Soon: big test of refillable Epson Pro 3800 cartridges + resetters

[pharmacist]

Have a look at the first page at the very bottom: you can see the information on the resetter: T6171/T6161 and a quick googling will reveal to you that these are the cartridges for the B-500DN. You check it yourself again, but I have been sent this resetter and it works on the waste ink tank and also on the cartridge chips, but only if it is not registered as empty by the printer or it will not reset.

 

[printfan1138]

Read this on InkJetCarts web site and apparently they have tutorials on how to use their cartridges in an Epson 3800. I hope it helps someone here, I'm not even close to Buying an Epson 3800 myself, wayyyy to rich for my pocketbook...."Refilling solution for the Epson Pro 3800 w/120ml cartridges. Yes the carts are longer than factory carts and Yes the ink bay cover requires removal (an extremly easy thing to do)."

Watch the 3 part videos on our support page.
This ink will perform as Epson Ultrachrome k3 inks do; Up to 200 years in an album. If you like Epson printers just not their ink prices, order this kit with the ink options and receive the equivalent of 3 sets of factory carts worth of inks in your initial order (larger sizes available). Refill inks as low as $3.60 per 80ml position (bulk ink purchase required) Compatible with Epson Pro 3800 Spongeless Cartridges with a special modified master chip (two each provided in kit) The remaining 7 chips are transferred from your Epson carts to our carts. SO KEEP YOUR EPSON CARTS AND CHIPS.

 

[LX5-user]

Have a look at the first page at the very bottom: you can see the information on the resetter: T6171/T6161 and a quick googling will reveal to you that these are the cartridges for the B-500DN. You check it yourself again, but I have been sent this resetter and it works on the waste ink tank and also on the cartridge chips, but only if it is not registered as empty by the printer or it will not reset.

Hi Pharmacist,

I took your advice and ordered the exact chip resetter for B-500DN from szmegacolor about a month ago. The delivery took over 3 weeks. The resetter just arrived today and I couldn't wait to test the resetter. The result is amazing. I can reset the almost empty OEM ink cartridge back to 100% full. However, my experience with the maintenance tank chip reset is a different story. After the tank was reset and put back to the printer, the printer reported non-OEM cartridge is detected and asked if I want to continue. I selected yes to continue and then the printer prompted again it would void the warranty etc. I selected yes, and the printer accepted the maintenance tank but it registered the tank as 0% empty (meaning tank full) rather than 100%. I think it might be because the maintenance tank was 0% when I replaced it with a new one. I tried to swap between the new and the empty tank but the result was the same.

Anyway I really appreciate your help and shared the valuable information with everyone. My next step is to try to refill the OEM cartridge. I found a way to refill the OEM cartridge. The only obstacle was to reset the OEM cartridge chip. I'll keep you posted on my next experiment.

 

[pharmacist]

Hi LX5-user,

could you also share your information how to refill the original OEM cartridge ? I tried this, but the one-way valve made it virtually impossible to refill these cartridges.

 

[LX5-user]

Hi LX5-user,

could you also share your information how to refill the original OEM cartridge ? I tried this, but the one-way valve made it virtually impossible to refill these cartridges.

Hi Pharmacist,

Sorry for the late reply. I tried to take some photos of the modified one way valve to show you how I modified it. I actually removed the plastic ink outlet from an empty OEM cartridge to study how the one way valve works. The valve is just a piece of plastic located at the end of the plastic ink outlet stem. To allow ink to be injected to the cartridge ink pouch, you need to punch a hole on the plastic one way valve such that the ink can pass through the hole into the storage pouch. It's just that simple. I modified another empty cartridge and injected it with water as an experiment. The water was injected to the pouch effortlessly. Personally, I think the OEM cartridge design is much better than some non OEM refillable cartridge. Its rubber seal, the pressurizable ink compartment, the mylar ink pouch are of much better quality and design.

