Using ink from a different printer model of the same brand

[Floydian]

I'm thinking of buying the Epson WF-7310DTW, and attach a continuous ink supply system, with resettable chips for the refillable cartridges and the maintenance box. This printer accepts a pigment-based BK, and three dye-based CMY cartridges.

My intention is to use genuine Epson bottled ink from any of their own tank-based models. Would this be safe, as long as I keep using pigment for pigment, and dye for dye?

And, merely out of curiosity, I know about printhead clogging if you fill with pigmented ink a cartridge that is meant for dye. But what if you go the other way around, and use dyes in cartridges that are meant for pigments?

Thanks.

 

[Ink stained Fingers]

If you plan to go for a CISS I rather would recommend you to look for an ET-xxxx Ecotank printer, you get everything installed and working, no hazzles and manufacturer's warranty for malfunctions.

You can swap inks , that's not always safe but works in most cases if you stay with dye or pigment inks. If you are concerned about longevity of your prints with dye inks you should use the inks for the ET-8550 printer which are the best performers in this respect.

Installing a CISS can cause hazzles in particular cases, I don't know if you have any experience with refill and/or CISS installation and operation. One problem area is the routing of the tubes and tying them down securely for a long time, and there can be other problems with the ink flow.

I would not recommend switching from dye to pigment or back if you don't have experience flushing a printhead and the other parts. I do it frequently on a small WF2010W for testing, I'm using dedicated cartridges for both ink types but don't take that as a recommendation.

I did it as well on a L800 and similar printers, the problem on the switch back from pigment to dye inks is the cleaning, you are not able to flush all corners and wrinkles of a tubing system, pigment inks typically contain some small amount of an anticoalgulant to keep the pigments afloat over a longer time, dye inks don't need such additive,
so when you switch back from pigment to dye inks there are no such additives anymore and remaining pigments may clog. I only can tell you from own experience I got printers working with pigment instead of dye inks but the switch back was causing problems.

 

[Floydian]

Very informative, I appreciate it.

In regards to EcoTanks, I'm after an A3+ model, and the lowest priced one, the L1300, costs 200€ more than the sum of the WorkForce plus the CISS, and I also read some discouraging comments about its nozzles drying too fast. I don't know if I can justify the price difference.

Thanks for the 552 ink recommendation as well, you caught my next question. Coincidentally, I found a paper on print permanence ratings for ink tank printers, which claims that HP GT51/52 ink is the most durable by a wide margin over Epson 664, followed by Canon 790 and Brother BT5000/6000. Here is the paper: http://www.wilhelm-research.com/hp/WIR_Ink_Tank_Printer_Comparison.pdf

I don't have previous experience with a CISS, but from what I saw from a relevant video on the WorkForce, I can manage.

 

[Ink stained Fingers]

When calculating such price comparisons you would need to include as well the higher volume of the ink bottles of the Ecotank models - 70 ml per color instead of 10 - 20 ml per cartridge - 14.7 ml for the XL cartridge which means that you get about the ink equivalent of 5 sets of XL cartridges with the L1300. And be aware that the L1330 runs on dye inks CMY and a pigment black, the WF7310DTW with pigment inks on all colors. But this may not be a problem if you plan to use dye inks anyway. And compare the technical data - the L1300 runs with much less nozzles than the WF7310DTW which has a direct impact onto the printing speed. The ET-14000 would be the equivalent in another business region.
You may look for bottled Epson Durabrite inks, the ET-16150 and similar are using the Epson 113 pigment inks.
The next dye ink printer would be the L1800.

The printhead of the L1300 is o.k., I'm running WF2010W printers and L310 and similar models with almost the same printhead and nozzle arrangement up to 50 000 to 60 000 pages and more. Reports about nozzle problems always should include some info about the usage environment - number and frequency of prints - which inks are used and more.

I know the Wilhlem Research reports , I have done quite some fading tests including the GT52, yes - that ink is pretty good, but the Epson inks 106 and 114 of the ET7750 and ET8550 are still somewhat better - similar like the Canon Chromalife inks - Chromalife 100 - of the G550/650 .

I tried to install a CISS into a WF-7110W which didn't work out very well, the tubes are travelling quite a long way, and they could not be mounted such that they would create the same type of loop over a longer time - over weeks , they always were bending this or that way after a while. I have installed a CISS into other printers with less problems. It's just my own experience.

