Epson 3800 & Replacement Inks?

[ignatiusjk]

I have a Epson 3800 printer and have always used Epson ink.But I've been tempted to try the replacement brands (mainly because of price) but I'm affraid if I tried the ink and didn't like it would it screw up my printer.Have any of you tried the replacement inks?

[ret wisner]

yes it screws up printers in a surprisingly short time

stick with the real stuff and accept the costs

[Lenny Eiger]

which ones - it depends. Cone's inks are very good. They are next generation type inks...

Lenny

[Herb Cunningham]

shades of paper sells 3800 inks for$49.95, best price I have seen.

[Phil Hudson]

For me the excellent inks was one of the deciding factors when purchasing the 3800!

[BarryS]

shades of paper sells 3800 inks for$49.95, best price I have seen.

Check out antonline---I buy carts for $43.

http://www.antonline.com/antonline.php?op=inventory&st=epson+3800+ink

[joeyrsmith]

Jon Cone inks all the way.
Match my prints from epson ink perfectly.
My b&w's are great using the color ink set.
Meaning I am not using the 7 b&w ink set.
I have the color ink set and print b&w with the ABW driver.
Great custtomer service.

[Curt]

How long do the ink cartridges last? At $450 more or less, Epson at $59 being more, they should be good for some mileage. But if you can afford a 3800 then maybe the ink isn't a major consideration. It sure is a fine printer, has anyone here had trouble with the Pizza Wheel flaw on their prints? The faint light dot lines from the output wheels tracking though the ink. I'd like to get one for digital negatives if I knew for sure there wasn't going to be a problem. I order and received the R1900 and it printed glossy fine for the first dozen then started to lay out the dot line in the ink. I returned it to Epson this afternoon. They said the head must have mechanically dropped or something else so a refund is coming. Now I have to get another model. I've been looking at the 3800 but want to print on OHP film without any problems. Maybe I should save for a 4880 model.

[PViapiano]

OHP on the 3800 works fine, but to avoid any pizza lines, use the front feed option.

[Brian Ellis]

How long do the ink cartridges last? At $450 more or less, Epson at $59 being more, they should be good for some mileage. But if you can afford a 3800 then maybe the ink isn't a major consideration. It sure is a fine printer, has anyone here had trouble with the Pizza Wheel flaw on their prints? The faint light dot lines from the output wheels tracking though the ink. I'd like to get one for digital negatives if I knew for sure there wasn't going to be a problem. I order and received the R1900 and it printed glossy fine for the first dozen then started to lay out the dot line in the ink. I returned it to Epson this afternoon. They said the head must have mechanically dropped or something else so a refund is coming. Now I have to get another model. I've been looking at the 3800 but want to print on OHP film without any problems. Maybe I should save for a 4880 model.

I've replaced four of the cartridges that came with the printer once in the 3 years this month that I've owned the 3800. The others will need to be replaced soon. It would be hard to estimate how many prints I've made in what sizes because I usually wait to print until I have a batch of 10 or more worth printing. And since I'm not a high-volume photographer, that can mean the printer sometimes sits idle for a month or so.

I think I paid $50 per cartridge at Atlantic Exchange when I bought my replacements. I don't know if that's still their current price or not (or my memory could be wrong on the price).

With respect to pizza wheels, funny you should ask. I never had that or any other problem with the printer (once I learned how to feed the paper from the back feed) until last night. After not having used the printer for about a month the first print I made had six small black dots more or less evenly spaced running across the top of the left-hand side of the paper (left as you're facing the front of the printer). All of the later prints were fine. These dots weren't faint so I don't know if that's the problem you're describing but I'll do some investigating if it happens again.

[Brian Ellis]

Jon Cone inks all the way.
Match my prints from epson ink perfectly.
My b&w's are great using the color ink set.
Meaning I am not using the 7 b&w ink set.
I have the color ink set and print b&w with the ABW driver.
Great custtomer service.

I didn't know Cone made color inks so after seeing your message I checked and his replacements for the 3800 inks look like a huge bargain compared to the cost of Epson inks. I see that the Cone inks come in bottles and you have to pour the ink from the bottles into the cartridges. Is this as clean, neat, and easy as Cone makes it sound? The one time I tried to deal with refillable cartridges for MIS inks years ago it was a messy disaster.

[Curt]

I refilled some cartridges once and made a huge mess and they leaked afterward. I would imagine there have been some improvements since then.

As to the 3800 there is now listed a 3880, is that an improved or updated model of the 3800 or a completely different printer?

The R1900 was a nice printer, it must have had a mechanical flaw. I'd have kept it for some time if it had performed as ordered. Epson still makes the best printers in my mind, I still have a 1520 that produces large cad drawings for me. As a photo printer it's not the model to use.

Any recommendations on an Epson printer for digital negatives? Are the more expensive models a better bet for a problem free printing?

Thanks,
Curt

[D. Bryant]

OHP on the 3800 works fine, but to avoid any pizza lines, use the front feed option.
I've never had pizza wheel marks on any media using the 3800. Of course that's always a possibility if one is using a heavier ink load. Good to know that the front load option can be used as a work around.

