Well I recently got my R200 and I love it! Im also running out of black ink and would like to order it from megatoners.com. Ive read some good reviews about it and it is as cheap as I found ink to be.
I just have one question. When I put those carts in, will the epson software refill the ink back to the top? I mean if it cant read the carts than it will always show empty and will not print. I know there are programs that can freeze the counter, but I want to know now, so that I can freeze it now as opposed to later when its too late. Thanks...
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The printer reads the ink fine. I have been using them for about 2 months now.
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U can get continuous ink systems for around $60 at ebay.comYeah, but a set from Megatoners is under $25
$25 for a set, that might be a good price if your buying sets, but that's $25 everytime you need ink! OK if your not doing tons of printing or needing much ink very often.
If that continous ink system is any good that's a one time price for the system, then you just add ink to refill it or keep it full. If it includes any ink, then it's an even better deal.
Ink is cheap! High quality inks are far less expensive in bulk. Buy a small to medium size bottle and you have maybe about the same amount of ink as 10 sets? So figuring 10X$25 your paying $250, but you could get the same amount of ink I think for $150 or maybe alot less, plus the $60 for the system, you got $210 and you saved $40 right there when you use it all. Pretty sure the ink would actually cost alot less, or you would get alot more than 10 refills, but then it's 6 colors, not the 4 color I am used to using all the time. And of course you can buy less ink at a time in smaller bottles or go for the half quart sizes I normally buy. The more you buy at a time the less it costs, and that's alot of difference in price not just a dollar or two!
$100 in ink has lasted me many years, this year I ran out of black and yellow and spent another $50 for those. Actually it was less than $50, I got a few other items on the same order which totaled about $55. Now I should be set for another year or many more. I have wore out at least 4 printers (mechanical problems not ink related) and figuring even cheep cheep cartiges it would have cost well over $1,000 had I been replacing them. I made over 40 refills for sure in less than 2 years!! Anywhere from once a month to once a week, sometimes like printing 1,000 color flyers and 1,000 theatre tickets I refilled everything twice that week and black and yellow I refilled at least 3 times! I use a Canon I850 now for all this printing, bought it when it first came out 1-2yrs ago and still like new! Other printers that burned out on me were other brands like HP and I had a problem with a Xerox going bad but recently got it working again, though the canon is far better. -
Originally Posted by overloaded_ide
Also, if you want "plug 'n play", under $25 a set (about 150-250 labels) is not a bad deal.
That, and you don't want to buy too much ink, since the information gets sent to Blockbuster, they cancel your membership due to piracy, then a key grip on the movie loses his job or something.
So if you buy individual ink tanks, you are combatting terrorism. -
U can get continuous ink systems for around $60 at ebay.com
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There are continuous inkflow systems for this printer on ebay which do dip down to around $60. They are spefically made for these types of printers so yes they fit the 6 tanks. From what I've seen, the $60 ones don't come with ink and may or may not even come with directions. Another poster stated that he had alot of trouble with his because you have to manually create suction to fill the cartridges and you have to play with the position of the tanks.
There is another company selling a higher end system for closer to $100 which comes with ink and is basically "plug and play".
Once set up and flowing its pretty damn fullproof and easy. Just keep some ink in the tanks and you are set. Bulk ink is so damn cheap. The cartridges from my compaq printer (uses lexmark cartrides) cost $50 for color and $60 for a two pack of black. For that price, using refillable ink I can get about 15-20 refills.
What I always hated about refilling cartridges was the priming you had to do afterwards. That wastes alot of ink right there. A continuous inkflow system is very tempting at that price, I may purchase one when my R200 comes in. -
Ok, here's another one of my small books to read
Then I gotta get some sleep!
Link to a Ebay continous ink system. My search only turned up 3 right now, but a better search or one in a couple days might find the other systems?
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=14303&item=6702582280&rd=1&ssPageName=WDVW
This one has a currant bid of $36 and reserve not yet met. Buy it now price $109 plus $8 shipping. Who knows what it will actually sell for?
The other ones must be forien as the price is listed in AUS and Gb?
Looks like it may be a good system, fill the six bottles that come with it with ink, prime the cartriges, forget it and print forever, just filling the bottles as they get low. Nice large 125ml bottles (4oz), should last the normall person a lifetime, me about 2 months if I used it as much as my I850 Canon?
Supposed to be automatic resetting chip in the tanks. Thats one of the problems refilling the epson type cartriges themselfs, you need the chipresetter for about $25, but not with this system.
