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Epson Stylus 600 sucks! Recommend a new ink jet printer?

Hop

Hop

Member
I have an Epson Stylus Color 600 and I'm hoping to buy my LAST ink cartridge. I print a great deal of text based content and color is important, but photo quality is not.

Can someone recommend a printer that won't rape my wallet every month because of ink cartridge cost?

300 pages per B/W cartridge for my printer... at $21 a pop. ARG!

Plus, my Epson 600 is very noisy, and it takes several minutes to go through its start up diagnostics if not used within a day. The heads are permanent too and I heard that some ink cartridges contain their own print head. Is that true? And what about printers that use separate cartridges for each color?

Thanks!

Hop
 
I am happy with my old Epson 600. I refill the cartridges and save alot of money. Even the generic replaces cartridges are not that expensive as compared to the Epson brand. You can get low prices on generics at places like Egay and YahooAuctions.

Most of the HP printers used to come with print heads on their cartridges. I am not sure about ther new models however.
 
Just about any printer out there will use a lot of ink cartridges which are always expensive. I buy generic cartridges and then refill them. One pair of cartridges and one $30 refill kit lasted my Epson 600 over a year; still going too.
 
I had my Epson 600 for 3 years yes it`s noisy but I used generic (compatible ink carts) saved me lots of money,now I use the Epson C70 which is so quiet and has seperate ink carts for each colour,also the generic brands are out for the C70/C80 model in a few weeks so I will save money on that as well.



🙂
 
I had an Epson 800 for 3 years it was noisy and not very cheap either, but it did last. I just had to replace it and got an HP 920C. I like it so far. It does have a crappy warrenty but w/ HP I dont think I will need it. Depending on price range I have also heard great things about the Epson c60 and c80. Good luck in your search.
 
Thanks guys for all the info! What sparked this whole thing was my talk with my roomate. He has a Canon BJC4300 and has the ability to use a BLACK ONLY cartridge ($28) or color and black (black is $7, color is $28 or individual ink well replacements). You can replace the whole cartridge (which contains the head too) or individual ink wells. He prints all the time, and replaces one or the other about every six months.

With my Epson 600, if the color runs out, the printer is dead until I replace that cartridge. My roomates has been out of color for about a year, and it still prints... albeit in B&W. That is what I'm looking for.

THEN! I see a thread here for a lexmark laser printer for $69 bucks (with coupons, and rebates), but is that a more cost-effective solution for me? Laser cartridges can be very expensive...?

Thanks again for the help guys. I've learned to come here to get some really good advice, even after RTFMing, and searching threads to keep from posting a repeated question. Anandtech has made my Athlon XP1800+ system a reality, and my loyalty here is very stong.

Regards,

Hop
 
black and white.. toner for laser will last a LONG time..... but since you need color.... Whatever you buy that's cheap will probably be color cart, or black, not both, and break down soon. HP is very nice.. but black carts aren't all that cheap either. But they do seem to last a while for me... but i can't say much for heavy volume printing. Separate color carts i have always like, but never w/ any printer that had them.


if you can live w/ b/w+greyscale, look for a laser.. it will be more cost effective. if you need color, i would stay away from cheapo deals... HP is nice and quiet. i think it runs $25/$35 for black/color... not sure if that went up any lately. I do not know how many pages it's suppose to last tho...
 
The Epson Stylus C80 seems to be a great printer. PC Magazine gave it the Editors Choice rating due to quality, cost per page and it uses WATER PROOF INKs!!! Cost per page is $0.04, among the lowest.

I am looking foward to finding generic for the C80. I've done some looking but haven't found any yet. I wonder if the generic will be water proof?
 

techwanabe,

from what I've heard Epson went a great length to stop the generic carts for the Stylus Photo's and now to the C70/C80... The ink carts have some kind of chip in them and the printers seem to work only with these.

I haven't seen here in Portugal any generic ink tank for the most recent Stylus Photo's so I don't think that I'll be seing some generic inks to the Stylus C70/C80, especially due to the DuraBrite/ColorFast pigmented inks.

I can also be completly wrong on this, if u find any generic brand that supports the C70/C80 post the info here
 


<< can also be completly wrong on this, if u find any generic brand that supports the C70/C80 post the info here >>



Here in the UK go

to Cartridgeland for them , look near the bottom at the C70/C80 range

<< Available early April 2002
Stylus C70/C80 Black Ink Cartridge

Includes chip so no need for re-programming.

PRE ORDER NOW AS DEMAND WILL BE HIGH ON RELEASE!
 >>



It says the same thing for cyan,yellow,magneta etc,

and




another site , so not long to wait now 🙂.
 

Nice info there Mem

Hope to see them around here in Portugal in the near future...

The C80 sure looks a lot nicer now...
 
