Part 2: review Epson Pro 3880 refillable cartridges

pharmacist

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I finally sold my Epson Pro 3800 and upgraded to the Epson Pro 3880 and immediately searched for a refillable cartridge system.

The most popular systems are these two systems:

-Inkrepublic Pro 3800/3880 I-refill system (also by Inkjetcart and others)
-small size refillable cartridges (Inkjetfly/Inkjetmall and others)

I contacted a Chinese manufacturer directly to obtain a set of these small size refillable cartridges and it was a bit difficult to obtain just one set, as they normally sell only to refill companies, but nevertheless they were willing to sell me just one set. The second set was from Inkrepublic.com, much more expensive, but I had the best results with this refill system, even after many years of usage and it has proven very reliable, unlike the first refillable cartridges, which ultimately caused leaks in my printer due to rubber starvation of the ink outlet valve. The reason is the usage of tough silicone in the ink outlet valve of these large cartridges. The small size cartridges still uses rubber to seal the ink outlet valve, of which I am still not very found off. On the other hand, not everybody likes the large size cartridges sticking out from the printer.

Small size cartridges:

These cartridges are the same size as the original Epson cartridges, enabling you to exchange the cartridges one at a time, when your original Epson cartridges will gradually run out. Also the ink cover can be closed. These cartridges function by using a special tuning chip which sits in a cradle and making contact with the necessary original Epson cartridge chip with the corresponding colour. Together this becomes a auto-reset chip system. Simply removing and re-inserting the cartridge will reset ink level back to 100 % full.

For my previous review of these small size cartridges have a look here:

http://www.nifty-stuff.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=4746&p=15 at post number 150

One must take care these tuning chip systems must have chips that are not completely registered empty by the printer (lets say: 10-15 %), otherwise there might be problems with recognizing the cartridges.

The only problem is the maintenance tank: To reuse it, you will have to buy a new one or use an expensive resetter ($99) and even this is no guarantee, as I will show later in this review with the expensive resetter I bought a few years ago for my experiment. This resetter is able not only to reset the maintenance tank, but also the original ink cartridge chip.provided it not registered empty by the printer, as this will render this resetter useless.

I have a special always full maintenance tank chip, which I tried in my Epson Pro 3880, but it was refused by the printer. I am not sure what the problem was, as it worked perfectly in my Epson Pro 3800, so maybe there is some firmware upgrade that disables these types of chips.

The only strange design I can observe is the place where the refill plug is positioned. I think it is much better to put the refill plug/hole on the top of the cartridge, so in the catastrophic event it eventually would leak (bad sealing, the ink stays perfectly in the cartridge and does not pour onto your table/desk). Compare this to the design of the Inkrepublic.coms I-refill system: this has the refill hole on top of the cartridge, which is much safer and better.

The first time you must refill and most importantly prime these cartridges (see post: http://www.nifty-stuff.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=4746&p=15 at post number 150). The priming procedure is only necessary the first time, afterwards just remove the refill plug and inject the ink into the cartridge. Now for refilling you must use a large syringe and corresponding needle (small gauge value, so large internal diameter) to proceed quickly. 20 mls syringe or larger is preferable or refilling can be quite time-consuming , as I have experienced. The problem is when the ink bottle is almost empty and you want to get that last amount of ink out the bottleand your needle is just not able to reach the bottom of the ink bottle. www.octoink.co.uk sells some marvelous squeeze bottles with specially adapted lids with needles attached on it, to overcome this problem. For such relatively large cartridges a (mini) funnel system to refill would be better, so you can pour the ink conveniently into these cartridges. Using a tiny funnel to review the I-refill cartridges is very easy like this:

2251_i-refill_with_funnel-brd.jpg


Inkrepublic.com Pro 3880 I-refill system:

Since these cartridges are physically the same as the ones for my Epson pro 3800. You might have a look at my post a few years ago here:

http://www.nifty-stuff.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=4746 (starting at post 6)

These cartridges will stick out from the printer, so it is esthetically better to remove the ink cover. A very easy thing to do by using a flat screwdriver and pushing away the cover gently from the printer housing. Not necessary, but it looks neater.

The I-refill system uses two master tuning system alongside with 7 of the 9 original Epson cartridge chips, which can be any color. The 8th chip is the maintenance tank: thanks to the advanced reset algorithm the I-refill system drives the maintenance tank chip as well and can be reset too, when it becomes saturated.

How advanced this system is, was proven a few years ago when I had a faulty tuning chip, making it impossible for a working system for my previous Epson Pro 3800 and in the period I needed to wait for the replacement chips, I started to experiment with my special maintenance cartridge resetter, which was able to reset the original cartridge chips as well. All the chips were reset accept the one, which was completely registered empty by the printer, which was LK and a old maintenance tank (which was recognized by the printer as non genuine after reset). After I had received the good replacement chip I could use these 2 chips without any problems, proving its effective reset algorithm.

The I-refill system is more expensive, but you will not need that expensive resetter, necessary for the maintenance tank as with the small size cartridge system.

