switching inks, not system

[fotohike85]

I've had a media street CIS on my epson R2400 for about a month now. I get solid prints off this setup, except in darker regions. In dark areas, the ink won't dry fast enough, even when I maximize time between head passes. This makes so the paper feed rollers leave a row of dots on the print. For the record, this is with pigment-compatible papers, so it isn't the fact that certain brands won't work.

So, I'm thinking about changing ink brands, but I don't want to replace the whole system. Has anyone done this? What are the considerations with cleaning, draining, etc?

Last, what ink should I switch to? I need something that fixes my current problem of dotted paper, but it needs to be stable. I know lyson and media street have both been tested, and I need something like that. Your suggestions are appreciated. Also-where do you buy from? I have used B&H and Adorama (I'm a photographer, so they are two stores I know well). Thanks.

 

[pharmacist]

Do you use pigment or dye ink in your CISS ? pigment is milky and dye is completely transparant. Go for quality pigment ink like Image Specialist, which has the same archival quality as original Epson K3 ink. With this ink you don't need flushing when changing from original cartridges to this ink and you can use the same ICC-profiles.

 

[lolopr1]

I agree with pharmacist the best after market pigmented inks are made by Image Specialists I been using them my self for over a year on my r1800 and now with the r1900 with amazing results can't tell the difference and the savings are amazing. I wanted to mention that you will need to profile the inks (I use Datacolor Spyder3Print) to obtain the best results. You can buy the inks from mikling store at great price. Good Luck

http://cgi.ebay.com/Image-Specialis...photoQQcmdZViewItemQQ_trksidZp1742.m153.l1262

 

[fotohike85]

I use pigment ink. The problem with flushing and whatnot is that I have already used media street inks in the media street CIS. Am I better off just getting a new CIS, or can I use this one? If I need to buy a new CIS, I may think twice about switching for now.

 

[lolopr1]

I use pigment ink. The problem with flushing and whatnot is that I have already used media street inks in the media street CIS. Am I better off just getting a new CIS, or can I use this one? If I need to buy a new CIS, I may think twice about switching for now.

You can flush the CIS using just water that's what I used to clean my CIS, the only thing is that you need to make sure that the system is dry before refilling. I took my entire CIS apart and used a PC clean compressed air can to remove as much water I could and then I let it sit for 3 days and my CIS was like new again.

 

[websnail]

You can flush the CIS using just water that's what I used to clean my CIS,

.. Although if you're in a hard water area you might want to think about flushing using distilled water instead as hard water may deposit mineral particles in the cartridge and thus the head later.

 

[fotohike85]

Okay, so I think I will clean my CIS out with distilled water (for the price of it, it sure seems like cheap insurance against killing the head nozzels). Do I need to run anything through the actual printer? I know lyson has some cartridges it recommends using if switching between CIS ink brands, but they are pricey-something like $20 ea (x8=$160 which is over 1/3 of what I paid for the printer). Is there a cheaper solution, or is lyson just selling to overly-paranoid people like me? Thanks all for the help.

Has anyone seen any hard data on longevity with the Image Specialist inks? The reason I went with media street in the first place is they had some testing done that showed 100 year stability on high-end epson papers. Of course, since I can't print any dark images, they aren't worth much of anything, even if they last 100 years. I sell my prints, so I want something that will last at least as long as a RA-4 print (something in the range of 50 years before noticeable fading).

 

[pharmacist]

Fotohik85,

You can first rinse with tap water and then use 2 portions (about 50 ml per CISS-tank) of distilled water one after the other to rinse the CISS. This ensures that no mineral precipitation will happen and you will save substantially on the amount of distilled water (1 liter should be enough).

 

[leo8088]

Did you get Media Street ink too when you bought the CIS from Media Street? If you did chance is high that the ink you got is already Image Specialists ink. Pigment based ink has a longer drying time in general. I am not sure you can find another brand of ink that will dry faster. Besides, the problem may be in the printer itself, not the ink.

 

[fotohike85]

Hmmm... interesting. Yeah, my ink was from media street. What sort of problem could be with the printer? I only did a test print with original inks before converting to CIS, so I don't know tons about how it printed before (and the previous owner only used matte paper, which doesn't generally have this problem). Well, is there something I can do short of removing the feed ("pizza") wheels? I like being able to print borderless, especially on super B paper (maximizes the size I can print to). Or do I need to have this serviced (or can I do some sort of service on it)?