Epson EcoTank ET-8550: Pigment instead of Dye inks

[Fried Chicken]

What is the difference between Epson 552 and Epson 114 inks?

 

[Ink stained Fingers]

What is the difference between Epson 552 and Epson 114 inks?

The business region U.S, vs. Europe/EU

 

[Fried Chicken]

The business region U.S, vs. Europe/EU

Komisch, ok.

 

[PeterBJ]

Canon also does this. Here is a post with a list of Canon business regions.

 

[marshalleq]

I'm currently running an ET-8550 - with dye inks - and will stay with them. But I switched various times between dye and pigment inks on various other Epson printers - like the R265 or the L800/805 or L1800 , I can report that it worked out o.k. when changing from dye to pigment inks - following a kind of similar approach as described in the farbenwerk instructions. I'm running pigment and dye inks alternatively on a small 4 color WF2010W w/o problems. I had more and longer lasting problems when trying to switch back from pigment to dye inks, incl. replacing the dampers in the printhead carriage - the cartridge like replacements in the printhead. And more effort is necessary to clean the tubes and tanks from the smallest leftovers of pigments. I would support the comment by farbenwerk to start with pigments inks directly in a new printer.

Be aware that any change as intended - swapping the inks - will void the Epson warranty so all such modifications are at your own risk.

I tested various dye inks for longevity, the best performing inks are the Epson OEM inks - 114 or 106; I couldn't find any non-OEM inks being close to OEM inks in this respect. I cannot comment on the Pigmera ETX inks by farbenwerk how they perform in regards to gamut size, black level . gloss and bronzing, there are significant differences between 3rd party pigment inks in this respect, which must always be judged in connection with particular paper types.

I'm interested in the Longevity aspects mostly, I don't see the point of printing it to display on the wall and having it fade in 1-2 years, so your comment that the Epson OEM inks apparently perform better than most - what sort of lifespan do they have in your experience? I mostly print with Gloss and have been eyeing the 8550 for a while - already got one for my mother, but I see one on a super special at the moment and am wondering if nows the time. Just need to resolve which ink I should be using. Thanks very much for any reply.

 

[Ink stained Fingers]

There are companies specifically selling pigment inksets for the ET-8550 like precisioncolors, but they only ship to the U.S. or Canada

https://precisioncolors.com/ET8550.html

or in Germany

https://www.farbenwerk.com/en/collections/ecotank-et-8550-8500-114-eng

or you choose inks which are offered for other Epson photo printers like the P700/900,

it'll be necessary in most cases to create specific icc profiles for your ink/paper combinations you ae going to use.

 

[Ink stained Fingers]

You are addressing the fading issue - dye vs. pigment inks. There is no test report out at all addressing this issue - no report comparing these inks - at all, but everybody assumes that pigment inks last longer.

There is tremendously wide variation in longevity between inks - ink types by OEM manufacturers and ink generation - and the paper plays an important job as well, there is a report out by Wilhlem Research

http://wilhelm-research.com/Canson/WIR_Canson_Fine_Art_and_Photo_Papers_Final_Report_2020-06-01.pdf

But this and other reports only deal with OEM inks - there is no - no test at all of 3rd party pigment inks which would let you safely accept claims of such suppliers .

It is possible to retrieve some data comparing a pigment ink with a dye ink and showing that the dye ink - with that particular paper - does better than a pigment ink

https://www.printerknowledge.com/th...-instead-of-dye-inks.16196/page-2#post-144698

So there is just no simple answer to the question - no tests whatever.

 

[marshalleq]

Thanks, I am thinking of getting these ones, I assumed they ship to NZ, but you're right they might not. I could also use a reshipping service of course.

 

[js47]

I'm interested in the Longevity aspects mostly, I don't see the point of printing it to display on the wall and having it fade in 1-2 years, so your comment that the Epson OEM inks apparently perform better than most - what sort of lifespan do they have in your experience? I mostly print with Gloss and have been eyeing the 8550 for a while - already got one for my mother, but I see one on a super special at the moment and am wondering if nows the time. Just need to resolve which ink I should be using. Thanks very much for any reply.

Sorry to bump this but the title got me...

If you are interested mainly in the longevity then I'd recommend nothing but OEM pigment inks in a pigment printer, ie Canon Lucia or Epson Ultrachrome. If you're set on the ET-8550 it would be my personal assumption that the OEM Epson Claria dye inkset would have better longevity than any unproven third-party/"compatible" inkset, even if said inkset was pigment based. The PrecisionColors pigment inks have a good reputation (or perhaps just louder-than-average shills...), and yet performed atrociously when Aardenberg tested it with the Epson P600. If PC performs that terribly I'd personally assume all third party inks do, unless proven otherwise.

As per Wilhelm the Claria ET inks actually have pretty respectable permanence for what they are, albeit considerably lower than Ultrachrome: http://www.wilhelm-research.com/eps...o_ET-8500_and_ET-8550_Printers_2025-02-01.pdf

Ultrachrome HD: http://www.wilhelm-research.com/epson/WIR_Epson_SureColor_P600_Printer_2019-02-15.pdf

Here is Aardenberg's test of Precision Colors Signature Edition pigment ink in the P600 (Aardenberg use different units than Wilhelm but their results correspond to failure in less than 1 year on display!): https://www.aardenburg-imaging.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/AaI_20160912_SN002LfDs.pdf

And here is Aardenberg's test with Ultrachrome HD in the same P600 for comparison (the OEM ink had over 70x the longevity as the third party ink did on the same paper...): https://www.aardenburg-imaging.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/AaI_20160924_SN001LfDs.pdf

 

[Ink stained Fingers]

Most of the discussion of longevity of dye vs. pigment inks omits the significant role of the paper types used for all that testing.

I extracted information from the linked test reports how strong the paper impact actually is - this with OEM material only

https://www.printerknowledge.com/threads/do-pigment-inks-fade-slower-than-dye-inks.15466/post-134801


I did lots of testing over the last years showing the strong impact of the paper type onto the results e.g. in this test with 2 OEM papers - HP and Canon resin coated - RC - and a cast coated paper Hayatec (China) and a 3rd party RC paper - I called it Glossy 300 (gr)

https://www.printerknowledge.com/th...ing-test-106-114-t54c-gi-53.16479/post-142308


And a last note - the Aardenburg test of the Precisioncolor inks have historical value only, the previous owner of PC stated longer time ago in a posting that their current pigment inks have a better performance but this without evidence with a test report.