What I did was to use a safety pin that is long enough to punch a small hole on the one way valve at the end of the plastic ink outlet mouth piece. I used a masking tape to mark the safety pin insertion length so that you won't accidentally punch a hole on the mylar ink pouch and ruin the cartridge. The length of the pin is just long enough to bore a hole on the valve. I measured the length of the pin penetration is about 38mm.

Before you break the one way valve, you need to first remove the tiny spring loaded plastic plug at the mouth of the ink outlet. This is the easiest step actually. First use a tweezer, a tooth pick, or a small flat head screw driver to pry out the plastic retainer. Next, remove the rubber seal with a tooth pick. Personally I like tooth pick than any metal tool with a sharp edge which can easy cut and damage the rubber seal. Once the rubber seal is removed, you can just put the cartridge up side down to let the plastic plug and the metal spring to fall off. Make sure you remember the origination of the plastic plug when you reinstall them back. The plug is round on one end and flat on another. The round end should be facing the spring.

When inserting the safety pin, keep the pin as vertical and as parallel to the ink outlet as possible, use force gently and slowly punch a hole on the valve. Don't overshoot once the pin bored through the valve. Next reinstall the spring, plastic plug, rubber seal and the retainer in the reverse order.

I haven't refill the cartridges yet because they are still not empty. I think the proper procedure to refill the cartridge is to first empty the ink pouch by extracting the remaining ink and air out of the pouch first and then injet 80ml ink to the cartridge, then extract the excess air out of the pouch just like any standard ink refill procedure. I was lucky enough that I have a refill syringe that fits perfectly to the ink outlet opening. When injecting or extracting water, there was no leakage.

I don't know how to post photos on my reply. Let me know how to post a photo and I will include them in the next post.

 

[pharmacist]

Hi LX5-user,

on the top of this site there is a link (upload), follow the instructions and copy and paste the created link to your reply and it will show up als picture on this site. Make sure the images are smaller than 100 KB (resize, compress), or they might be depicted like small images.

thanks for sharing,

 

[l_d_allan]

About the printing quality of this printer, after so many pages of printing I am still amazed by the printing quality.

Interesting thread, although I use Canon printers and dye ink so it is just academic to me.

I am curious about how much printing you do ... I infer a lot since I think I recall reading that the Epson oem carts for 38x0 are 80 ml (almost 3 oz). Or am I mistaken? The CLI-8 carts in my Pro 9000-2 are rated to hold 13 ml. Do you sell prints professionally?

 

[pharmacist]

Hi allan,

Actually not. Guess it is my peculiar hobby to beat the encryption of printers to minimize running costs with a minimum loss of quality. There are several members on this forum who are commercially involved in refilling business and I am pretty sure they have been benefitting well due to my posts, like the introduction of the German Durchstich refill method: I found several companies are now selling syringe/needle kits based on these posts. Oh well, I spent the money, others will benefit from my experiments on refilling and resetting and trying out several refill inks.

Since I am not commercially linked to any refill company, most forum members and guest readers will hopefully enjoy the testing results, without being biased towards a particular refill ink/company. The reason there are too many new posters writing product placement topics of a particular CISS, refill system or refill ink and saying: Ohhh, so good, you have to try this.....

But there are many good and experienced and unbiased members too on this forum, who can easily help you with a good alternative for your ink/cartridges.

 

[pharmacist]

Just a quick update: Inkjetfly upgraded their refillable Epson Pro 3800/3880 cartridges and a time ago and recently Leo Chang contacted me to have this system tested for him as this system has some interesting new features and most importantly the quality of the refill ink. As soon as I have received the cartridges I will perform some tests on it and report back.

 

[northbeach]

Just a quick update: Inkjetfly upgraded their refillable Epson Pro 3800/3880 cartridges and a time ago and recently Leo Chang contacted me to have this system tested for him as this system has some interesting new features and most importantly the quality of the refill ink. As soon as I have received the cartridges I will perform some tests on it and report back.

Looking forward to your review.