Dare I use 3rd Party Ink on an Epson P400?

[Roveer]

Just got an Epson P400 with it's 8 total cartridges. Extra blacks, red, orange, special photo coating. What a beast!

One of the reasons I got the 400 was that the cartridges were fairly small so if you print infrequently smaller cartridges can actually save you money. You won't be drying up large cartridges and having to replace them when the printer doesn't get used. Smaller carts are less money. I spoke with an Ex HP employee the other day (by accident) and his comment about ink was "its food coloring in a plastic sack inside a plastic box"... Wow!

For all my other inkjet printers I've been using 3rd party ink in refillable cartridges. For regular color printing on regular paper I've found it totally acceptable. I actually enjoy refilling the carts I feel like I'm saving money vs spending 45 bucks every time I have to buy a cartridge. And the times that the family goes nuts printing I don't feel like "there goes another 150 bucks".

I notice that my ink vendor sells refillable cartridges and inks for the P400 including the photo overcoat. Do I dare use this ink or will I be disappointed if I do?

Really don't want to screw up a brand new printer if it is a bad idea. I'm on the starter carts right now and have a full set of Epson to go after, but would like to use 3rd party after that unless it's a really bad idea.

Thanks,

Roveer

 

[Taksmon]

Check out some videos on the latest third party inkset for the P400/R2000/R1900 by @jtoolman

Third party inksets can be hit or miss, but I don't see any reason you couldn't use it on this printer. The results look pretty close at a fraction of the cost. I'm considering picking up a P400 as well as the third party support looks pretty good.

 

[Ink stained Fingers]

Epson printers can live quite well with 3rd party inks technically, some of the issues around refilling are not directly related to ink properties but more to cartridge issues, chip problems, mechanical problems in the cartridge holder due to tolerances, leakage and ink flow problems, and some of these problems just appear to be clogged nozzles - which they are not in case of trapped air in the ink path. You can raise your questions here in the forum since it is quite likely that most problems like these occured already earlier and a fix, a remedy or an advise is available.
I don't know whether you got already prior experience with pigment inks, there are some effects on glossy type papers like bronzing and gloss differentials visible under reflecting light, some people don't bother about that, other people only print on matte paper, or some only use genuine Epson inks and papers. These effects are supposed to be reduced or eliminated (almost) with the gloss optimizer (GO) which works very well with Epson genuine inks and papers. These effects depend very much on the combination of papers and inks used, and the timing and sequence how you apply the GO. Somebody looking to use 3rd party inks most likely will use as well non-Epson papers.
And you are faced with another effect - every ink/paper combination renders colors somewhat differently, an effect you can compensate with specifically generated icm color profiles. It is recommended to get a basic understanding of color management and how to assure a consistent color output.
I did some extensive testing of inks and papers in this respect, on a R800 using as well the GO,
https://www.printerknowledge.com/threads/gloss-optimizer-epson.11174/page-8#post-96107
my posting is not so much a recommendation of a particular ink or paper but should illustrate the wide variances you can get when leaving the Epson environment. You are most likely not even able to purchase the same papers I'm using so I would recommend you to do some of such testing on your own to find that combination which suits you best - by performance and pricing.