After the previous test with these small size cartridges I installed my new Inkrepublic.com's I-refill system, the version specially for the Epson Pro 3880 with a new version of the IRK4-nano ink with vivid magenta. According to www.inkrepublic.com their IRK4-nano Vivid Magenta has been significantly improved over their previous versions, so I will later on show you these improvements, which indeed are true. The older version of IRK4-nano had some problems with ink flow with certain colors and gives a rather greenish cast when printing in the ABW-mode (Advanced Black and White). Now: this is not something odd, as all the refill inks I have tested had some problems with rendering perfectly neutral ABW prints, as this mode uses some of the light cyan/magenta and yellow inks to support the K, LK and LLk inks in the ABW-mode. A slight imbalance in these light colored inks will cause a color cast in the ABW-mode. My first Image Specialists IM-K4 gave a stronge sepia tone, the first IRK4-nano a greenish cast and the Inkjetfly IMA24/36 gave a strong magenta cast (note: Inkjetfly now sells a newer IMA36 ink set, which might have solved this problem). Also the very cheap OCP K3 ink gave a slight warm tone....but it was much better compared to my previous tested ink sets.

You might have a look at the next pictures, where the small size cartridges were being swapped out for the larger I-refill cartridges:

2251_p1000757-brd.jpg


2251_p1000759-brd.jpg


2251_p1000761-brd.jpg


2251_p1000764-brd.jpg


To show you the advanced reset algorithm of the Inkrepublic.com's I-refill system with my old and refused maintenance tank (the printer says no....), I have used this refused maintenance tank, had the fourth pin taped off and installed it alongside with the I-refill system and it was perfectly accepted:

2251_p1000763-brd.jpg


This is something you must take into account when buying a refill system and your chips (whether your ink cartridges or maintenance tank): chips that are completely shut down by the printer, might pose problem with the other refill systems, because you do not want the printer says "NO" to you like this:

2251_maintenancetank_problem.jpg


Note: the small size cartridges were filled with the (older version) Inkjetlfy IMA24/36 V3 Vivid ink and the I-refill system with the newer version IRK4-nano. To force out the old ink it is necessary to execute 4-5 times a normal cleaning cycle. This amount of cleaning execution has been emperically discovered by me, when I tried the OCP K3 ink (which has a strong distinct glycol smell) and only after 4-5 times of executing I could notice that distinct glycol smell in the absorption material of the maintenance tank, proving the print head has been effectively primed with the new ink. The IRK4-nano ink is almost odorless.

To show you the problem with the ABW-mode I took a picture from some old test prints printed with 3 types of ink: original Epson K3 ink, Image Specialists IM-K4 and the older version IRK4-nano (normal magenta version) and notice the color cast of the Image Specialists and the older version of IRK4-nano:

2251_ink_comparison-brd.jpg


Now have a look at the results of the new version IRK4-nano versus the IMA 24/36 Vivid V3 ink set:

2251_new_irk4-nano_versus_ima24-36-brd.jpg


Both ink sets are similar in gamut (see the first set of patches of Colormunki), but have a look at the result of the ABW-mode (setting: neutral, dark). The new version IRK4-nano is now perfectly neutral, whereas the Inkjetfly IMA24/36 Vivid V3 has a slight magenta/warm cast (inkjetfly has upgraded this ink set with a newer IMA36 version). Finally I have found an ink set that gave me completely neutral ABW.

If you do not mind the large size I-refill system I would definitely go for this refill system, not only are these cartridges much better constructed:

-sturdy material (necessary as the cartridges are constantly under pressure, so this is important)
-much better quality of ink outlet valve (similar to the original cartridges)
-ease of (re)filling: no need of removing the cartridges and you can just pour the ink ink using either the supplied tip lids or a small size funnel.
-advanced reset algorithm: even chips that are shut down by the printer are accepted by the printer when using this refill system (see problem with maintenance tank).
-at last now a perfectly neutral ABW-mode (this was not the case with the older version of the IRK4-nano and other refill inks I have tested)

However: not everybody like these cartridges sticking out from the printer, so you can choose the smaller size cartridges and the I-refill system also must be installed as a complete set, which might be problem if you want to completely consume the original ink. It is however possible to use the original cartridges alongside with I-refill system (taping off the fourth pin of the cartridge chip), but take into account all the chips are reset back to 100 %, so you must be vigilant about the real ink level). Do not forget that, when choosing for the small size cartridges, you must exchange the original cartridges with a refill cartridges when the chip is not below 10-15 %, to ensure that the refill cartridge is accepted by the printer, so eventually you will still leave some ink behind this residual ink in the cartridges. You can transfer this residual ink in your refillable cartridges and mix it with your refill ink. The advantage of the I-refill system is, that it can cope with completely shut down chips.
 

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Edit: Gross miscalculation regarding position of keyboard keys, quality ink supplier brand names and domain names resolved...

Nothing to see here, carry on ;)
 

pharmacist

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Hi Martin,

I am going to correct it, thanks for the tip.
 

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