Don

[Curt]

I had not heard about the front load on that printer, that's an interesting feature but isn't the Pizza wheel problem with the output wheels? I wonder which models have the suction paper movement feature in them that I read about on the net the other day, maybe it was a 4800 model I don't remember. The same article said the wheel assemblies can be removed and I did that on the model I had but the paper went wild because the wheels are there for a reason, duh. I put them back and the problem persisted. I wish the wheels were spaced on the very edges of the media, then pizza wheel marks wouldn't matter. Epson's official position is when you use Epson inks and media with the stock printer it won't have any problems, if it does then the printer is broken. Sounds rational but who is going to stick to the company media when so many other products are available? I mentioned Pictorico and the technician thought I was talking about iron-on-heat-transfers and said I'd need a laser printer for that. Clearly they don't go there so to speak so I dropped the topic.

Curt

[BarryS]

When using the front loader, the pizza wheels aren't engaged on the 3800.

[D. Bryant]

I didn't know Cone made color inks so after seeing your message I checked and his replacements for the 3800 inks look like a huge bargain compared to the cost of Epson inks. I see that the Cone inks come in bottles and you have to pour the ink from the bottles into the cartridges. Is this as clean, neat, and easy as Cone makes it sound? The one time I tried to deal with refillable cartridges for MIS inks years ago it was a messy disaster.

I can echo Brian's experience with MIS carts (and CIS system) with my Epson 1160. Leaks and clogs, constantly! However when they worked they worked very well, at least the Quadtone ink sets did, I didn't use their color inks.

I used their Full Spectrum Neutral QT inks with a custom curve created by John Wolfe. I pulled out a print I made with that inkset tonight and it still looked terrific after 8 years. But unfortunately the problems with the clogs drove me away from their products (along with their worthless customer support - not to be confused with their tech support which was okay). But to be fair I also had problems with Cone B&W inks from that era.

The Cone color ink seems to represent a bargain and I am considering using them. Jon Cone has had been in the biz a long time now and realizes that selling shoddy products only produces short term customers, so I'm hoping their new color inks will be clog free.



Don Bryant

[BarryS]

Saving money on ink sounds appealing, but even setting aside the issue of clogs, having to profile every one of my papers sound expensive and time consuming.

[PViapiano]

Barry,

The Cone info for the 3800 says the normal K3 set will be identical to the OEM K3 set.

There is another color ink set/space they have called Vivid that you "can" use in the 3800 but would have to re-calibrate for THAT set...

I'm interested in hearing from anyone who is using the Cone color inks in a 3800, and is using QTR for printing diginegs on Pictorico...(I know, how small of a niche can I create? LOL!)

[joncone@cone-editions.com]

WEe made a movie on how to fill and maintain your printer when using refillable ink carts. The 3800 refillable carts we sell look different than the video but the idea is essentially the same. And it really is pretty clean and neat if you prepare an area in which to work.

InkjetMall Techsupport Movies (http://shopping.netsuite.com/s.nl/c.362672/sc.18/category.37332/.f)

Incidentally, I produce a white paper on preventative care and self-repair of Epson large format printers (http://shopping.netsuite.com/s.nl/c.362672/it.I/id.188/.f?sc=18&category=-118).

regards,

Jon Cone
InkjetMall (http://www.inkjetmall.com)


I didn't know Cone made color inks so after seeing your message I checked and his replacements for the 3800 inks look like a huge bargain compared to the cost of Epson inks. I see that the Cone inks come in bottles and you have to pour the ink from the bottles into the cartridges. Is this as clean, neat, and easy as Cone makes it sound? The one time I tried to deal with refillable cartridges for MIS inks years ago it was a messy disaster.

[Mikee]

I have an Epson Photo 1410 and am using CSS ink system and am wondering if the ink replacement is the same solution or are their better inks that won't harm the machine.
Is there a specific Ink that I should use. I only print photographs. Also, keep in mind that I live in Costa Rica?

[sanking]

Incidentally, I produce a white paper on preventative care and self-repair of Epson large format printers (http://shopping.netsuite.com/s.nl/c.362672/it.I/id.188/.f?sc=18&category=-118).

regards,

Jon Cone
InkjetMall (http://www.inkjetmall.com)

Jon,

I had a look at your white paper on care and self-repair of Epson large format printers and it has a lot of useful information. One thing has me confused, however. In your white paper you stress the danger of paper fibers in blocking the nozzles of the print head. Yet in one of the videos on the maintenance of printers on your site it is recommended to clean the head by placing the cleaning fluid on a sheet of Bounty paper towel and rubbing this over the head. If paper fibers are the danger you suggest it sure seems to me that rubbing the head with a paper towel would be a very big risk.

Sandy King

[joncone@cone-editions.com]

We recommend Bounty not because it's the "quicker picker uppper" but because it has so little lint in comparison to other papers. The cleaning with the towels removes lint build up as opposed to putting it on. The towels should be dampened with cleaning fluid and the contact should not be so hard as to tear the towels.

If you could get to the heads, a foam swab would be ideal.

Jon