Refill ink for old Epson Stylus Photo 750?

[steve30]

Hello all. I'm new to this forum and I'm not sure how I didn't know it existed until recently .

I have an ancient Epson Stylus Photo 750 which I've had from new in 1999. I "retired" it in 2005, and it was only used on odd occasions for a few years after. It has sat in a box in the loft for the last 15 years or so.

As both my LaserJet and my Canon ip4000 conked out recently I decided to dig out the old Stylus. I repaired the head cap assembly which had fallen out of place, and gave the whole mechanism a good clean (the innards were caked in ink). I also took the print head out and gave it a good clean with distilled water. I got some new-old-stock cartridges off ebay (which "expired" in the 2000s) and I'm pleased to say the printer works as good as new .

Since you can't get new cartridges for these any more, I was wondering if anyone has any recommendations for good quality refill ink which I could get here in England? This is a good quality printer and I would like to use it to print photos again (which obviously uses a lot of ink). I would like to get a new photo printer at some point (I'm eyeing up the EcoTank ones), but I'm on a tight budget at the moment so would prefer to make the most of what I have that works.

I used to use "compatible" cartridges with this printer and whilst the quality was OK, it wasn't as good as genuine Epson ones. Also, the compatible ink smelled funny. I've got some generic refill ink, but that also smells funny, and lacks the light cyan and light magenta. I'm open to ideas on what inks to try if anyone has any.

Thanks.
Stephen Coates.

 

[Ink stained Fingers]

I assume from your posting that you are familiar with refilling and have the necessary tools - cartridges etc available.

The best inks you can get are genuine Epson inks - those for the Ecotank printers which come in 70ml bottles . You easily can unscrew the bottle head to get to the inks.
I recommend that you have a look for the pricing of these inks - 106 or 114 which have a very good longevity and gamut. There are other Epson inks which are less durable. And you need to look for the light inks as the T54C bottled inks which are not available as 106 or 114 types.
If longevity is your concern you should stick with these OEM inks; if that's not an issue for you may switch
to 3rd party inks compatible for a wider range of Epson printers like the 1400 or 1500 photoprinters or similar. But please do not consider these 3rd party inks as a specific recommendation because their performance can vary very much between different types.

 

[steve30]

Thanks for the suggestions.

I have refilled cartridges before so its not new to me.

Longevity has never been that much of an issue to me. I have photos printed with crappy compatible cartridges onto crappy paper which have lasted fine for 20+ years, albeit when kept in the dark. They don't last long when on display, but I keep most of my photos in albums/boxes and get professional prints done for anything which is going to be regularly exposed to daylight.