Epson EcoTank ET-8550: Pigment instead of Dye inks

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Fried Chicken

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What is the difference between Epson 552 and Epson 114 inks?
 
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marshalleq

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TBC possibly the Epson 8550
Ink stained Fingers said:
I'm currently running an ET-8550 - with dye inks - and will stay with them. But I switched various times between dye and pigment inks on various other Epson printers - like the R265 or the L800/805 or L1800 , I can report that it worked out o.k. when changing from dye to pigment inks - following a kind of similar approach as described in the farbenwerk instructions. I'm running pigment and dye inks alternatively on a small 4 color WF2010W w/o problems. I had more and longer lasting problems when trying to switch back from pigment to dye inks, incl. replacing the dampers in the printhead carriage - the cartridge like replacements in the printhead. And more effort is necessary to clean the tubes and tanks from the smallest leftovers of pigments. I would support the comment by farbenwerk to start with pigments inks directly in a new printer.

Be aware that any change as intended - swapping the inks - will void the Epson warranty so all such modifications are at your own risk.

I tested various dye inks for longevity, the best performing inks are the Epson OEM inks - 114 or 106; I couldn't find any non-OEM inks being close to OEM inks in this respect. I cannot comment on the Pigmera ETX inks by farbenwerk how they perform in regards to gamut size, black level . gloss and bronzing, there are significant differences between 3rd party pigment inks in this respect, which must always be judged in connection with particular paper types.
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I'm interested in the Longevity aspects mostly, I don't see the point of printing it to display on the wall and having it fade in 1-2 years, so your comment that the Epson OEM inks apparently perform better than most - what sort of lifespan do they have in your experience? I mostly print with Gloss and have been eyeing the 8550 for a while - already got one for my mother, but I see one on a super special at the moment and am wondering if nows the time. Just need to resolve which ink I should be using. Thanks very much for any reply.
 
Ink stained Fingers

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Ink stained Fingers

Ink stained Fingers

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You are addressing the fading issue - dye vs. pigment inks. There is no test report out at all addressing this issue - no report comparing these inks - at all, but everybody assumes that pigment inks last longer.

There is tremendously wide variation in longevity between inks - ink types by OEM manufacturers and ink generation - and the paper plays an important job as well, there is a report out by Wilhlem Research

http://wilhelm-research.com/Canson/WIR_Canson_Fine_Art_and_Photo_Papers_Final_Report_2020-06-01.pdf

But this and other reports only deal with OEM inks - there is no - no test at all of 3rd party pigment inks which would let you safely accept claims of such suppliers .

It is possible to retrieve some data comparing a pigment ink with a dye ink and showing that the dye ink - with that particular paper - does better than a pigment ink

https://www.printerknowledge.com/th...-instead-of-dye-inks.16196/page-2#post-144698

So there is just no simple answer to the question - no tests whatever.
 
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