For refference, ink costs
125ml (12 refills) $12 each color. That's $1 per tank per refill.
250ml (25 refills) $20 each color. That's less than $1
500ml (50 refills) $30 each color. That's getting down to 60 cents per tank!
You can get larger volumes for more savings if you wanted, and probably buy less ink at a higher cost, but with a continous ink system you probably wouldn't want to.
That's just prices from one place I have bought from in the past, I just looked them up. You can buy various types of ink also, pigment, dye, UV resistant ect.. so if you were doing other printing types besides disks you have options.
That's on of the points I (lazily) wanted to make. The $60 (you'd have to show me the link) probably doesn't factor in the 6 tanks, plus the mess that refilling a CIS can make.
Also, if you want "plug 'n play", under $25 a set (about 150-250 labels) is not a bad deal.
If your only going to use the printer for disks, then it probably is better to just buy the set of carts cheap, but if your going to actually use the printer alot for everything, then the CIS system might be worthwhile. It all depends How much printing a person is going to do. If I were going to Replace my I850 and do everything with the R200 instead, I would HAVE to have this system! Most people probably don't though. Looking at the savings though comparing cost of 12 sets X $25= $300 to ink for 12 refills
$1per cartrig to refill X 6 cartriges= $6 a set, X 12 sets= $72. So for just the equal amount of ink your looking at $300 for sets or $72 for refills basically. You would need to buy the system once, so whatever you pay for that, $60 or $117?? But even at the higher price you have $117 + $72= $189. Still if you paid the high buy it now price and only used it for the equivalent of 12 refills you went from $300 in ink down to $189. About $111 savings right there! Then if you used anymore ink like another 12 sets worth, you are going from $300 to only $72 when you refill the CIS. You don't have to buy the system but once.
So what really matters here is how much printing a person wants to do with the system, how much ink that will use, and how long will the printer last? If the printer dies in 6 refills are your going to buy the same type printer again so you can still use the CIS? Or do you toss the CIS when you toss the printer? That is something to be considered also. Epson makes good products and I expect the R200 to have a long life.
Personally I think for $60 I would buy it myself, but not sure how high I would go over that. But then I don't currantly plan to use mine for anything but disks. Though with this cheap of ink I might use it for covers and alot of stuff, photo's Ect...
That, and you don't want to buy too much ink, since the information gets sent to Blockbuster, they cancel your membership due to piracy,
I HOPE!!! If not you need sleep more than I do, or help
Once set up and flowing its pretty damn fullproof and easy. Just keep some ink in the tanks and you are set. Bulk ink is so damn cheap. The cartridges from my compaq printer (uses lexmark cartrides) cost $50 for color and $60 for a two pack of black. For that price, using refillable ink I can get about 15-20 refills.
What I always hated about refilling cartridges was the priming you had to do afterwards. That wastes alot of ink right there. A continuous inkflow system is very tempting at that price, I may purchase one when my R200 comes in.
For instance my I850 Canon printer, I drill a small hole in the top of the cartrig, cap the bottom of the cartrig (I use the break off caps that come on them new, I don't throw them away) then inject the ink with a syringe till full. Wipe off the top, plug the hole in the top with a drop of hot glue. remove cap and makes sure it doesn't drip. If it drips let it once or twice, if it is dripping more the hole in the tops didn't seal. Only once have I not got the hole sealed well, and that was one of the first times I refilled these.
That's it, if it is not dripping it's ready to use, just put back in printer, no priming needed. If it is dripping recap bottom peal off hot glue and glue it again. I normally lightly press the glue down while hot and that fills the hole with a small plug and seals it everytime perfectly. You just hold the cap against the bottom hole with your finger or thumb while refilling. That's what I said earlier about it being so easy I never even bought a second set for refilling.
When I used HP types and had to do all that priming and gunk, I always bought one new cartrig. I had one to use and one ready to use in case I didn't want to go to all the trouble right when I needed to refill, I could swap cartriges then refill the empty later. But now I just do em in about 2 minutes all at once when ever needed. I will never buy another HP type printer with all the colors in one tank again!
I have read on an ink refill site the original Epson cartrigs cannot be refill for some reason. They sell empties that can be refilled though. $13 for black and about $10 each for the colors, plus you still need the chip restter, so that's still around $90 or so and they are empties, so you still have to buy the ink right away.
I don't know what's supposed to prevent refilling the Epsons though? They sell the chip resetter for about $25. I wonder if those Megatoners sets are refillable? If so, that another option, buy a set of those, then refill them. I haven't looked at them. I suppose you would need the chip resetter? Or someone mentioned locking the counter?
