Soon: big test of refillable Epson Pro 3800 cartridges + resetters

[pharmacist]

Hi Jdime,

Just to keep you informed: Cone Colors and also inkjetcarts.us are selling Image Specialists ink (IM-K4) (same as the one from Precisioncolors.com). Inrepublic.com sells the IRK4-nano inks, but the older IRK2 is Image Specialists (IM-K4).

For the moment I am very busy with my occupation and please forgive me, because the testing results will take some time to be published, because I do not have the spare time to test the inks/cartridges exhaustively as I wish. Thank you.

Last week I received the cartridges from efillink.com, but I did not have time to test them, but I will make pictures later and post them here.

 

[vicpug]

Is anyone who is using 3800 refillable carts - simply syringing the ink out of Epson 220ml carts. With all the testing going on about how good or how bad 3rd party black ink can be , you can still save heaps by using OEM 220ml carts.

thanks

 

[pharmacist]

Two weeks ago I received the cartridges from Efillink.com (same as the ones from Inkjetfly.com and Ink2image.com). Due to my profession/occupation I did not have much time to experiment with the cartridges sofar. These cartridges feature a special bladder-based system like the original cartridges. The system should ensure a steady ink flow towards the printhead even when the cartridge is almost empty. The chip resetter included with the cartridges is exactly the same as the one I have with the refillable cartridges from colordroplets.com, albeit a bit lighter (using tiny batteries).

The next picture shows the tuning chip making contact with the printer circuit:

As you can see: the electronical part of both the efillink.com's and the colordroplet.com's refill system is made by the same manufacturer and should be exchangeable:

The ink outlet valve differs a bit from the colordroplet.com's system and is also the refill hole for the cartridge:

I figured out how to refill the cartridges, but I do not think it was a success :

The bladder was accidentally pierced by the sharp needle and more than likely rendered unusable by this action.
I tried to inject distilled water into the cartridge to see what happened:

The water is oozing from the hole and escaped into the pressure chamber of the cartridge :

Since the cartridge is already damaged beyond repair I cut the bladder to reveal the design of this particular cartridge and, unlike the original OEM cartridge, only one side is using a bladder material. The OEM cartridge is using a real inkbag which sits freely into the pressure chamber:

So this experiment is unfortunately a failure and I ordered some thicker and shorter needles to us to refill the cartridges and I hope to report back soon about the results. I am a bit dissapointed by the poor building quality of the cartridges and I hope they will last for a long time, because the comment on ink2image.com says: "...The Ink2image cartridges can be refilled many times but will eventually show signs of wear at the ink exit port seal. Replacement cartridges are available at the low cost of $ 20.00 each when this occurs.....".

I had once a bad cartridge from colordroplets.com and the rubber seal was ruptured causing the pressurized cartridge to continously ooze ink into the system and flooded the paper tray and my table the printer was sitting on. Cartridge empty and a complete mess with Light Magenta ink to be thoroughly cleaned by me . The key part for a succesfull refillable system for the Epson Pro 3800 is to ensure a tight seal around the ink outlet valve, not only directly after installation, but also after months of intensive usage. Rubber unfornately suffers from cracking and rupturing (material fatique) quite soon and when this happens to a pressurized system, like the Epson Pro 3800, inky disasters are very eminent !!!

I also tried to reset the tuning chip with my older resetter for my previous colordroplets.com's refillable system and it worked flawlessly, so the system is the same. So for the electronical part I am pretty sure these cartridges will work flawlessly, even though I did not have the chance to refill them and install them into my printer.

 

[The Hat]

pharmacist..

I have a similar cartridge design with the canon PGI-9 s. They have an inner bag just like the pro 3800 only smaller (A lot smaller). In this process I fill them through a 10mm deep hole I drilled in the bottom of the cartridge, so as not to damage the inner bag. I then put only 8ml. Ink into the cartridge that holds 10ml. That way theres no spillage and I seal the hole with hot glue gun. I have tested this out on two cartridges so far but have not put them into the printer as yet. The PGI-9 cartridge has little counter weights on the inside of the bag to help stir the ink when the print head vibrates just before it starting to print..

 

[vicpug]

I always thought that you used a syringe without a needle to fill these carts according to the install video. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5-O0CVIAd1A
cheers

 

[victor99]

vicpug and pharmacist, to refill from syringe is not a good idea at all. I too had broken 4 of my cheap carts.
It's so much easier to use a bottle to refill from the top of cartirdges like inkrepublic's, shown below. no brainer!
http://www.inkrepublic.com/knowledgebase/3800-iRefill-faq.asp

 

[pharmacist]

Hi Victor99,

did you see me previous posts at this very particular topic about the inkrepublic.com's system ? Probably not: I already have tested them, but now I am testing the ones from injetfly.com/efillink.com's system. The inkrepublic.com's system is indeed much easier to refill, but I want to test all the available cartridges including the ones from inkjetfly/efillink.com's.

 

[vicpug]

With the old style 3800 80ml refillable cartridge (without the bladder), how low can the level fall before you need to refill?. The valve is a little below half way, does that mean that when the level falls below half way you will have air sucked into the system? Does this mean that the 'usable' capacity of the cartridge is really 40ml maybe?

cheers and thanks for a great topic.

 

[david1965]

I am wondering if these refillable cartridge would work with 3880 printer? I am going to get one as soon as epson has them in stock.

 

[websnail]

I am wondering if these refillable cartridge would work with 3880 printer? I am going to get one as soon as epson has them in stock.

Doubtful... You can bet that Epson will have reverse engineered the techniques used in the chips and cartridges and then poured a large part of the development budget into making it considerably harder to use anything like them (especially the chips) in the 3880.

I'd count on around 6 - 9 months before compatibles are available, if at all..