Great forum! I wish I'd found it earlier... I might not have had to post this message!
I have been successfully refilling my Epson photo 820 for the last few years with ink from re-inks.com. Unfortunately I now seem to have killed the printer. I was cleaning the waste ink pads for the second time, and decided to take the printhead out to clean it (the black had developed a stubborn clog). In the process I must have done something wrong, because when I put it all back together it printed a semi decent nozzle check, but then quit printing altogether (it acts like it is but nothing comes out). According to Arthur Entlich's Epson cleaning manual I may have gotten cleaning fluid on the electronics and shorted them out.
In any case it doesn't work, so I'm looking for a new printer. I've liked the Epson pretty well, but have had problems with what I think must be air locks after refilling from reading I've been doing here. So I'm looking for advice on a new printer that will be easy to refill, and at least as good or better than the 820 in other areas.
Here are the things I liked about the Epson 820:
1. SSC Service Utility (which I understand works for many other Epsons as well).
2. Good quality printing... I don't print many photo's, but do print full color brochures etc.
3. Reasonably easy and cheap to refill
4. Has been quite reliable (till now!)
5. "Advanced" mode in printer setup utilities that allow a lot of flexibility. I've got a Brother MFC210C that my mother abandoned, and most of the utilities can't even be done through the computer, you have to use the buttons and the tiny LCD on the printer to clean the nozzles etc. and for setup you've got like three different settings and that's it! I wouldn't want to buy another printer and find out it was like that!
Things I didn't like:
1. Slow printing... sure it prints like 20ppm in draft but that's such low quality it's not even good for personal use. For the quality I print at ("fine"), it usually takes about two hours for 35 legal size prints, about 1 hour on "normal".
2. Artificial limitations on it's capabilities. My pet peeve is that it does borderless printing up to letter size, but not on legal size, and there's no technical reason why it can't. Not only that, but it won't accept anything longer than 14 inches, so even if I wanted to use larger than 14" long paper and trim off the border, I can't. I know it's probably going to be hard to find a printer that will do this (borderless printing on legal size) without going to one of the expensive proffesional grade printers, but if there are any out there that will do it I'd be interested in knowing.
That's all I can think of right now. If anyone has any wisdom for me I'd appreciate it!
I have been successfully refilling my Epson photo 820 for the last few years with ink from re-inks.com. Unfortunately I now seem to have killed the printer. I was cleaning the waste ink pads for the second time, and decided to take the printhead out to clean it (the black had developed a stubborn clog). In the process I must have done something wrong, because when I put it all back together it printed a semi decent nozzle check, but then quit printing altogether (it acts like it is but nothing comes out). According to Arthur Entlich's Epson cleaning manual I may have gotten cleaning fluid on the electronics and shorted them out.
In any case it doesn't work, so I'm looking for a new printer. I've liked the Epson pretty well, but have had problems with what I think must be air locks after refilling from reading I've been doing here. So I'm looking for advice on a new printer that will be easy to refill, and at least as good or better than the 820 in other areas.
Here are the things I liked about the Epson 820:
1. SSC Service Utility (which I understand works for many other Epsons as well).
2. Good quality printing... I don't print many photo's, but do print full color brochures etc.
3. Reasonably easy and cheap to refill
4. Has been quite reliable (till now!)
5. "Advanced" mode in printer setup utilities that allow a lot of flexibility. I've got a Brother MFC210C that my mother abandoned, and most of the utilities can't even be done through the computer, you have to use the buttons and the tiny LCD on the printer to clean the nozzles etc. and for setup you've got like three different settings and that's it! I wouldn't want to buy another printer and find out it was like that!
Things I didn't like:
1. Slow printing... sure it prints like 20ppm in draft but that's such low quality it's not even good for personal use. For the quality I print at ("fine"), it usually takes about two hours for 35 legal size prints, about 1 hour on "normal".
2. Artificial limitations on it's capabilities. My pet peeve is that it does borderless printing up to letter size, but not on legal size, and there's no technical reason why it can't. Not only that, but it won't accept anything longer than 14 inches, so even if I wanted to use larger than 14" long paper and trim off the border, I can't. I know it's probably going to be hard to find a printer that will do this (borderless printing on legal size) without going to one of the expensive proffesional grade printers, but if there are any out there that will do it I'd be interested in knowing.
That's all I can think of right now. If anyone has any wisdom for me I'd appreciate it!