Could someone provide a link to those cartriges?? I'll check them out also.
One problem with the continous ink systems is portability! If you wanted to say take the printer to a friends house or a lan party or what ever, kinda a beare to haul around the external set of bottles. Probably a pain to take apart and set up too.
Well I gotto get some sleep, been too long and actually getting woozy now.
I think my mouse is starring at me. -
Originally Posted by adam
Or maybe you mean that they can never be filled? -
Originally Posted by overloaded_ide
Originally Posted by Supreme2k -
I was talking about my Compaq printer that I mentioned. I don't even have the R200 yet, its in the mail. Whenever I refilled my cartridge I had to let the color one sit overnight and then I had to prime the hell out of it to get all three colors flowing right. I often had to put the head under hot water to unclog it
I was just saying that those types are a big pain like that, but not the individual tank types. Those all in ones are what scare the average person into not wanting to refill! And of course all the cheap Wal-mart ype printers use them! Alot of times I mention lots of extra things for those that will read a post and don't already know what we know. Might only be 4 of us posting, but 100 or more people may read it, and I may help some of them as well.
If you need to refill those types, look at the refill ink selling genirec cartrig type sites for a refill kit for them that includes hardware! There should be a kit listed that has a metal tool to pop off the top and all has a plastic cartrig holder and syringe without a needle. Includes lots of color ink too!
Each of the 3 colors is in it's own neat syringe, and a really nice thing too is after you use all the ink, you can simply push the plunger back out with a paperclip and refill the syringes with bulk ink! Makes for a really easy and clean way to do it!
Kit costs about $15 and has enough ink for like 3-5 refills. What you do after filling the cartrig is snap it into the plastic holded, this seals the head against a rubber piece with a hole in it, then screw the syringe into the bottom of the plastic holder and suck out alittle ink through the heads. Works really well and really worth the money for the trouble it saves you. You do waist a little ink, but ink is so cheap who cares, maybe a penny after many refills! It saves you the headache of letting them sit and hoping they prime. Also it helps clean the heads alittle as you are sucking the wet ink out past the dried ink. For clogged heads let them sit and soak just the heads in a pan of warm water. Also if you have any problems with leaking, I never like trying to seal with tape! Too easy for air to leak in and that alloughs the ink to seep out the heads. Instead just lightly run a little hot glue around the edge of the cap, or if you drilled holes in some types fill the holes. That works 10 times better than tape at least!! You can get a decent hot glue gun for about a $1 thats good for these and if it didn't come with glue sticks they are cheap too!
Of course if your refilling extra cartrigs and storing them for later, don't hot glue the heads!Clean them and tape them with some scotch tape. And to prevent clogged heads and other problems, you should refill BEFORE you run out of ink. If you do alot of printing just geuss when your getting pretty low and go ahead and refill. Then the heads aren't empty and you don't have to prime or let them sit normally. Since you still had ink left, just put them back in and start printing again. As you print if any air was trapped it should shake to the top, plus your somewhat letting them sit over night anyway as your using the ink that was left.
When you refill as much as I do and as many diffent printers, you learn lots of tricks and easy ways to solve problems. I hate to see people getting ripped off $30-$50 for $1 worth of ink and like to share what I learn! Ya sure the print heads are built in, but they last almost forever most the time, and when they do go bad who cares? That's when you buy a new $30 cartrig! So what if it's right after you refilled $1 worth of ink when you used it 7 times and saved over $150 already!! Right
And with any printer, you extend the life of the heads by not letting it run out of ink! It's bad for most or all heads when they are printing dry, out of ink, and not all printers stop printing when they run out. They just keep printing, but without ink so you get blank pages and ruin heads. -
can anyone tell me roughly how long a cart of inks lasts? How many discs can you print before these run out?
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On my Epson 900 I get around 150-175 per set of cartridges.
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It's gonna depend alot on what your printing to the disks.
Are you just printing a title and a little picture, or are you printing the entire disks surface with full graphics??
You'll do alot of disks either way it looks like, I printed alot of them myself and I always use full disk coverage for my own stuff. But your probably gonna run out of some colors faster than others. So far I can't tell how many I'll average I think last I looked I still have 1/2 -3/4 full tanks after several dozen disks. Unfortunately I haven't kept track of how many I printed so far.
By my expirence in other graphics printing though Black of course normally runs out first (but that was also doing alot of text so may not count as much for disks), I use 2 twice as much yellow as magentana, and the least amount of cyan. And that's a good thing about seperate tanks, you don't replace the whole set at once, just one or two colors normally.
