Epson XP-600 and 800 series

[jtoolman]

WOW I had no clue the Artisan series was no more! Unfortunately I only have my little Art 720 which is printing like a champ with your CISS and Martin's Printer Potty!

I should have bought some of the later models with the auto feeder.

Maybe EPSON will have some refurbished ones.

Thanks for the info.
Joe

 

[doom2]

Not being much of a AIO printer user, I've been following this now 11 page thread with great interest. Just what is it that this printer is offering over other Epson AIOs. Or is the interest due the radical departure from the common EPSON cart design to one very similar to the CANON PGI-9 carts. I understand the challenge of defeating this cart. The majority of the content seems to do with the cart design and refilling which is always interesting.
But how do you guys rate this printer when compared to the Artisan series that would make me want to go to Staples and get one?

Joe

Hi Joe. I agree i wasn't an AIO person either until i got this printer.... The print quality easily matches if not exceeds my old P50 i use to have with just 5 ink carts over the 6 in the p50, and now not having to mess about with my scanner to copy a document is a godsend to be honest. The price of the printer when i bought mine was so cheap for the functionality I thought it was a reconditioned model but nope... The Paper handling is nice having two auto trays and auto dual side printing. I opted for the XP700 for DVD printing and that is also good. A slight different method over the P50 but not at all a problem. The other gem is the WIFI/cloud printing for non PC devices.

And now with the great investigation on the refilling no need for a CISS system!!!! Plus Plus for me, all in all as a home user i like this printer and give it a good thumbs up. Only thing i don't know is its longevity over clogged heads/break downs that my R285/P50 had.

Cheers
D2

 

[rjgeisler]

Hi,

I currently have a R300 with a CISS of my own design and it has worked very well for over 5 years.

For me, I decided on a new printer mainly for the WIFI. I actually looked for a printer only, but for the price you can't beat the XP-600/700!

The Plus for me was the ease of refilling the original Epson cartridges! Using OEM cartridges may also add to the longevity of the printer heads.

Early in discussions it was suggested the clean or charge cycle was very unpredictable. It could be Epson built in a wet sensor into the head and only does a clean cycle when the heads dry out. The clean cycle is very hard on Piezoelectric printheads, especially when they are dry. We also know the more cleaning, the more ink for the bit bucket!

Time will tell!

TTFN,
Rhonda

 

[The Hat]

Hi,

I currently have a R300 with a CISS of my own design and it has worked very well for over 5 years.

For me, I decided on a new printer mainly for the WIFI. I actually looked for a printer only, but for the price you can't beat the XP-600/700!

The Plus for me was the ease of refilling the original Epson cartridges! Using OEM cartridges may also add to the longevity of the printer heads.

Early in discussions it was suggested the clean or charge cycle was very unpredictable. It could be Epson built in a wet sensor into the head and only does a clean cycle when the heads dry out. The clean cycle is very hard on Piezoelectric printheads, especially when they are dry. We also know the more cleaning, the more ink for the bit bucket!

Time will tell!

TTFN,
Rhonda

If youre worried about the waste build up then why dont you fit an external waste tank yourself ?

 

[rjgeisler]

If youre worried about the waste build up then why dont you fit an external waste tank yourself ?

That is not an issue for this printer, at least not yet!
I have installed an external waste bottle on most of my inkjet printers, but this is the first printer I have owned that actually has a tank.

I do believe Epson should have made it easier to get to, but I do not see that as a big issue.

My concern is the high cost of ink and my desire to put most of that on paper and not down the drain.

Rhonda

 

[rjgeisler]

It is impossible for the diaphragm to refill the extra rectangular chamber inside the cartridge. So this is the workaround otherwise, just let the optical sensor perform its duties and refill half the amount and refill a little more frequently.

Once the larger cutout is made, the plug sits flush and does not protrude. and you can top off very conveniently. Remove the plug, fill, plug it back.

Do you mean that little square bludge into the side of the tank is all there is? WOW!:/

 

[websnail]

Do you mean that little square bludge into the side of the tank is all there is? WOW!:/

It's a bit of a shocker isn't it... It's an amazingly clever bit of marketing presentation, presumably to make it look like you're getting the equivalent of the pigment Canon cartridges which is the obvious target for these printers.

 

[websnail]

Been playing with the Pigment black cartridge with one of the most common ARC sets and confirmed the issue with the ARC Catch 22.

The scenario plays out like this.

