Using pigment UV ink with Epson L210

[Daihen Zhu]

Dear friends,

I bought Epson L210 2 years ago. I really love it cause the printing costs are very cheap with ink tanks. However, when I printed on an A4 office papers, the prints will be dissolved when some of water dropped into it and I knew the reasons are the inks type of this printer is dye-ink water based. I found the pigment ink is more durable when the print contact with water. So could I use this pigment ink to replace the dye ink? And how can I do that?
Thank for your reading.

 

[Ink stained Fingers]

UV ink - are you thinking about the typical pigment inks used in lots of printers, like the Durabrite pigment inks by Epson ? Don't mix 'UV' inks with other types of ink which are for large format printers and which are curable under UV light. And there are other 'UV' inks which create a fluorescent effect under UV light, quite popular for discotheques, or for Halloween stuff. These L... models are based on other Epson standard printers like the XP-30 printer, and that printhead works with Durabrite pigment inks, so switching to pigment inks is not a problem in theory. I have observed, in rare cases, some incompatibility between dye and pigment inks, with the yellow , reacting with each other and creating a fallout and clogging the nozzles. You should empty the ink containers , fill them up with some head cleaning/flushing liquid, printing the CMYB colors until they fade away, then removing that cleaner from the tanks and fill up with pigment inks and print a similar amount of pages until the inks come back. And then you should observe the printer, with nozzle checks, more frequently that everything works fine.

 

[The Hat]

Hi @Daihen Zhu and welcome, now so long as you get decent quality pigment inks, your printer should work fine.

But there are several thing you’ll have to watch out for, the standard CISS setup bottles are like this

(Bottom feed)

but they won’t work that good at all when using pigment ink, you’ll need a setup like this to give you much better control over your ink.

(Top feed)

To get the pigment ink working properly in the CISS bottles you’ll need to agitate the CISS bottles for at least ten second about every two days to keep the pigment suspended in it’s solution and print at least once a week to maintain your printer in good working condition.

Happy Printing..

 

[Daihen Zhu]

UV ink - are you thinking about the typical pigment inks used in lots of printers, like the Durabrite pigment inks by Epson ? Don't mix 'UV' inks with other types of ink which are for large format printers and which are curable under UV light. And there are other 'UV' inks which create a fluorescent effect under UV light, quite popular for discotheques, or for Halloween stuff. These L... models are based on other Epson standard printers like the XP-30 printer, and that printhead works with Durabrite pigment inks, so switching to pigment inks is not a problem in theory. I have observed, in rare cases, some incompatibility between dye and pigment inks, with the yellow , reacting with each other and creating a fallout and clogging the nozzles. You should empty the ink containers , fill them up with some head cleaning/flushing liquid, printing the CMYB colors until they fade away, then removing that cleaner from the tanks and fill up with pigment inks and print a similar amount of pages until the inks come back. And then you should observe the printer, with nozzle checks, more frequently that everything works fine.

Hi pal, thank for your comments.

According to your way, so now I will let my ink tank empty and to fill some kind of liquid to cleanup the system. Then, I will fill the pigment inks into the ink tank. However, could I use water to cleanup the system? Cause in Vietnam, the head cleaning liquid is not genuine (some from China without brand name). Moreover, could I test with the Black ink slot first? I will clean the Black ink slot, then to fill the Black pigment ink inside so is there any risk?

About the pigment UV ink that I mentioned is in Vietnam, they only sell that kind of pigment ink, the sellers said that this kind of pigment ink can make the photo free from UV lights and the colors will be more dynamic and brighter.

 

[Daihen Zhu]

Hi @Daihen Zhu and welcome, now so long as you get decent quality pigment inks, your printer should work fine.

But there are several thing you’ll have to watch out for, the standard CISS setup bottles are like this

View attachment 3466 (Bottom feed)

but they won’t work that good at all when using pigment ink, you’ll need a setup like this to give you much better control over your ink.

View attachment 3467 (Top feed)

To get the pigment ink working properly in the CISS bottles you’ll need to agitate the CISS bottles for at least ten second about every two days to keep the pigment suspended in it’s solution and print at least once a week to maintain your printer in good working condition.

Happy Printing..

Dear pal, thank for your comments.
My printer is the L series of EPSON so they already had ink tank. So can I reuse that ink tank instead of this new CISS?

 

[Ink stained Fingers]

the concern is that pigment inks may settle down and clog the ink system, the tubes from the ink reservoirs are at the bottom just there where the sediment would settle. I don't think the problem is that big, but awareness and care is always recommended. You can do one thing with the Epson CISS, when you are finished with printing you can lay the the ink reservoir flat, and when you start printing again, you shake it a little bit and bring it into the normal working position again. All this is not a problem when you print frequently, daily, but usage patterns of people vary very much, and some let the printer idle for days and weeks. Water as a cleaning agent is not recommended, I just can tell you from my experience that I saw problems/ reactions between inks with yellow inks several times in the past, not always, but if you are not prepared for it it's too late. I do something else, I take a few ml of both inks , put them into a glass and let it settle and if it is flocking out, you will see it after a while at the bottom. It's visible with yellow inks, but not with the others, they are not translucent enough. Any printhead flushing/cleaning solution should do.
I used pigment inks for a while in an L300 and it worked fine, and although I knew it better I didn't check the yellows when converting back to dye inks and spoiled the L300, I had to replace the yellow damper in the printhead, that cartridge replacement piece, the filter inside was totally blocked, and some particles were left in the printhead which I didn't get out anymore.
Pigment inks are more stable against light and UV radiation, that's their benefit. But they are typically not more colorful or whatever for photoprints, don't believe that type of advertising.

