Is Epson Artisan 800 any good?

[jonalava]

Sometimes you have to roll the dice.

I decided to go on with the Artisan 800. I have read a lot of reports from people saying that Epson sent them a replacement printer without too much question when their Artisan failed. As the warranty is quite long for an inkjet (2 years), I am feeling pretty covered. Who knows, I might end up with an 810 after all...

Thanks to everyone for your help and inputs!

 

[jonalava]

Another question for Mikling.

How compatible is the Kirkland paper with the Artisan series? And how about when using your IS ink for refilling?

 

[mikling]

The Kirkland paper is not bad and is pretty good with the Artisan. I have the Artisan profiled with the Kirkland papers and available for customers on request. So if you know how to print with ICC profiles, the Artisan and the Kirkland paper are perfectly matched to both their best abilities with my inks. There is no need to "hunt" for matching papers. If you prefer luster paper, I have Inkpress luster profiles for this combination as well. Also available on request.

As stated before, the output of these machines are stunning with or without profiles. The profiles just polishes the end result.

 

[pharmacist]

Hi mikling,

I discovered my Epson 1400 suffers from a rather distinguishable greenish cast with B/W prints using the canned profiles. Is this also visible with the other recent Epson Claria printers as well ? I had to produce my own profiles to remove this.

 

[filmguy]

I purchased an Epson 810 through Staples and recycled and old fax printer for a 50.00 instant rebate. Total cost 138. inc. 6% sales tax. Works good, have wireless set to fixed ip and purchased refillable cartridges. I print all my home use items, snapshot printing through it and is my dedicated scanner, and I've yet to have an issue. I have purchased printers through Epson direct as refurbished with success and reasonable pricing depending on what a trip to Staples is worth to you. At the time of purchase Staples was best deal around.
I use Kirkland paper exclusively with Precision ink with very good results. I probably have $200. into the deal and probably won't need ink for quite a while.

 

[websnail]

On the warranty side of things... There's probably a reason for this...

The Artisan 700/800's (otherwise known as the PX700W/PX800FW and TX700W/TX800FW) have considerably less capacity in the waste ink padding/tank. I didn't realise until the requests for waste ink kits came flooding in from folks complaining about printing for a couple of months (or weeks in one instance - although they tries multiple head cleans to shift a compatible cartridge clog) and then getting service required.

It may have been that Epson realised they'd get another class action lawsuit if they weren't careful and decided to play safe... No idea if the same warranty is offered outside of North America though... be interesting if not.

 

[mikling]

When I look at the service manual I think I see that the waste ink pads are removable from the bottom making them more serviceable even to the end user. I'll have to double check into this.

There's something about the waste ink pad I find at odds wirh my own experience with the first Epson Claria based printers. After using an RX580 for 3+ years on a daily basis, the top of the waste ink pad tank is not even discolored. The principal reason I think is because I rarely have to perform head cleanings at all. ( BTW, on the RX580, three screws on the top, and 4 tabs and you're next to the waste ink tank. Another 2 screws holding a bracket and you have the waste ink tank and it is a container/tank open on the top. Two screws holding the tank and you've got the waste ink tank out. All directly from the top. Take the tank out and wash and dry if needed.) On the Artisan series, clogging further appears less of an issue. So based on this the requirement, less waste ink tank capacity might be warranted based on normal use. However, if the end user uses aftermarket sponge cartridges, or gets air into the system or tries to prime refillable cartridges or CISS via head cleans, the counter is going to run up quickly via the amount of head cleans. This will make the flashing lights appear quickly. I also have a strong hunch that the waste ink pad programming is also time based. This means that if a lot of cleaning is done in a short period, the lights will appear sooner than if the same amount of head cleanings is done over a long period. I have not verified this. The other thing is I always leave my printers on standby. Yeah, I know it contibutes to global warming but that practice has worked for me.

On normal printers that sit directly above the heads, swapping cartridges is practical. On the Artisan the length of tubes internally is going to require a lot of ink to swap. This also means a lot of head cleaning or at least 100 pages of printing to clear the previous inks from all the channels. Been down that road.

Pharmacist, despite profiling I find various shades of cast as I rotate the paper from different angles. I think it is an artifact of the color matrix of each pixel that Epson engineers chose. Even with OEM inks and Epson papers, a cast is often reported. I suspect the new Artisan color engine uses a different matrix. I have not tested this on the Artisan yet. (Profiles are different from the 1400) and maybe the engineers addressed this issue. Now the other issue regarding B&W is that different colors fade at different rates. With the extremely delicate balance of colors that B&W requires, you can bet this balance will be upset easily over time as each color fades at differing rates. I've pretty much given up on color ink and black and white. If I want B&W, then I simply pop in some Carbon based inks that I made up and take it from there. The blacks are so much deeper and the impact of B&W on matte is spectacular. The tones are so much richer and better graduated. I'm still working on B&W inksets for Canon CMYK printers like the iP4500 etc.

 

[martin0reg]

Another questiion concerning 700/710/800/810:
Is it right that these models can take the paper only from the liower paper tray, not from rear? And wouldn't it be better for thick paper to take it from rear? So it does not has to be bent so much..

 

[martin0reg]

...The Artisan 700/800's (otherwise known as the PX700W/PX800FW and TX700W/TX800FW) have considerably less capacity in the waste ink padding/tank. I didn't realise until the requests for waste ink kits came flooding in from folks complaining about printing for a couple of months (or weeks in one instance - although they tries multiple head cleans to shift a compatible cartridge clog) and then getting service required...

I am wondering if this is due to less capacity or if it is just the counter...

Sometimes px700 are offered, with "service required" issue - could this be a catch ?? .. IF you can reset the printer and install a waste ink bottle ??
The pads can be removed from below:
http://www.refillbros.com/en/manual...photo-px700-px800-tx700-tx800/?win=1&page=163
But I did not find the same instruction for px710 to compare the parts of the waste ink tray, to see any differences