Brother bottled ink BT5000/6000

[martin0reg]

I'm wondering why Epson has made another different set of bottled ink, because there are already these two sets: 4-color (T 664x) and 6-color (T 673x) in 80ml bottles.
Both do not share the same C-M-Y-K and the 6-color-set was one of the slower fading dye inks, though not as good as OEM or Fuji/Epson drylab ink.
Now if they really have made a 4-color-set which is better than the earlier 6-color, the user of a dedicated Epson "Photo Printer" (though we know that these names are just marketing) could feel a bit disappointed because the 4 color machine would print the more stable photo prints ..
Anyway I would be glad about a decent fading dye ink for Canon, I'm now running on old BCI inks for technical LFP's, not advertised as "photo printers" - which LFP's are all pigments...
I agree, sadly there is no dye/photo black in HP's "GT" ink set!
But for everyday use, no fine art B&W prints, just color snapshots, you wouldn't see much difference with black mixed out of C-M-Y.
First prints out of the ip3000 are under my desert lamp...

 

[Ink stained Fingers]

yes, lots of questions, Epson could easily market the L800 inks as well to the L3xx users....
Epson ran a series of 'photo' printers some time ago with the 5 color ink set like the XP-900 which they gave up on the newer models like the HD XP-15000 and added red and gray instead.
But I can imagine that Epson wanted to use the printer hardware of the XP-900 for a while longer in the ET-7750 and created an ecotank model based on the hardware of a previous model - the same approach as with the L800 vs. the old P50 , or L1300 based on the B1100 , L1800 on the 1400 etc.
So part of the marketing game is to create confusion for the user.

I found yesterday a patch sheet I printed last year with the GI490 inks of the G1400, I just placed that sheet outside toegether with a test print with the HP GT inks to let them fade and compete to see which ink will last longer, it'll take a week or two to get a trend at least. And I added another patch sheet printed with the Ink Owl dye inks for which the supplier just claims 'Fade resistance'.......
https://www.inkowl.com/inkjet/epson-fade-resistant-bulk-ink/C10_S41/
(They didn't perform well last year)

 

[Ink stained Fingers]

I may add a few details of the ET-7750 , it runs with a printhead with 6 nozzle rows but only uses 5 inks - CMY and 2 x black , it uses 2 nozzle rows for the pigment black and one for the photo black, the HD XP-15000 may probably use the same printhead with 6 inks - Claria dye only - CMYK and red and gray, and offers a more stable rear paper bin for A3 sheets , it's just very flimsy on the ET-7750 , no guides on either side, and you just can load about 10 sheets of photo paper or 20 sheets of copy paper.
I ran across a little comment in a printer test in the c't magazine last year highlighting the good fading performance of the Epson 106 inks, on par with Claria inks of a photo printer tested at the same time. This c't magazine is the only one doing a limited fading test as part of their regular printer tests. So Epson is about actively hiding the good fading performance of this 106 ink vs. their Claria ink - these bottled inks are muuch cheaper.

 

[Ink stained Fingers]

I found some preprinted patches with inks of last year's tests - with an InkOwl dye ink claimed to be UV resistant and with the GI490 Canon inks which are delivered with the G1400 tank system printer, these inks don't come with a dye black but only wiht a pigment black which is not part of the test. I'm running these inks together with the HP GT52 inks for the HP ink tank printers - w/o a dye black as well. These are the results after the first week:

___Ink______Inkowl_______Canon GI490_____HP__GT52
(on glossy cc Labelheaven paper)

__________C__M__Y__T_____C__M__Y__T_____C__M__Y__T (T=Total)

__week1__18-19--3--40___23-14--1-38_____6--4--0--10


The Canon GI490 inks perform as bad as the InkOwl ink , already clearly visible after the first week, the HP fades much slower up to now. I would assume that I can stop this test pretty soon, the trend is clear.

 

[martin0reg]

Now that is promising... while seaching for the best resp. the most stable dye ink from manufacturer's ink tank systems...
... you may have found the first ink to refill Canon dye printers, which could be called (somewhat) "stable" .. or at least visibly slower fading than the rest ..?!
Can't wait to take my comparison prints of GI490, BCI and GT52 from the terrarium lamp and put them on the scanner, but 2 weeks more will make results clearer.

