Epson R200 ink refill or cartridges

[james_stewart]

Has anyone had any success with generic ink or am I going to have to stick with epson ink. $78 to replace all 6 ink tanks...ouch. It sounds like i'm better off selling this printer on Ebay and just buying a new one. What have you guys done?

[toto31]

T'was sad to read your post regarding the Epson R200 ink cartridge costing much to much money.

I too, also just purchased the R200 and have noticed in just one day, I'm already down to the halfway mark in ink usage. That seems a bit insane to me, but Epson truly wants "buck" us all, and has found a "take no prisoners" solution to making money for the stockholders.

Okay, as for "generic" ink, that's all I've been using from day one...

Yes, generic I say....just go to "dealink.com' and you will get the lowest prices on the internet...

I don't have any problem with "dealink.com" and the purchasing of the generic stuff. On occasion, I do have to clean the "heads" if there's a "clog", but all in all, I'm happy with "dealink.com".

Of course, you'll have to make the final choice as to whom you purchase you're ink from on "dealink.com".

I usually go for the cheapest, and have had no problems.
The R200 goggles up ink, as far as I can see......up to now.

Maybe I'm wrong, since this is a new printer for me, and perhaps in time, it will be a bit more frugal with its ink consumption.

Yes, I've heard some "horror" stories about these "generic" ink monsters, but, I've have had no problem, so go figure....

I did notice that no one sent you an answer to your ink dilemma, and that's a cruel situation, since most of the members probably are aware of the "generic" stuff, and surely there's many members who could have given you this very simple solution.

So, go to: dealink.com and check it out. Frankly, I think as cheap as dealink.com is, its still pretty expensive if your gonna us the liquid stuff in the R200.

But, the friggin dvd's and cd's do come out damn good, and that's why I'm pretty happy with the R200.

Good luck...

[Supreme2k]

My suggestion (and also what I practice):

Use the R200 for printing DVDs only. Buy an inexpensive photo printer (I have a Canon, $28 total for ink replacement), and use that for paper (text, photos, etc.). I am not quite through with the included ink tanks, and I have gotten over 80 DVDs printed (50%-90% coverage).

[Lobe]

has anyone tried the $6.50 a cart replacements from Rima.com? --still waiting on my R200 from the OD idiots!

[djKale]

I used to sell wholesale copiers and office products and can get great deals on "generic" ink. I used to have an epson 640 that I used for years and only paid one dollar for black, 2 bucks for the color cartridges. I have a list of printers and the cost of their associated ink cartrides if you think you are paying too much.

The R200 refills sell for about $5 wholesale.

I recently bought an HP PSC1210 and have been using generic refills, and I finally had a problem with the ink cartridges. A brand new pair fixed the problem. I'm guessing some printers are picky about cartridges, some aren't.

Kale

[disturbed1]

My suggestion (and also what I practice):

Use the R200 for printing DVDs only. Buy an inexpensive photo printer (I have a Canon, $28 total for ink replacement), and use that for paper (text, photos, etc.). I am not quite through with the included ink tanks, and I have gotten over 80 DVDs printed (50%-90% coverage).

That's what I do. After the first set of carts, I'm getting 350-400 DVD prints per ink set. I also use a chip resetter to to reset the chips on the epson carts. This will give you about 25-30 more full coverage prints per color. If black says it's empty, I reset it, and am able to print at least 25 more almost all black full coverage labels. <- That's were Epson and HP really rip us off at. Epson counts the number of prints with their "smart chip", not the actual volume of ink. Though the R200 is not as bad as the Photo 825.

I don't like most "generic" carts. I've had bad experiences with clogs, and completely burning out nozels, esp. with Epson (Photo 825, C64, C44, and some Canons). The generics don't have the correct valve design, and can lead to clogging from ink pooling near the nozzle. You also should change your ICC profiles, because the color match is not the same as it is with OEM ink carts. I refill the carts for all of my Canon models, and my 2 Epson Photo 825s, with mediastreet inks.



If you shop around, good deals can be found on original inks. Staples, Office Max, and Office Depot all have coupons for $10-$25+ off orders. If you buy in bulk (5+ complete sets), www.atlex.com can save you some money over retail too.


I used the $6.50 black from www.rima.com . If you're cheap, it's OK, but I could tell differences between it and an OEM cart. The ink inside seemed to contain more chemical than an OEM cart, you can actually smell the difference. I also had to set the printer to lay down more black, which effectivity made the cart not achieve as many prints. But the yield was still high enough for it to save over Epson branded carts.

I only used one, and it didn't clog anything as I stated above. The clogs I have recieved come from using set after set of generic carts.


I believe Epson has a lifetime warranty on their print heads, as long as you only use Epson ink. One wouldn't think they would do a chemical test to see if the ink in the printhead is different than the OEM ink

[Cholerabob]

I'm getting 350-400 DVD prints per ink set.

?? How do you get these results? What quality of printing do you use ? Can't be photo...

[disturbed1]

I'm getting 350-400 DVD prints per ink set.

?? How do you get these results? What quality of printing do you use ? Can't be photo...

CD/DVD premium surface, 0 setting.

Photo, glossy, and every thing else just look like crap, and lead to smudges and slow drying times from too much ink being laid down. You need to match the print settings to the paper type. There are no photo DVDs, nor Glossy DVDs, so there is no need to pick those settings.

If your printing on normal paper, would you choose super glossy as the paper type

[Cholerabob]

Sorry my bad , mistook DVD prints for inserts...Stupid me. I get about the same for dvd prints.

[overloaded_ide]

If your printing on normal paper, would you choose super glossy as the paper type

I certainly would
Well, ok maybe just gloss paper or photo paper. I have had some really sharp photos on normal Great white paper about 102 briteness. Also Georgia-pacific card stocks when using photo settings. Sure I can see the reverse images on the back of the normal paper, but who looks at the back? Sometimes it saturates the paper too much and it wrinkles abit. Most the time it looks much better than using the standard normal paper settings though. Never had a problem yet with cardstock. I seldom use photo papers or coated, but yes they do look great when I do use them for something specail. All this printing I do is on a canon I850 now, and I refill too.

As for the R200 except for some test prints (8x10) photos I only use it for printable disks! I love the quality, but in all reality the R200 is slower than my I850 and the prints I can see any better quality anyway. I printed the same photos with both on glossy photo paper with same best settings. The R200 had OEM inks (never used up the first set yet) and the I850 has been refilled about 100 times and I was using the refill ink. Quality for all practical purposes was the same and the I850 did it faster.

As for refilling I just posted a giant post earlier today about that.
Check out thread
https://www.videohelp.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=227064

[jurynel]

"I believe Epson has a lifetime warranty on their print heads, as long as you only use Epson ink. One wouldn't think they would do a chemical test to see if the ink in the printhead is different than the OEM ink"

Not from where I am!!! Only a year, then you cough up if it goes! but epson print heads tend to be durable, one of my 980's has finished it's fourth litre of ink last week... by the way - on generic ink!

[Greg12]

pricegrabber.com anyone?