Bodyslide
What type printing you doing, are you printing full coverage or more like titles and logos small pictures etc..
I'll probably run 100 disks (I am geussing) full coverage about the time I need to replace a couple colors like yellow and maybe black.
I really don't think I'll get 150 disks the way I am printing them, I might but I dought it. But they sure look good. -
All of mine are full color DVD-R's. Depending on what Photo's My clients want on the DVD's.
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Ok, so are mine.
Maybe I am averageing more disks than I think or a difference in the printes or settings. Mostly I'm using the defualts so far, and I think maybe the R200, R300, R900 maybe be the same tanks. Not sure on the 900 though.
Hey guys,
Those that talked about megatoner carts, how about a link ok.
I did a search for megatoner and it looks like what I found was another search site or clump of links. Click on something like refills or inkjet printer supplies and I get a page showing links to other sites, nothing about carts so far where I went. -
Here you go. Start from about the fourth row from the bottom.
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The 900 has one black and one color cartridge. I am thinking about getting the 200, since it has multiple cartridges.
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Supreme2k,
Thanks for the link. I geuss that was not where I ended up from a search though it looks like the same site name.
The one I hit was just showing me other places to go and opening popups on me, then asked if I wanted to set homepage to munkey or something.
Not any info on the cartriges I looked at but will check them better latter, time to sleep again now.
Bodyslide,
Geuss that's not the printer I was thinking of then if it has a all in one tank. -
I hope this megatoners ink is good...Just ordered from them
BTW, When I place my order, the drop down box for shipping didn't have anything besides "UPS or USPS" You couldn't select anything, so why have it? Also when I checked out, it never gave me a price for shipping. What's up with that?
All five for $22.74 no tax and it didn't list a shipping cost -
Hi there
ive been reading this forum over the last few weeks and finnaly brought a epson r300 because of it.....Anyway i brought this auction from ebay today http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&rd=1&item=6703420699 i was wondering if there any good or if anyone has used them? i know its a bit to late now anyway as ive paid for them allready.
Thanks
-jay -
ok you guys got me interested in this continous ink flow thing. Let me explain my situation. I have an HP 820cse printer tha tI use for most regular print jobs. I actually refill those carts and its pretty easy to do. Ive had that printer fo rlike 5 years already its awesome! Now I have this R200. If I can get a continous ink system for it. I guess it will replace my HP 820 since it is better correct? Also I should be able tp rint 8X10 photos easily right? The thing is 8X10 photo at costco is $3 will it cost me less? Remember I will have to buy paper as well... Also how does a CIS system work? How do I refill those little bottles? Any links to the bulk-ink buys you guys are talking about. I would appreciate all this info. Im thining of getting a CIS now even for $100 if the printer lasts 5 years I think its worth it right?
But here is the thing. I heard that epson printers have some sort of counter, that after you print so much, you have to take it to their service center or something. Can some1 elaborate on this please. Thanks... -
"UPS or USPS" You couldn't select anything, so why have it? Also when I checked out, it never gave me a price for shipping. What's up with that?
All five for $22.74 no tax and it didn't list a shipping cost
And all 5? I thought there was 6, is that what you got, or did you just not need or count the black for now? As for shipping, I saw on the site it's a flat fee $4.75, but free if over $49 order. So 5 carts should be $18.95, or 6 would be $22.74 I am guesing you got 6 carts and free shipping, or a mistake in the order if you did not select a shipping method?
This is an order I would double check, and maybe see if you were even billed for it at all. Maybe it was rejected, maybe not?
Who knows, they might ship it however they want and just eat the shipping cost themselfs saving you the $4.75, maybe not?
Just thought I would point that out and hopefully save you a possible problem and headache later. I may spell bad, but I think fast!
Anyway, when you get your ink let us know if it was any good and how well the carts work. This is a good price if it's a decent product!
A CIS system (if good) would be cheaper in the long run for tons of printing, but not everyone will do that much printing to make one worth getting. -
zgrm100,
If you read through my really long posts you'll see it costs about $1 down to less than 60 cents per cartrig for the ink to refill cartriges. You would use the same inks in a CIS system as refilling.
Cost of the ink depends how much you buy at one time, where you buy, and what type you buy. With a CIS system you can use various inks, including pigment and UV resistent I think.
To refill a bottle? How hard that is depends on how shakey your hands are :P
Before I have my coffee when I first wake up I might make a mess, later not spill a drop
If need be, use a funnel
The bottles have a fairly large top, not like your filling a soda bottles little hole.
