What epson and canon try to do to stop us from refilling

ltsang

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I bought a new epson cx4800 in January 07. I like to print 8 x 10 photo which use a lot of ink, and the epson can do
the job better than most printers around $100 in the market, being a heaver user, I bought the 2 year warrenty also.
Just last week the printer stop printing yellow. I refill the 601-604 cartridge about 5 times before the printer quit.
Having the warrenty at hand I took the printer to Best Buy and they let me pick up another similar printer. To my
surprise I find all the computer stores around Richmond do not have any Epson printers that uses the old generation
cartridges, I mean the ones that can be reseted by the reseter. All Epson printers they sell use either the new 78
or the 69 series cartridges, which there is no reseter available anywhere for now. That means no one can refill
the new Epson cartridges until someone come up with a reseter which can handles the new 9 pin chip cartridges.
Then I remember the good old BCI 3s and 6s which I can refill easily, again Canon comes out with cheap printers
that use the 40/41s which the printer sells for $50 but the cartridges cost $60+, anyone knows where can I buy
Epson cx4800, 4600, 4200 that uses good old t601, t441 t321 cartridges, or better still, where in Vancouver or
Canada can you buy a new Canon i550, i560 that uses BCI3s? I know some is available in E-bay but I don't like
shopping on-line. I ended by picked up a R260 anyway. The message is anyone buys an Epson or Canon today
will not have the option of refill their inks cheap like before. :mad:
 

lolopr1

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ltsang said:
All Epson printers they sell use either the new 78
or the 69 series cartridges, which there is no reseter available anywhere for now. That means no one can refill
the new Epson cartridges until someone come up with a reseter which can handles the new 9 pin chip cartridges.
You can still refill the new Epson printers (R260,R380 &R580) just search on Ebay for spongeless refilable cartridges for epson R260,R380 & R580. Good luck.

http://item.express.ebay.com/Sponge...140118064948QQihZ004QQtrZexpQQcmdZExpressItem
 

mikling

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Be aware that Epson has been updating the firmware on their latest release of printers so buying these is a game now of knowing whether or not the compatible chips can accept Epson's latest firmware. Refillables produced before Epson's release cannot be used on their new production.

The refillables are equipped with auto-resetting chips.

If you like the old models, you can still find them around but don't search in the Big Box stores. Just a month or two ago Henry's had R340s for $25 with warranty after a rebate if you purchased a digital camera at the same time. These are quite nice and have decent cartridges with decent capacity and can be refilled and reset.
 

InkMon

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With printers you have to make the decision backwards, First consider final use then what quality you want next if you are going to refill and then availability and fillability of cartridges and a good supplier of ink. Lastly you choose a printer model and the best supplier that will offer the best price and after sales service.

I think most people go into a shop see a fancy printer with a pre printed photo in the output tray and with a few encouraging words from a sales guy go away happy. Then find out the caveats.

In Australia I bought a RX530 4 colour there is a dearer 6 colour RX630 but the RX530 uses T0560 type ink tanks, there is a resetter for them and the printer does not lose its monitor if you do refill. In fact when you put in a reset cartridge the monitor resets also. Use top quality ink and what more could you want.

I know more is better but my photo's are as good as I have seen output from any desktop printer.
Epson claim their printheads last the life of a printer thats why they do not make the print head easily removable as with Canon. Clogging is the biggest risk which if the ink tanks are refilled at 10 to 20% full with top quality ink that is very unlikely. I should mention that the RX530 was a multy function and cost $AUD280 but I will save that in two years in ink costs. A new chipped cartridge costs $12.95. I have two sets one in and one out I shall bring that up to a completly full unused set over the next 6 months.

I rambled on a bit but it may help someone.