I'll 2nd that mem! Nice info! And thanks to everyone else who has shared their thoughts on the C60 and C80.
I saw a reference in another thread to a c70 but I don't even see that model on their (epson) website. Was that a typo?

Time to go eShopping. 😀

Hop
 
I can live with the $12 individual color cartridge prices (prices quoted on the Epson site), but $32 for the black? WOW! I went to the sites listed in this thread for chipped compatibles (generics) but they are all in pounds. Is there a US supplier? I was a bit alarmed to find that the sites I went to didn't have a column for dollars... just pounds. Does that mean they do not sell (or ship) to the US? If they did, what would be the shipping delay/cost? I'm one of those "I want it tomorrow" type of ppl.

Does anybody here have a benchmark (loosely termed) for about how many pages with the C80 they get printing text from a black ink (or any of the color) cartridges? I figure, at $0.04 a page, you get about 800 pages of B/W text from a black cartridge? Is that close? I can live with that.

Hop
 
Hop, Sorry but I live in the UK so only know sites and prices that are UK ones hence the "Pounds" 😉,I`m sure if you do a search in Google under C70 or C80 Compatible inks something will turn up for you in the USA.

Nagger no problem we try to help each other here 😉.
 
I have an ancient HP4L laser that almost 10 yrs on faithfully hammers out b&w pages on the cheap. A newer HP882 has separate black and color carts for the color stuff and line graphics. You just can't beat lasers for low cost text printing and reliability. I have never had a lick of trouble with either and cartridges are available at Walmart. Some low cost outfit keeps me in toner with exchange cartridges - they ship both ways for free.

Rule of thumb is stay away from cheapo printers of any brand - they don't have many pages in the supplied cartridge - in fact they have to sell you 2 cartridges just to make a profit on the printer - hence the technology to ensure you buy OEM refills!
 


<< Can someone recommend a printer that won't rape my wallet every month because of ink cartridge cost? >>



To use generic cartridges buy either Epson or Cannon.

If you are paying over $20 per cartridge you are paying too much!

I have an Epson Stylus Color 600 and I get CHEAP cartridges.

I have found them as cheap as $1.50 ea. black! (Do a search @ pricewatch.com)

www.inkjets.com at my last purchase was 7.95 black 13.95 color. (free shipping as long as you buy 5 or more)
The quality of these seem to be as good as OEM.
 
Thanks xbassman for the info. I had no idea you could get generics for my Epson 600. What's weird is that I come here to look for info about a new piece of hardware I'm buying, and yet, I didn't even think to do something about the freaking price of my cartridges.

I'm still in love with my friend's printer. Cannon BJC-4300. Even when the color ink is out, it will still print in B&W. On my Epson 600, all I get is a solid red light. :|

Thanks also to azkiwi, Mem, lnguyen, Jeff7, and any that I missed for responding, and offering a great deal of information. I might even keep my Epson 600 a little longer now that I might be able to refill it cheaply.

One MORE question... a replacement head for the 600? Has anyone done that and how much did it cost you if you did? I know I have clogged jets. I don't clean them often because the ink (retail) is more expensive than Arctic Silver 3. :Q

Hop
 
THere is also a clogged head cleaning method of using home rubbing alochol to try and dissolve the dried ink. That topic has been mentioned pretty often. I believe there is even a web page explaining it in more detail. But some people claim it may cause damage, however, it worked for me when one of my color ink heads was clogged.

I would recommend that this series of printers from Epson should be turned on about once a week in order to avoid ink clogging the heads.
 
Yeah, the New England Patriots won, but they got there on a lucky call or two during their post-season game with the Raiders. I hated the patriots for that, but admittedly, the better team won, and won BIG! I don't think the Raiders could have gone as far, but that is the subject of large speculation.

Anyway, the Patriots certainly earned it. I was pulling for them in the Superbowl.

I also read a few links telling of the possible damage to the Epson 600 heads while cleaning them. That is why I asked for links for head replacements.

Hop
 
Thanks 4824guy for the research, and the links. $7 is CERTAINLY LESS than $23.95!!!

Absolutely!

Hop
 
I don't get to this forum much, and hope I'm not too late to help.
Been using ink from megatoners for past couple years. First with my 600 and now with my 860.
Excellent photo quality prints using their ink. Never a clog or problem.
And, nothing can touch the prices.

Epson Ink

For the 600, how does $1.45 black, and $2.99 color sound?

They come in retail packaging that is hard to tell apart from Epson originals!
Shipping is $3.95 per order, not per item, but order 15 or more and shipping is free.
I usually place an order for myself and a couple friends to get free shipping.
 
Yes, I still check this thread, and yes that is some good information. I think I'll go there and grab a couple cartridges each. I can't figure out how they can be that cheap, and epson (official) can be so ^#$&@^$ expensive?

Hop
 
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