8X10 photos? Don't know what printer would be best for you, just have to do some testing yourself. My Canon I850 is about Equal to the R200 as I recall when I did test prints. The I850 was better than anything HP had when it came out, at least for our type normal use. So I would geuss the R200 should be better than the HP since it's about equal to the better Canon. Normal use, I reffer to the average users, if you read some of my posts about printing you'd know I do FAR more than normal printing!! And yes I am comparing a 4 color Canon to a 6 color Epson when I say equal quality! At least on the few tests I did. I actually only use my R200 for disks, I use the I850 for everything else.
As far as paper costs. That depends what you use for paper. Many good brands out there, costs vary alot!
But actually if you think about it, even using epson cartriges and $1 a sheet for photo paper, I think you would beat the $3 price! I haven't tried, but I am thinking at least 33 8x10 photos per cartrig set? Maybe far more, so that might run $100 for paper and carts and be equal to Costco, but then you also have to figure cost of gas driving to Costco, not just the $3 for the actual print! Like I say, I am geussing, I only do disks, so based on how many disks I have done and still having alot of ink left. I actaully think you'd get more than 33, but then alot depends onthe photos too.
The cartriges for the CIS we been talking about are supposed to always read full. Some Epson printers have a counter for maintanance, like to change the pads inside that soak up ink from cleaning heads and such, don't know if the R200 does or not, but not a big deal anyway. My Epson 1520 does, but you can reset it with a couple buttons anyway.
Rather it's worth it or not depends how well you like using the printer and how much you are printing. Doesn't really matter how long the printer lasts as long as you get enough use from it. You can always buy another New printer and use the CIS on it later. Long as it takes the same Cartriges as the R200. So if you burnout the printer in 2 years, just buy another one of the same type. I went through 4 printers in one year I do so much printing at times. Which is why I really like my I850 I mention so often! It's 1-2yrs old and prints like new still, I never had a printer so good
and last this long!! I printed 1,000 color flyers in about 1 week alone. Print a few 100, then they'd want more the next day (it did not take a week to print them), and all my normall printing. I print so much, if I stocked a years supplie of paper it would look like wal-mart shelfs.
As for a link, just do a search on ebay and see which ones are listed and check out a few. The ones I looked at ended now I think. I saw one sold for $76 but did not have ink included, and another from the same seller sold for $160 I think it was and it had ink, 120ml of each color included.
I saw some other seller had a system without ink, his buy it now price was $109. Bid was $36 and reserve not met, but it's over now and I can't find it to see what it sold for, if it even sold. -
Originally Posted by overloaded_ide
Originally Posted by overloaded_ide
My final order invoice doesn't list shipping. It lists Total Purchases of $22.74
Tax of $0 and Total for Megatoners.com for $22.74. It doesn't list shipping at all ....very strange...
I got a email this morning and the only thing it said was, "Your order will be shipped shortly".
Originally Posted by overloaded_ide
Originally Posted by overloaded_ide -
Good luck,
Ya I figured you knew the differnce in UPS and USPS, but then again if you happened to been as tired as I get at times with no sleep
It's almost got me once or twice.
Been checking out China
Found some places with auto reset chips, and CIS for other epson models.
Probably be next week before I try to contact any of them.
Best I found in US other than Ebay is a place I can get the chips for $90 a set and about $175 - $200 for a complete system. Haven't looked everywhere yet.
I have been finding the systems for sale, but man do they cost! I'd never buy em at those prices, just keep refilling carts instead! -
thanks man. I was curious where you buy your ink refills, because I dont buy refills now so I dont know. I think its very hard to refill OEM Epson carts on my R200, so if anything I was thinking of just buying carts from megatoners. Buying ink in bulk for this printer fo rrefills never really crossed my mind. Do the ink refills that you buy come close to looking like OEM ink? Can u send me a link or something to the place where u buy ur ink i would love to check it out.
Also let me know when you contact those vendors from China about the CIS for the epsons. If its cheap Ill pick one up with you. Anyways keep us posted. Thanks. -
Yes, my mistake. I ordered 6 carts @ $22.74.
My final order invoice doesn't list shipping. It lists Total Purchases of $22.74
Tax of $0 and Total for Megatoners.com for $22.74. It doesn't list shipping at all ....very strange...
I got a email this morning and the only thing it said was, "Your order will be shipped shortly".
Mike -
I just placed an order for 5 sets for my Epson 900.
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