 

[Ink stained Fingers]

I'm running some similar tests at this time with the Epson 106 ink -and others - these are the results now after 4 weeks, with the inks printed onto the cast coated Labelheaven glossy paper, this let the inks fade somewhat faster than the PE type glossy paper like the Sihl one used in another test (update next week)

___Ink_____Epson_106______Fuji_DL_____Brother_BT5000______HP__GT52
(on cc Labelheaven glossy paper)

__________C__M__Y__T____C__M__Y___T_____C__M__Y__T________C__M__Y__T (T=Total)

__week1___0--0--1--1____0--3--1---4____15--0--0--15_______1--0--0--1
__week2___0--0--0--0____0--4--2---6____26--8--0--34_______5--0--0--5
__week4___5--5--0-10____4--8--5--17____41-43--0--84______11--1--1-13

The Brother BT5000 ink does not belong into this class of inks, it just fades away, magenta and cyan are visibly lighter
now and lost quite some color saturation, Brother users rather should switch over to either the Epson or Fuji inks.
The Epson 106 inks run exceptionally well until now, a tick better than the Fujifilm inks at this time, they come in convenient 70 ml bottles at a very good price. I'm wondering about the differences of the HP GT52 inks between magenta and cyan compared to the other inks , the next weeks and some other tests will show whether that relation will remain.

Epson is selling various bottled inks - Epson 664 for the lower end CISS type printers - L300, 382, 386, several ET2xxx models and more. These inks belong into the fast fade category, I got hold of some for another test - just for fun....
Newer Ecotank models like the ET2700 and above now come with mechanically coded bottles called Epson 102, it is not clear whether these are the same as the 664 inks in another bottle or some better inks - they go into a test pretty soon.

 

[The Hat]

I got hold of some for another test - just for fun....

You’re certainly living up to the name as Ink Stained Fingers...

 

[nickb]

Now that is promising... while seaching for the best resp. the most stable dye ink from manufacturer's ink tank systems...
... you may have found the first ink to refill Canon dye printers, which could be called (somewhat) "stable" .. or at least visibly slower fading than the rest ..?!
Can't wait to take my comparison prints of GI490, BCI and GT52 from the terrarium lamp and put them on the scanner, but 2 weeks more will make results clearer.

Are you referring to the HP or Epson ink with the underlined statement?

 

[Ink stained Fingers]

that is a reference to the HP GT52 inks, HP inks run on HP thermal printheads rather similar to the bubble printheads of Canon printers, so a cross usability can be assumed but would need to be tested further. I don't have a Canon printer available, I'm testing with an WF2010W Epson printer, Canon and HP inks are printing without problem on this and other
Epson printers, but Epson inks don't run on Canon printers.

 

[Ink stained Fingers]

Let me provide an update on a short test of the HP GT52 inks vs. the Canon G1400 and InkOwl inks - see posting #24 above, these are the numbers after 2 weeks

___Ink______Inkowl_______Canon GI490_____HP__GT52
(on glossy cc Labelheaven paper)

__________C__M__Y__T_____C__M__Y__T_____C__M__Y__T (T=Total)

__week1__18-19--3--40___23-14--1-38_____6--4--0-10
__week2__28-27--5--60___38-23--1-62_____7--4--0-11

The HP GT 52 inks (CMY only) are much better than the Canon GI490 inks, which are as bad as the InkOwl inks (for Epson - claimed to be UV resistant...) The trend is clear, the HP GT52 inks are a better class than the other inks, these GT52 inks are the first bottled OEM inks for thermal printheads with this excellent performance. I don't have any Canon hardware at this time to do further testing, so I'm closing this test now , the missing dye black of this ink set is a shortcoming nevertheless, HP only delivers a pigment black for printers using this ink. It may work on glossy as well, I don't know, I remember a note somewhere that a particular HP pigment black ink was suitable for both matte and glossy papers alike, somebody may try it.