What companies make the higher quality 3rd party inks/dyes for Epson Printers?

[Darkmatter]

I have an XP-830 and I don't want to be bad ink/dye that could cause problems. I use my printer for regular printing mostly, although I do have some glossy paper to make photo prints but it's not something I would do very often. In fact, if I wanted to frame a photo I had I would probably want it a bigger size then the Epson could print at so I'd probably be going to the local art store anyways. They also have a super high end printer.

Thanks

 

[stratman]

Welcome to the forum, Darkmatter. Quality Epson inks can be had on more than one continent. Shipping can become costly depending on where you live. Tell us your country so advice can be tailored to your location.

 

[Darkmatter]

I live in Ontario Canada.

 

[stratman]

I am a Canon person, so my knowledge of Epson's is limited. I am sure others will be along to recommend inks for your Epson XP-830.

In the meantime, if you are looking to refill cartridges for your printer, rather than buy aftermarket pre-filled cartridges, then take a look at Precision Colors based in Canada and Octoink based in the UK. Both sell high quality Canon inks so maybe it is he same with their Epson inks. Both sites are owned by members on this forum and are trusted. An email to either asking about specific refilling needs for your printer should elicit a response.

 

[Ink stained Fingers]

I assume you are doing refill as you are looking for inks. As long as you are printing somewhat regularly you shouldn't get into ink related problems , as long as the ink is flowing. And if you see missing nozzles now and then or after a cartridge change it's not the ink in most cases but the ink flow, interrupted by air getting into it which typically requires another cleaning cycle. The companies named above should have compatible inks for your printer. But if you are going for high quality photo prints there are more things to consider - color management or the right choice of paper which go beyond the choice of inks.

 

[Darkmatter]

Ah that's a good point that I forgot to mention. I actually prefer to stick to either prefilled to avoid old ink from clotting and getting into the printer head, or the best system I've seen so far (don't know if it's available for the XP-830) is one where there is an outer frame that has a permanent self resetting chip and it's basically hollow. What you do is you buy slightly smaller prefilled ink/dye cartridges that fit INTO the outer frame. They're cheap because it's just a plastic box but you get the bonus of not having to worry about air, or clotting or anything like that. The company called them "reusable" cartridges. I haven't seen any for the 830 though. Barring that I think I'd stick to prefilled to avoid the problems I mentioned above.

I should also ask, just so I know, is there a chip resetter for the 830 yet? I was told by a sales rep at CCS-Digital that newer Epson's like the 830 now also use a serial number on the chip which the printer permanently records. If the printer reads an identical serial number it won't allow you to use the cartridge even if you reset the chip.

Thanks
Edit:

 

[Ink stained Fingers]

I have seen T33 refill cartridges with automatic reset chips for which you won't need a separate resetter. Since Epson is playing tricks around the world by market region it could be that such refill cartridges won't work everywhere - I don't know.
Those 2-part cartridges are no different at the ink outlet than regular ones, and I would not expect that such construction would become available at all in the T33 cartridge style.

 

[Darkmatter]

Actually in Canada the cartridges for the XP-830 are numbered "T410" and I'm guessing getting cartridges from another region would not work in the printer.

 

[Ink stained Fingers]

yes, such regionalized catridges are not interchangeable across regions

 

[Darkmatter]

So for my region where should I get my printer ink/dyes?