New Epson 6-color printers and pigment refills?

[Fenrir Enterprises]

I've been using an Epson R220 for quite awhile now with pigment refills - I print artwork with it, as well as signs to laminate for outdoor use - quite happy to be able to make signs that don't fade in a few days (though the lamination usually fails in about a year and a half of direct sunlight, I need to find UV resistant pouches). However, I've grown tired of fighting with the printer - it never feeds properly with any stock thicker than 24 lb paper, and I have terrible banding issues whenever I refill it - the only solution seems to be to wait a day or two before it'll "settle down" - which requires me to plan ahead and refill it several days before a large print run. I know the printer isn't meant for huge print runs - but if I print a lot all at once it eventually starts banding again unless I set it on photo mode, which makes it slow as molasses. I'd known about some of these issues when I started using refills - the benefits of pigment ink was worth it (and yes, I've tried several types of refill carts).

It's finally gone too far out of alignment for certain jobs - I can't print two-sided business or post cards anymore because they don't line up when I cut them out. I have a spare R220 in storage (and an R340 that's always been used with OEM inks that I use for glossy photos) but I'm wondering if any of their newer six-color printers under $250 work decently with pigment inks and have less problems than the R220 does. I had started with a C88+ but I found that 4-color pigment printing was too dark - I couldn't get any blue brighter than "dark navy" out of it. I keep seeing comments like "it sort of works" and "require customized profile", but I've never had a problem with the color differences on the R220 - it was pretty easy to work with. Also does the higher printhead resolution result in more clogs?

Or should I just get the backup printer out of storage and start cutting it up for the waste tank modification?

 

[printfan1138]

My wife is a fine artist so we also love to printout art work. We have no training in the printing end of things but I'm retired and enjoy researching and just found this venue a few days ago. Right now I'm looking over some of the information on this site and find a lot to like! I don't know if this is helpful but as regards the need for UV protection we have been using a Krylon product designed to provide UV and moister protection for our prints, canned "Krylon Preserve it". I ordered it from Dick Blick but I imagine any store that stocks Krylon products could order it if you wanted to give it a try! I have noticed several affordable Epson Printers that use the Durabrite pigmented inks but we are currently using dye based "Claria" type inks in an Epson 1400 refurbished printer that Epson is selling for just $149.00 and I set it up with a CIS system using ink from InkJetCarts. sixty bucks for their inks compares to $1,260.00 in Epson OEM cartridges. When I first did the math I thought I goofed up but that is a fact. I have an Epson C-88+ also and find the same thing you mentioned about the darkness of the prints. I have successfully tweeked that on my Imac I-Photo photo adjustment program and finally got some pretty good pictures but the 1400 is much better probably due to the Lite cyan and magenta inks they use along with the other 4. I notice that both Lite colors get sucked up at least twice as fast as the other inks. When I first got into printing It was a bit of a surprise to find out that in most cases the printer was cheaper than the price of ink. I hope what ever you decide , it works well for you. Good printing..Printfan1138!