 

[Floydian]

It's confusing, but WorkForce WF-7310DTW doesn't use pigment in all colours:
Epson UK link
Ink 405 is pigment BK, and dye CMY. On the other hand, there's also a WorkForce Pro 7310, which uses all colours pigmented, ink T812:
Epson US link
Maybe they target the European and American markets respectively.

Also, I can't find the 552 you proposed anywhere in Europe. T673 inks are available, and I already have them, but I can't comment on their longevity compared to other Epson pigment-BK and dye-CMY bottles. The 106, 113, and 114 you mention are all pigmented. So, once again, for pigments you have the 104 and 106 on the top, followed by the 113, and for pigment/dyes, you favour 552, the next step down being the T673. Or is there something else in between?

Good to know of your experience with the CISS on a similar model, and that may be the price for cutting costs. By the way, this is the video I was referring to, just in case:
YouTube link

In general, it's a good thing you can combine Epson inks of similar viscocity. That means that even if I go for a native tanked model, I can always increase the ink quality.

 

[Ink stained Fingers]

I'm not really clear what you are looking for - what you are planning to print - how much you are planning to print - have you decided if you go for pigment or dye inks - which printer you are favorizing . ?
The WF-7310DTW runs with Durabrite Ultra inks - all colors - all pigmented

https://www.epson.co.uk/products/pr...10dtw?productfinder=wf-7310dtw#specifications

Epson 113 inks are CMYK pigmented inks from the ET-16150 and some similar models, 106 inks are CMYK dye inks of the ET-7750 with an additional pigment black, and the 114 inks are CMYK dye inks with an additional gray and a pigment black. T673 inks belong to a 6 dye color inkset CMYK LCLM of the L805, L855 or L1800 6 color photo printers, its longevity is better than some other inks like the 664 but not as good as the 106 or 114. But I think we can stop comparing inks at this point.

 

[Floydian]

Right, it uses all pigmented ink, I got confused somehow. I want a flexible all-arounder printer with decent quality, for poster art, photos, and game prototypes. Since the WF-7310DTW ticks all the boxes, and uses pigments, I'm after pigment bottles. Any additional information about inks and their qualities, can only help to minimise bad choices.

 

[Ink stained Fingers]

O.K., that clarifies a lot; there is no concern about the longevity of pigment inks - OEM or 3rd party. You may use the Epson 113 Durabrite inks, other people are happy as well with InkTec pigment inks which you can get supplied from octoink.co.uk. I would propose that you first start with refill and regular refill cartridges, and look into installing and using a CISS when you see that your print volume would support it, and buy it from a local supplier which can help in case of problems.

 

[Floydian]

Makes sense, thanks for all the information and advice.

 

[Floydian]

All right, I think I'll go with plain non-CISS refillable cartridges, and OctoInkjet inks. So, I have a couple more questions if I may.

I'm strongly considering the UltraChrome K3 inks. I saw some comparisons between photo and matte black ink on glossy, although I found none on a quality matte-coated paper. Does anyone have something visual to share for that? Also, does the fact that the matte ink won't be absorbed by most glossy papers, mean that its pigment particles are bigger, and they tend to clog the printhead easier than those in the photo black?

Some people suggest that we should refill the cartridge only when the printer shows empty (not when it warns for low ink level), the reason being that otherwise the printer loses sync with the ink drop count. But others argue that the ink level should not drop below 15%, otherwise the resetter won't work. Firstly, unless the "empty" message actually means that there's still 15% of ink left in the cartridge, I obviously can't follow both directions. Secondly, can the printer go really out of sync, when we reset the chip on every refilling anyway, either with ARCs or manually with resetters?

Also, some people favour the ARCs over a chip resetter because, when a single cartridge needs ink, we can refill, reset and reinstall all of them, so the printer does one priming routine instead of four or five or more. They also claim the ARCs do not reliably indicate the ink level as opposed to the resetters. For the latter, I don't know why is this the case, since we can always refill them and simply put them back in, to automatically reset. As for the former, if we take and refill all ARC cartridges instead of just the empty one, won't they be reset in one go? What am I missing here?

Guys, I know it's a lot. Take your time!