R3000 - ebay pigment ink/cart set and other questions

[JaskaH]

Greetings everyone, this is my first post on the forum.

I found this forum through DPR, and I'm amazed at the amount of information and dedication on here. Thanks a lot to all the contributors and most of all, pharmacist, whose posts have given me a lot of information about the R3000!

Anyway, on to my questions. First, a little background info: I've been photographing for some years now, and only recently I decided that I really need to start printing my images myself after I came to the conclusion that this is in fact an integral part of this hobby. I haven't printed images for many years (I have a laser printer for the office stuff). I had a cheap inkjet printer about 15 years ago, but I got fed up with the expensive cartridges and transitioned to laser soon thereafter (hadn't yet found photography back then, and only used the printer for text).

Things have of course changed by now, and after doing some quick browsing on various photography sites, I settled on an Epson R3000. I originally contemplated getting a 3880, but decided that it would really be overkill for my use (and it's twice the price as well - but for a reason, of course). So, after placing the order for the printer, I looked into media (ordered a couple of rolls of satin paper and some baryta sheets), and then I started looking into refillable cartridges, and pretty much ordered the first set of carts and pigment ink I found on ebay.

I then stumbled on this site, and am now of course kicking myself for ordering the set of ink blindly. Luckily the set wasn't that expensive, but I'm still a bit cautious about the ink. The carts will be delivered empty (apart from one of the blacks), so I am now wondering whether I should fill them with the delivered ink at all, or just order a set of known good inks and use them to fill the carts? If I do decide to bite the bullet and fill the carts with the ebay ink, is there a chance that any future inks I use can react with the old ink in the carts and cause clogs?

I also read the writeup concerning the waste ink tank, and will probably do the mod to my printer as well (after making sure it works - the waste tank mod will surely void the warranty). Apparently, the waste ink tank won't help with the waste ink counter, though, so how long can I expect the printer to work before it will give the waste ink pad warning, if I print, say, two A3 images per week?

Again, thanks a lot for the wealth of information on here, and for any answers/insight to my questions. I'm mostly concerned about the no-name pigment ink I will be receiving and whether or not it will give me any trouble.

 

[pharmacist]

Hi JaskaH,

Actually there are alot of other senior and skillful contributors beside me at this forum.

About the waste ink tank: actually you do not need to drill a tiny hole as I have done: you can redirect the tubing towards the grill of the vent holes behind the priinter and even in the most unlikely case you should send the printer for repair to Epson, they probably won't notice that tiny hole in the side panel....provide you re-attach the tubing inside the printer back into its normal position.

Now about the refill ink: I have purchased a cheap CISS with for me a rather unknown refill ink from Colorgraph limited in the UK and I was actually pretty pleased with the results (when profiled): not clogging or other ill effects, but the ink faded very fast in less then two months.
Most probably the ink is not really bad, but I am not sure about results on the long term, including clogging.

Good inks are for example: Inkrepublic's IRK4-nano (www.inkrepublic.com), Image Specialists IM-K4 (www.precisioncolors.com and www.octoinkjet.co.uk), Inkjetfly IMA24/36 (www.inkjetfly.com). These are the inks I have tested and are more than satisfactory to pretty good.

I have been active at dpreview.com (apotheker), but I am not sure what to believe there from some posts, because some individuals tend to promote this or that company on every post (almost like a parrot quoting the same phrase time after time) from members asking for refill/aftermarket inks.....making me a bit suspicious about the intention of these posts, especially if they do not post proof of their findings or test results, like I do. Sometimes I get great results, sometimes not.....

Now: I have tested several refill inks and each ink set has its pro's cand con's. You want excellent quality: go for the original Epson K3 Vivid ink, but at considerable lower prices the aftermarket inks are pretty good deal and can give you more than satisfactory and even very good results.

In short: your refill carts + ink can be great, but a disappointment as well.

 

[JaskaH]

pharmacist, thanks for the response and for the suggestions. I suppose I will just try the ebay inks - no point in leaving them to dry without even trying.

Thanks also for the list of known good inks. I will research them some more.

Jaakko

 

[Fenrir Enterprises]

The problem if you use your eBay inks and don't like them, then you have to buy new empty carts too, not just ink. You really don't want to be mixing different brands of ink together and you can't really "wash out" a cartridge.

 

[JaskaH]

The problem if you use your eBay inks and don't like them, then you have to buy new empty carts too, not just ink. You really don't want to be mixing different brands of ink together and you can't really "wash out" a cartridge.

Is that true? This is what I was originally afraid of, but it still sounds a bit harsh. So does everyone just by a new set of carts every time they change their ink spplier? Also, the new ink is obviously mixed with the old ink in the feed tubes from the carts to the print head, but I suppose the old ink clears out quite fast from the tubes. And I understand that there is a small reservoir in the cart, which always has some ink in it, even when the cart is empty, which does make the idea of switching inks a bit dubious.

Anyway, thanks for the feedback. I guess I need to think things over before filling the carts.