Need low cost, good quality ink for epson c80... need help!

[phatj]

I have an epson c80 printer, and the cost for ink cartidges is outrageous. can anyone recommend a good quality subsitiute for my printer? Thanks.

 

[Peter]

Not a good idea. Epson's print heads are very easily clogged, and ridiculously expensive. 3rd party ink is not really saving cost. Besides, Epson strongarms all the 3rd party makers of ink via patent lawsuits.

Want low ink cost? Get a Canon. They have low cost, from the midrange upward even separate ink carts for EACH color, there's 3rd party ink available, and their print heads are just semi-permanent, serviceable and - should things ever go very wrong which they rarely do - affordable.

 

[Mem]

Not a good idea. Epson's print heads are very easily clogged, and ridiculously expensive. 3rd party ink is not really saving cost. Besides, Epson strongarms all the 3rd party makers of ink via patent lawsuits.

I`ll have to disagree with Peter on this one,my Epson C70 which`s a few years old now(uses same carts as C80 btw)has been using Jet-Tec ink carts since my original Epsons went empty ,the quality is excellent and I`ve no problems with clogged heads even when my printer is not used for awhile.

Price wise they are about 1/3 the cost of Epson carts so have saved me loads of money, infact more then cost of a new printer.

Jet-tec homepage .

 

[Erasmus-X]

Want low ink cost? Get a Canon. They have low cost, from the midrange upward even separate ink carts for EACH color, there's 3rd party ink available, and their print heads are just semi-permanent, serviceable and - should things ever go very wrong which they rarely do - affordable.

Ummm.....in case you didn't know, the Epson Stylus C80 also uses separate colors for each ink tank, very much like a lot of the new Canon models do. I have the C82, which is an updated model, and ink costs haven't been much of an issue for me, even with lots of printing. $32 retail for a black cartridge that lasts me about 600-700 pages, and $12 for each color (the life of the colors vary a lot though). Canon has virtually the same ink costs of you sit down and analyze things. The black ink tank used in the i550 model for example, uses a small black cartridge in comparison to competitors. So a black cartridge for that printer might cost $14 retail, but you're replacing it more.

And about the 3rd party cartridge thing, good luck on that one. Epson-branded inks for that model are pigment-based and designed to be water resistant. The 3rd party ink doesn't save tons of money and can void your printer's warranty.

 

[Mem]

And about the 3rd party cartridge thing, good luck on that one. Epson-branded inks for that model are pigment-based and designed to be water resistant. The 3rd party ink doesn't save tons of money and can void your printer's warranty.

In my case my warranty has well expired so that`s not even a factor,now lets look at the cost ,I`m in the UK and the average price for an Epson cart is around £12.99 for each colour,I can get Jet-Tec carts for £4 each,I normally buy a full set for every colour including black so save about £34($50)you see that`s a big difference and when you factor that in several times a year you see the savings are huge,as to the water resistant dye well I always leave my prints in a cool dry place .

 

[Peter]

OK, lets sit down and analyze.

Canon: black (12.90) lasting 330 pages, color (10.90) 470, both nominally.
Epson's black is (34.90) lasting 870 pages, color carts are (17.90) in the same shop, lasting 420 pages.

In black that's 0.0401 per page for Epson and 0.0391 for Canon, about par.

But when going color, you'll see my point. Color cartridge cost per page per cartridge is 0.0232 for Canon and 0.0426 for Epson. In my book that's almost twice as much.

 

[Jolt2]

I get my ink from www.tylermartin.com. I have used the "Made in USA" ink cartridges the day the ink that came with my printer ran out. I have a Epson color 880 and it works fine for me and saves me alot of money.

I stay with the same brand of aftermarket ink (USA) which I think has helped reduce problems because I have not had any. My wife prints alot of pictures with this ink and they look good. I will say that if you are doing alot of photo printing, and want the best possible prints, stay with Epson paper and ink. With the after market ink, you have to do some adjusting to get the colors looking really good but this can be caused by the paper too.

Before I had my Epson 880, I had a Epson 800 and I used the USA ink in that too. After years of use, the photo print quality went down and I bought the 880 for $50.00. If I look back on the money I saved in ink, I more that payed for my new printer and still use the old for text printing for the kids.

Canon makes very good printers too. My first printer was a Canon BJC-600 that I sold with my first system. The print head on the Canon's are replacable by the end user were the Epson's are not. The cost of the Canon print head is $100.00+ the last time I checked. At that cost, I will go buy a new printer if the print head fails, so that feature is not a big deal for the average user.

Also, www.tylermartin.com they have ink cleaning cartridges for the Epson if you would need them.

 

[Peter]

The (permanent) head for the BJC-600 was a very expensive thing, because it essentially was four BJ-300 print heads in one block, and because disassembling the thing took hours. This is oooold technology. In today's Canon printers, the head is out by the flick of a lever, and is inexpensive (remember that the quoted prices usually are INCLUDING a complete inkset).

 

[Jolt2]

Peter, my Canon BJC-600 may have been a BJC-600e. All I had to do to get the print head out was pull the ink cartridges out and push a clip. The whole print head came out. I had to do this about every 3 or 4 months because the printer would not print properly. What I found was that the connections between the printer and print head were not make good contact. I would remove the print head and clean the contact pad, then put the head back in and the print was as good as new again. That is when I checked on the price of a new print head. If it did not cost to much, I would just replace it and found that it cost about $100.00 from Canon. For that much money, I just took the head out and cleaned it off. That was after I figured out what the problem was.

When I am looking at inkjet printers, the only brands I look at now are Canon or Epson. Which ever brand I can get the best deal on is the one I buy. Some news I heard was that Xerox is coming out with a new lower priced printer at the end of this year. The Xerox will use a heated wax type ink and will be priced to compete with the mid inkjet printers. It will not have the qerks that inkjets printers are know for (running ink on paper when wet, clogged jets). Will have to wait and see how the Xerox turns out.

 

[Peter]

Yeah, I know the 600 series pretty well. They were the first single-ink printers for the desktop, in fact, I still have one here.
What you think is the print head is further disassembled into four actual print heads, assorted plastics, and a rubber joint.

On the bottom line, I've been selling and servicing printers for ages, and I've "done" all the Canon bubblejets ever since the first one, the BJ-10, came out. In that long time, over 15 years, I have learnt one thing: Canons don't die. In fact, I just come from replacing a handful of rubber transmission rings (28 cents each) from a BJ-230 that's been running daily for over a decade - and this was the first service this thing needed, ever.

 

[Macro2]

RE:"Ummm.....in case you didn't know, the Epson Stylus C80 also uses separate colors for each ink tank, very much like a lot of the new Canon models do. I have the C82, which is an updated model, and ink costs haven't been much of an issue for me, even with lots of printing. $32 retail for a black cartridge that lasts me about 600-700 pages, and $12 for each color (the life of the colors vary a lot though). Canon has virtually the same ink costs of you sit down and analyze things. The black ink tank used in the i550 model for example, uses a small black cartridge in comparison to competitors. So a black cartridge for that printer might cost $14 retail, but you're replacing it more."


LOL, I can refill a Canon BCI-3 cartridge for pennies on the dollar in a matter of a few minutes. I also have a Canon i850 running continuous feed so I never have to refill a cartridge.

At any time I can see how much in in a Canon cartridge because they are clear.

I've filled the same Canon cartridge over 100 times and it still works fine.

Out of the remaining losers, Epson is probably the best choice. But not close to Canon.

Mac