Can I use Epson Pigment ink in Brother Dye?

[Doug Ransom]

My Epson-WF-4640 died recently, toward the end of printing 1200 letters over a couple days.

I now have 4 1L bottles of BCH ink for epson with about 900ml left. (here is a link to the yellow https://www.bchtechnologies.com/ref...-yellow-pigment-ink-for-epson-ip1000y-ae.html ).

I asked BCH if I can use the ink on my bother this was their response:

It is pigment ink for Epson. You can use it on Brother's pigment printer. However, you can't use it on dye Epson or dye Brother. Most of Brother printers are dye printer, so be careful. Make sure it is pigment printer first.

Also, if you really want to use it on a dye printer, put a little timer on the power outlet. Shut off the power and turn it back on once or twice a day. It's not suggested to use pigment in dye printer but this trick works.​

I am not sure what the power cycle hack they suggest would do.

if I use the pigment ink on a dye printer, it will damage the printer?

What would be a reliable printer I could use this ink in, with available of auto-reset chips in refillable cartridges or even a CISS? Epson seems to be a poor choice.

The refillable cartridges I was using on the Epson came from a vendor who claimed the chips were auto-reset, but I don't think they were.

 

[Doug Ransom]

I gather I could at least use the black in a brother? I have a MFC-J470DW and an MFC-J65ODW. Both are old not nearly as fast as the WF-4640 which I miss.

 

[stratman]

To simplify: Pigment ink is handled differently than dye-based ink by print heads. Many Canons use dye-based ink for colors and pigment ink separately for black text. The print head heats up and the dye-based ink is spit out. The dye-based ink is used to cool the nozzles as well, so lack of ink to cool things down, or the clog of cooked pigment ink can cause permanent malfunction of the print head. Some Canons use exclusively pigment ink.

Epsons similarly may or may not use pigment ink throughout all cartridges. Epsons pigment ink print heads use Piezo electrics to spit the ink out without heating things up.

Not all ink is interchangeable with other printers whether within the same manufacturer or not. Using one brand's pigment ink in another brand's printer may cause irreparable damage due to differences in pigment particle sice and other chemical constituents. Buying "Universal" inks can lead to malfunction as well. Some pigment ink printers will shake up the cartridges of ink before a print job to prevent clogging, while others do not. Sometimes you might get away with it, sometimes not.

As far as recommendations, tell us your country of origin so region specific recommendations may be made.

Also, if you really want to use it on a dye printer, put a little timer on the power outlet. Shut off the power and turn it back on once or twice a day.

I'm guessing this is for the printer to do a maintenance purge of ink to keep things from clogging. Never heard this suggestion before and I would do everything possible to avoid this "solution". Get a printer that will safely use the ink or sell the ink on eBay or Craigslist.

 

[Ink stained Fingers]

some printers do a cleaning cycle at power up, others only later when you start the next print job. This power cycling just would use lots of ink and fill the waste ink container pretty quick.
It is not so much the printhead but the filters in the ink paths in the Brother printheads which may clog earlier with pigment inks, Brother printers are less foregiving in this respect than Epson printers so using pigment inks may work for a short while or not even that. I remember trying that but it didn't work for longer than a few days.
You rather may consider to buy a cheap Epson printer using Durabrite inks, all those workforce models starting with a WF-2010W, and using your pigment inks with refill cartridges in such printer for your regular print jobs. I won't think you could sell partially used ink bottles at any decent price.

 

[Doug Ransom]

some printers do a cleaning cycle at power up, others only

As far as recommendations, tell us your country of origin so region specific recommendations may be made.

Canada

 

[stratman]

Ink stained Fingers said: ↑

As far as recommendations, tell us your country of origin so region specific recommendations may be made.

Suddenly I feel like having bratwurst with a Warsteiner Pilsner and my fingers are ink stained.