSON one. They do different systems for different printers and also do printer calibration files for use with the paper that they also supply. This means that you still get consistent prints.

http://www.marrutt.co.uk/r1800-cis.php

The setup I currently use has 8 refillable cartridges and bottles of ink. I bought them off here for £60. They are easy enough to use and it takes 10-15 minutes to refill all the cartridges and wash the syringes. If is good BUT the company do not supply calibration files so SOME of the prints are not quite as good as I would expect from the R2400.

CISS are blamed for lots of problems with blocked head. You can avoid this by printing a head test once a week during a period of non use. If the heads DO block then they are not too difficult to fix and if you follow the link to my web site I explain how to do just that.

Lastly if you go to Lyson's web site they will send you some print samples.
 
Thanks. I've been looking at the Lyson and Permajet ones. I use Permajet paper and am very impressed with that.

I have my own callibration so don't need profiles.

Where do you get the ink you use in your refillable cartridges?
 
Can't comment on the inks above, but I have had serious issues with 3rd party inks in past in my Epson with heads, print quality etc and would only use genuine from now on :thumbs:
 
grumpybadger said:
Yes
Click to expand...

In that case you are in a better position that me. The Lyson inks are supposed to be the best non Epson ones. They are not cheap but vastly cheaper than Epson's one and from the examples I have been sent they are just as good. I have not bought extra ink for my refillable cartridges, when the ink starts to get low in the bottles I will be replacing the cartridges with a CISS from Lyson.
 
Thanks. Lyson also do refillable cartridges for their ink which may be worth a try as I don't want the hassle of a CIS (want to be able to move the printer)
 
Paul, Take a look at these http://www.advancedinkjetsystems.com/index.asp they are some of the best ink I have seen, I didnt rate the Lyson ink, the permajet was very good, but in the end I stayed with epson ink, as i got a deal i couldnt refuse on it.

What Calibrator did you get ?.

Mark
 
grumpybadger said:
Thanks. Lyson also do refillable cartridges for their ink which may be worth a try as I don't want the hassle of a CIS (want to be able to move the printer)
Click to expand...

Having been using refillable cartridges for the month few months it is actually a very simple matter to refill them.

I start with 8 syringes with blunt needles, rubber membrane gloves and the bottles of ink. Take out each cartridge one at a time then draw 6ml of ink into the syringe, remove the needle and place the syringe tip into the hole on top of the cartridge then draw the syringe upwards... This sucks air out of the cartridge and then when you let go of the plunger the vacuum sucks the ink into the cartridge so as not to leave air pockets... You repeat this till the cartridge is full or you run out of ink.... I then refit the cartridge and place the syringe in an old butter container then move on to the next cartridge. Once they are all full it is just a matter of washing all the syringes THEN removing the gloves. Job done in ten minutes.

I really want a printer callibrator....... envious....

How much work is it as I could do with a calibration file for a wad of 100 matt photo sheets I bought in A3 and cannot get to print properly ;)
 
mho said:
Paul, Take a look at these http://www.advancedinkjetsystems.com/index.asp they are some of the best ink I have seen, I didnt rate the Lyson ink, the permajet was very good, but in the end I stayed with epson ink, as i got a deal i couldnt refuse on it.

What Calibrator did you get ?.

Mark
Click to expand...

Thanks Mark. Their stuff is about half the price of Permajet so looks worth a try.

I got the ColorMunki in the end. Cheap and cheerful but I'm very impressed with the results.

Paul
 
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