 

[thanhhuy123]

About the pigment UV ink that I mentioned is in Vietnam, they only sell that kind of pigment ink, the sellers said that this kind of pigment ink can make the photo free from UV lights and the colors will be more dynamic and brighter.

Pigment inks are more stable against light and UV radiation, that's their benefit. But they are typically not more colorful or whatever for photoprints, don't believe that type of advertising.

Hello! I'm from Vietnam.

The ink type definition in Vietnam is all messed up so take extreme precautions when buying.

Let's say the below info is for Epson ink.

Dye ink is simple with 3 type: dye, dye uv and dye sublimation. They usually call dye-based ink "water-based ink" because they think this one dissolves in water so it is water.
Dye ink, simple, it's the same type as OEM dye ink, with the correct term be "water-based dye ink". Dye UV is a bit more complex: it can be a type of ink that won't dry unless being exposed to UV light, but the most widely understanding is that, it's a type of ink that resists better to UV fade. Let's not mention dye sublimation here since not many people need to use it.

Pigment ink is a bit more complex: pigment, pigment uv. They usually call pigment-based ink "oil-based ink" because they think anything that cannot be dissolved by water must be oil. Simple and easy to understand for most people. But that cause severe confusions and misunderstanding when it comes to the true, chemical knowledge.
Pigment ink, hmm, it could be the oil-based pigment ink usually used in Riso printer, or, most widely, it could be the water-based pigment ink just like the durabrite ink. Pigment uv is more complex: it can be oil-based pigment ink that need UV exposure to dry correctly, or it could be water-based pigment ink with extra alcohol to make it dry faster, for printing on couche paper, or it can be the pigment eco-solvent ink, or just simply water-based pigment ink (the word "uv" is redundant in this case).

Conclusion: when buying ink, ask for it by using definition, not by using terminology since different stores/sellers comprehend it differently and different from you. :O And even test it. And if possible, buy the 1-liter bottle so you can read the correct, original chemical info printed and figure out its correct type of ink.

 

[thanhhuy123]

According to your way, so now I will let my ink tank empty and to fill some kind of liquid to cleanup the system. Then, I will fill the pigment inks into the ink tank. However, could I use water to cleanup the system? Cause in Vietnam, the head cleaning liquid is not genuine (some from China without brand name). Moreover, could I test with the Black ink slot first? I will clean the Black ink slot, then to fill the Black pigment ink inside so is there any risk?

I usually use distill water (make it yourself or buy it dirt-cheap at any pharmacy stores - but be careful that they might won't sell it, because it was once upon the time, there are people buying distill water to use drugs: heroin, cocain, etc.) and ethanol 70%. Or the Windex one.

 

[Ink stained Fingers]

most of the dye ink solvent are glykoles, and they are water soluble, but that makes it all too complex I think, and 'watery' pigment inks are actually suspensions. Solvent based inks won't work in desktop printers, and are typically used in large format printers. Look for inks which are targeted at Epson desktop printers, Durabrite compatible or else.

 

[Daihen Zhu]

the concern is that pigment inks may settle down and clog the ink system, the tubes from the ink reservoirs are at the bottom just there where the sediment would settle. I don't think the problem is that big, but awareness and care is always recommended. You can do one thing with the Epson CISS, when you are finished with printing you can lay the the ink reservoir flat, and when you start printing again, you shake it a little bit and bring it into the normal working position again. All this is not a problem when you print frequently, daily, but usage patterns of people vary very much, and some let the printer idle for days and weeks. Water as a cleaning agent is not recommended, I just can tell you from my experience that I saw problems/ reactions between inks with yellow inks several times in the past, not always, but if you are not prepared for it it's too late. I do something else, I take a few ml of both inks , put them into a glass and let it settle and if it is flocking out, you will see it after a while at the bottom. It's visible with yellow inks, but not with the others, they are not translucent enough. Any printhead flushing/cleaning solution should do.
I used pigment inks for a while in an L300 and it worked fine, and although I knew it better I didn't check the yellows when converting back to dye inks and spoiled the L300, I had to replace the yellow damper in the printhead, that cartridge replacement piece, the filter inside was totally blocked, and some particles were left in the printhead which I didn't get out anymore.
Pigment inks are more stable against light and UV radiation, that's their benefit. But they are typically not more colorful or whatever for photoprints, don't believe that type of advertising.

Thank you so much I love the colorful colors like dye-ink, maybe I will buy more laser printer to print documents instead use inkjet.