I have a epson r340 and been refilling it now for over a year. I just got a canon from someone that uses pg210 cartriges. can I use the epson dye inks in this printer (mp250) are all dye inks the same?
Thanks.
Bottom line I wouldn't use any inks formulated for a different printer unless the chemical makeup was the same...
There's a few of these threads floating around now but basically you have to remember that the two approaches used by Epson and Canon for ejecting the ink on to paper are the difference of vibrating and boiling out of the nozzle... Epson ink is not made to be boiled, while Canon ink may work but probably not... Oh and not to mention that Pigment ink is a completely different approach to ink as well.
THanks for the info. I'll get the canon ink. just for the record I've been using ink form "print on a dime" for over a year now and have had no issuess at all ( knock on wood). You know... maybe i shouldnt have said that LOL.
I would not use any ink that was not made specifically for the particular cartridge type. Although similar inks might work, they may produce color variations. For example, the magenta and cyan inks made for the BCI-6 cartridges are noticeably different (even to a color-blind person like me) than the magenta and cyan inks for the CLI-8 cartridges. And, as has already been pointed out, you don't want to cross the Epson-Canon divide.
Whenever brand of ink you use it must be used together i.e. Cyan / Yellow / Magenta and yes using anyone of the above colours from a different source will give very different results, regardless of the quality of the ink. ghwellsjr pointed out quite rightly that using Epson ink in a Canon and vice versa is a non starter, but it is being done with 3rd party brand formulated inks.
The very difference how Epson and Canon handles with ink does not allow you to put Epson ink into a Canon printer. Canon boils and partly evaporates the inks (bubblejet) and Epson just repels the ink from its nozzles (piezographic). So Canon inks are formulated to cope with the increase of concentration of dye or pigment particles because there is a partial evaporation of the carrier fluid it is dissolved/suspended in. If you put for example Epson pigment ink into a Canon printer you might risk an irreversible clog in your printhead because the Epson ink can suddenly precipitate inside the nozzles because a part of the carrier fluid will be evaporated and it can clutter or precipitate inside the nozzles. Or in the less catastrophic scenario the ink just becomes much thicker and sticks on the printhead and will give ghost droplets on the paper.
However you can use Canon ink in a HP printer without any ill side-effects. Colors maybe a bit off, but both HP and Canon uses the bubblejet technology by heating the ink.