CISS printer choice

[photog-art-printer]

Regarding Epson SureColor SC-T3100x

Pro:

Refillable ink system

Ink is cheap … £20 per 140ml … but it’s ink not pigment (not suitable)
Con:

Am I correct? Only black is pigment.

Other (3) colours are dye?
At least that’s how some shops sell it.
Question:

I’m only interested in non-fading (Pigment) ink.

Because pigment ink is relatively expensive my first guess was to spend more on the printer (2400 Euro) … so that I save on ink.

If the ink is not pigment …. it’s presumably useless for longevity.
Question:

Can the Epson SureColor SC-T3100x be filled with pigment ink (only)?
What brand? Epson?

Price / size?

Anybody using this set-up?

 

[Ink stained Fingers]

The T3100 and T3100x use the same hardware, you are right - the T3100x uses CMY dye inks which are not very stable as I tested them. The Ecotank ET16150 and more use a pigment inkset CMYK 113 , you just swap the bottle heads and do the fillups with these inks. Ink level monitoring is just visual.
If you plan to print on glossy paper you would need to use another black ink suitable for glossy/photo papers.

The Canon TA20 uses pigment inks from the beginning, but I'm not familiar about the refill process - probably poking with a needle and syringe into the cartridge and disabling ink monitoring; transparent cartridges with auto reset chips - or one time chips supporting the ink level monitoring may be available from China. Refill inks suitable for the Pro 10 or Pro 100 should be o.k. These inks come as well with a matte and a glossy black - at your choice. You could swap quite easily with a 2nd black cartridge and printing about 2 sheets black to swap the ink in the tubing.

You may consider warranty an issue running a printer in a non-standard mode - e.g. pigment inks in a dye printer - or disabling ink monitoring in a Canon printer indicating the use of refill inks, I just mention this as a caveat when it comes to use a printer in a way other than intended by the manufacturer.

 

[photog-art-printer]

EPSON SURECOLOR F2100



How about this?

850 Euro

24” (61cm)

Pigment ink (standard)

Refill requires syringe etc … no idea about this.

Amazon sells it … so easy return/s when it fails

Roll paper with cutter

(Only 27kg … so it can be shipped)



It looks similar to SureColor 3100 … why is it cheaper? (No stand?)



Negative/

Small tanks (50ml) = about 20 large prints



*** I’m interested in comments. … Especially about potential re-fill problems ***



Note: Was interested in the Canon due to excellent quality (and past experience) but multiple complaints about ‘automatic head cleaning’ (every 50 hours) or at startup (so no escape).



Ps: e-mail sent to ? suggestion ‚move this post elsewhere .

 

[photog-art-printer]

HP DesignJet T230 versus EPSON SURECOLOR F2100



The HP appears similar to the Epson 2100.

Both use 4 inks.



Reliability

Refill issues using pigment ink (only)



Thoughts

 

[Ink stained Fingers]

The Epson F2100 is not a printer you are looking for - it's a printer in the range of 15 000€ for direct print on fabrics

- Pricing - ask Canon or Epson marketing

- I cannot find 3rd party cartridges for the T2100/T3100 yet - the printer model is pretty new, and 3rd party and refill stuff needs a while to get onto the market - for technical reasons - chips - and overall market penetration which is low for a new model.

Epson Ecotank printers - no issues with chips etc - refill at any time - not in the middle of a print when a cartridge goes empty. Yes - the pricing of Ecotank printers is always higher than equivalent models with cartidges - that's across the range - Epson is earning less on refill inks than inks in cartridges

- optional stand - I leave it up to you to compare device specifications - e.g. stand - replaceable waste ink bin - connectivity etc

What's wrong witha printer doing automatic maintenance functions, and people complaining about that most likely don't know that they can change printer settings on most printer models - e.g. on the TA20

https://www.bhphotovideo.com/lit_files/573191.pdf

Just go to page 156 about 'Automatic maintenance settings'

 

[photog-art-printer]

I’m looking at this:

Epson SureColor SC-T2100 Ink Large Format Printer

821 Euro?

Mistake?



RE: ‘doing automatic maintenance functions, and people complaining about that most likely don't know that they can change printer settings on most printer models’



The Canon 1000 …. has multiple complaints about cleaning cycles …

If an ‘off’ button exists …. great.

This printer is back on the possibles list

 

[Ink stained Fingers]

EPSON SURECOLOR F2100

The F2100 is not the T2100....................

If the Pro-1000 is your concern here are maintenance settings on p164

https://gdlp01.c-wss.com/gds/5/0300021075/01/PRO-1000ser_OnlineManual_Win_EN_V01.pdf

 

[photog-art-printer]

Apologies …. typo!

 

[photog-art-printer]

You are the expert …. I’m just a pest.
Plus …. you are also correct about being able to switch off the cleaning function on Canon 1000 (on page 164 of the user manual).
That’s good news.

When you’re less busy …. thoughts on the cheaper Epson 2100 ?

 

[Ink stained Fingers]

I'm not aware of a refill process for the T2100/T3100 - no resetter, no transparent cartridges - no wonder - the T3100x Ecotank printer is refillable by design.
I'm not aware of a refilling process for the Canon TA20 - it just may work with the original cartridges and turning off ink level monitoring in the printer
There is a well established refill procedure for the Pro-1000 and refill inks available from various sources - e.g. OEM ink drained from larger cartridges or from 3rd party suppliers .
Reviews at Amazon - let's forget about those - they show much more the stupidity of some users and don't report real problems - sorry