Terry( A Guy from Oz.)
 

lolopr1

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mikling said:
Be aware that Epson has been updating the firmware on their latest release of printers so buying these is a game now of knowing whether or not the compatible chips can accept Epson's latest firmware. Refillables produced before Epson's release cannot be used on their new production.
The refillables are equipped with auto-resetting chips.
Mikling I don't know what do you mean when you talk about new epson printers firmware but base on my own experience my R380 works great with refillable cartridges with (ARC) that I purchased in ebay. Can you be more specific?
 

ltsang

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lolopr1 said:
ltsang said:
All Epson printers they sell use either the new 78
or the 69 series cartridges, which there is no reseter available anywhere for now. That means no one can refill
the new Epson cartridges until someone come up with a reseter which can handles the new 9 pin chip cartridges.
You can still refill the new Epson printers (R260,R380 &R580) just search on Ebay for spongeless refilable cartridges for epson R260,R380 & R580. Good luck.

http://item.express.ebay.com/Sponge...140118064948QQihZ004QQtrZexpQQcmdZExpressItem
Thanks a lot lolopr1 for the information. I did go to the link to look at the cartridges. Seems to be a terrific solution for people with Epson printers-not only the r series but for older models too. I wish I know about this product before. I 'll get a set asap.
I had 3 Epsons before, one still sits dead: R200, with the waste ink counter full stops it from printing. I always fill those cartridges myself. The last R260 dies when I finish printing 20 8x10 photos, the ink level have gone down to about 10%, so I changed the four cartridges all at the same time. However,all colors prints fine except the yellow. No matter how I clean the heads or let it sit overnight. nothing came out from the yellow printhead. This happened once before. I fixed it by putting a new OEM yellow cartridge in the slot, yellow color flow again, then I switch back my refilled compatable cartridge, and no problem until the ink ran low and I put another refilled cart. Then the yellow never work again .
I suspect when I refill the cartridge, I did not put enough ink into the cartridge so even the indicator showed 10% there is actually no more ink left and that caused air bubbles got into the printhead. My guess correct? From now on I do not use the refill cartridges to the last, refill at 20% left. what do you think.
I also have 4 hp printers (photosmarts), 2 canons and 3 Epsons, but I still findEpson can handle most jobs aside from the nozzle problems. I like to prints my DVDs thats why I have the R260s. By the way how do you know the spongeless refilable cartridges near empty since the indication always shows full without removing
the cartridge and examine it, I am scare of changing cartridges because that is the time Epson printers always fail. Thanks again.
 

mikling

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Epson changed the programming inside the printer for their new production apparently to thwart compatible chips thus the game begins. If you have an older production run it will be OK with the older chips. If you have or purchased a model that was more RECENTLY manufactured ( last three months), then the likelihood of getting the latest firmware within the printer is higher, thus you would need to check that the chips on the cartridge is the latest version.

ltsang your experience with air exacts illustrates that the proper way to get these refillable cartridges going at the first round is to prefill them within a vacuum chamber. I am the only one doing this and I recently sold a set to an Epson tech who commented on this. This allows the cartridge to have ink to the head immediately upon initial installation..... just like your OEM cartridge. If you just pop ink in and and install them you may have to run multiple head cleanings/flushes to get all the air back out that the ink could not get to PLUS when you do this you are using up the limited number of times head cleanings are done before the end of service life of waste ink counter pops up which is fast on the newest models....faster than the older R200.

With the ARC you need to keep an eye on the level so that when it pops from low to high, it's time to refill.
 

mikling

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Oh, for the older generation dye AND current generation pigment single color carts e.g. R200, 220,210, 300, 324, 340 RX500, R800, R1800, R2400
you can always refill like this

http://home.eol.ca/~mikling/files/Epson Instructions 2.pdf.pdf

If your single color carts have 7 gold contacts, it'll work. Otherwise no resetter is available so refilling OEM would be pointless.
 

KnightCrawler

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The Canon's are all still refillable:

1. Canon cli-8 runs out, refill it.
2. Printer warns that you are about to void the warranty.
3. The ink measuring turns off so you will need to check the carts before printing or every so often.
4. Continue printing.

I recommend the Canon IP4300 for high volume use. It's good quality, low cost, easy refill and cd printing make it a great printer.
 

ltsang

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Thanks a lot KnightCrawler for the recommendation, the canon ip4300 seems to be the right choice.
However this morning I saw in Staples there is Canon ip3300 on sale for 59.99, compare
with the ip4300 for 149.99, the difference is that the3300 cannot print CDs and have
only one black cartridge, I have an Epson CD printer already, so would you say I better
buy the 3300 instead unless the print quality for 8x10 photo is much better.
 
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