1. Fill your T26BK (pigment black) cart to it's max (around 9.7ml).
   
2. Print using the pigment black and the printer will detect that the prism is indicating empty while the chip is not.
3. So you refill the cartridge again and this time the cartridge uses up 25% again (some of it in priming) before it indicates the cartridge can't be recognised (ie: The chip is saying it's empty).
4. This is when the problem hits. The printer will not declare the cartridge empty unless the prism is also indicating empty.

So, now it's time to get creative and there's a few options:

1. If you have a spare empty T26BK cartridge you can swap the ARC chip across to that, insert the empty cart into the printer and allow the printer to recognise that both the chip and prism are indicating empty. This allows it to reset.
   Tip: If you do this, prepare to pull the plug as soon as it's recognised because otherwise it will run a priming routine and waste a load of your other cartridges ink with an empty black cart installed.
   
   
2. There's the modification option suggested by Mikling above, where you drill the void compartment and fill that. But, you would have to ensure you filled it to the correct weight/volume so you don't go over or under and miss the sweetspot for resetting.
   
   
3. Theoretically, you could use scales to fill once, make a note of the amount filled, then when it triggers at the physically empty, chip not empty point, you would refill with the difference in ink to get an XL capacity volume.
   eg: (BK-XL capacity = 12.2ml >> Fill #1 = 9.7ml, Fill #2 = 2.5ml) or fill to 6.1ml each time you refill.

Each approach has it's pro's and con's and overall the real problem is the amount of waste ink being generated with the extra cleaning being done so, depending on end-user confidence, I'd probably recommend:
- Mod'd cart as first choice
- The two fill to XL approach second
-...and a spare empty cart as the fallback.


I will confirm the (third) theoretical approach shortly when I've played some more but as a side note, whatever you choose, the amount of ink being wasted with each cartridge change/priming routine is quite substantial, as is the amount of ink being used for full page, one colour.



Oh and just one more, completely off the wall, approach. You could also tip the printer so it was pivoting on it's rear/bottom edge so it was almost vertical (front of printer at top). Provided you hadn't just refilled, this would clear the prism of ink and allow the reset conditions to be met.

Not entirely sure I would recommend that as an approach as it would undoubtedly result in stressed cable connections at the rear, etc... but it should work. Suspect there's some other unintended consequence issues to consider as well (scanner lid flying open, etc..) so worth keeping your eyes/ears open and your wits about you.

To say there's been some out of the box thinking on this would be putting it mildly

 

[sandman55]

Hi Guys I have been watching this thread with interest and I am wondering if I give it a try and fail at some time, for example if I let the ink level go too low or mess up in some way would the following be an option. I have looked on Ebay and there are two types of refillables there, one with half sponge http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/EMPTY-Re...rinter_Accessories&hash=item232b176ff3&_uhb=1 and one with no sponge http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/Au-Refil...rinter_Accessories&hash=item232cfa1436&_uhb=1 do you see one of these as an option and which type would you say would be the best.

I have been refilling my Canon Pixma IP3300 for years and now I am looking for a printer scanner combo. I will not be printing photos just text with some colour and printing on disks would be nice but not essential so considering my needs do you think I am looking at the best printer/scanner for me or is there another refillable printer/scanner that would be more suitable. Thanks in advance for any advice.

 

[websnail]

... and let's throw in some additional experience learned the hard way today.

The prism provided in the cartridge does not appear to work in the same way as it does in the Canons. Rather than acting as a safety mechanism is seems it's intended more to ensure that all the ink is gone and then the rest is down to the chip. There may be an element of this acting as a safety mechanism, being disabled when a compatible chip is recognised. I haven't been paying attention or looking specifically for this during testing though so it's a hypothesis at present.

Anyway... the reason for bringing this up is that I've confirmed something of a theoretical concern as being a real issue.

If you allow an OEM cartridge to get to the point where it's sucking all of the ink out of the feeder section directly above the outlets, you will quickly find yourself with an air lock type problem. In the Pigment black this presented itself first on the non-chipped/blank/extension side of the cartridge before my attempts to resolve introduced air into the other side as well (Yay, me!... Not! )

I'm in the process of trying a few things to try and remove the air and re-establish the ink in the feeder section but it's going to be interesting to say the least!


UPDATE:
The green clips that come with the cartridges are indeed incapable of acting as flush clips and provide, at best, a loose protection against air movement/drying but no sort of seal that can withstand ink being forced in/out.