Wasted ink /waste tank questions for Epson non-pro printers

Some questions for owners of Epson non-professional printers, Epson 1400, R1800, R2400, 1280 with CIS only:

1) Using OEM cartridges- Have you had to service the printer due waste ink tank full?

2) Using CIS system without external waste tank installed, same as above question.

3) Using CIS system with an external tank: how fast does the external tank fill? If you don't use the printer for a few days, do you notice a lot of ink going to the external waste tank when you turn on the printer?

The reason I ask these questions is that I suspect that all the Epson non-oem sponge-less carts marketed by third party vendors normally leak a lot compared to OEM carts when not in use. These probably are relatively small leaks that may not affect substantially printer performance but after a few month of use they could add-up to a lot of ink. Suspect also that if you don't use your CIS system for several weeks you maybe able to notice a substantial loss of ink if you pull out the CIS carts

Want to know what is the personal experience, preferable from users who have being using their printers for more than one year (questions 1 and 2 above); less than a year experience is OK if using a CIS with external waste tank.

My experience is based on the use of sponge-less carts without a CIS system. I do not want to start a discussion about the above statement; on the contrary I am hopping that user experience will prove that I am wrong as I would like to get a CIS for my new 1400.

--
GS

I have the R200 with a CIS system and tanks are spongeless and have never had ink just leaking from the heads into the waste pad. I have pulled the waste ink tube out from the back and it drains into a bottle that I drilled a hole through the lid in stuck the tube through it. I empty it maybe once a month not that there is much ink in it. I empty it so I can see about how much the printer uses when it cleans the heads. Maybe I have been lucky with mine but I don't think I would buy another printer unless I could put a CIS system on it. I purchased my system on ebay from china for about $60 total and that included shipping. I have had zero problems with it and have been using it for a couple years now.

Shuttle

Guillermo Shashte said:

Some questions for owners of Epson non-professional printers, Epson
1400, R1800, R2400, 1280 with CIS only:

1) Using OEM cartridges- Have you had to service the printer due
waste ink tank full?

Click to expand...

Well not on a epson but my canon s9000 i had to take apart the printer and clean the large waste sponge thats inside the printer.

Guillermo Shashte said:

2) Using CIS system without external waste tank installed, same as
above question.

Click to expand...

Well since almost day one i have had waste tanks installed on my current epson R1800 with inkjetfly CIS so cant answer that one.

Guillermo Shashte said:

3) Using CIS system with an external tank: how fast does the external
tank fill? If you don't use the printer for a few days, do you
notice a lot of ink going to the external waste tank when you turn on
the printer?

Click to expand...

I leave the printer always on which is what In inkjetfly reccomends. If you turn printer off when you turn it back on it goes through a cleaning cycle which of course will fill the wastes tanks faster. If your asking if ink drains into the waste tanks when sitting it doesnt on mine.

Guillermo Shashte said:

The reason I ask these questions is that I suspect that all the Epson
non-oem sponge-less carts marketed by third party vendors normally
leak a lot compared to OEM carts when not in use. These probably are
relatively small leaks that may not affect substantially printer
performance but after a few month of use they could add-up to a lot
of ink. Suspect also that if you don't use your CIS system for
several weeks you maybe able to notice a substantial loss of ink if
you pull out the CIS carts

Want to know what is the personal experience, preferable from users
who have being using their printers for more than one year (questions
1 and 2 above); less than a year experience is OK if using a CIS with
external waste tank.

Click to expand...

Been using my R1800 for about 10 months now with Inkjetfly CIS with waste tanks, i dont see any leakage that your talking about. The inkcarts are spongeless on my Inkjetfly small foot CIS.

Guillermo Shashte said:

My experience is based on the use of sponge-less carts without a CIS
system. I do not want to start a discussion about the above
statement; on the contrary I am hopping that user experience will
prove that I am wrong as I would like to get a CIS for my new 1400.

--
GS

Click to expand...

--
http://www.pbase.com/dc9mm

Using an Efillink CIS and R1800 for over 3 years I have never had ink leak into the waste pads spontaneously. If you turn the printer off and on it automatically goes through a cleaning cycle which wastes ink. When you are using a CIS which can deliver more ink in relation to the suction of the cleaning cycle a slightly greater amount would be used than with OEM cartridges. In normal use no ink is sucked into the waste bottle.

For what it is worth I also have an R800 which runs only on OEM cartridges. I had to reset the counter on that one last week as it was stating the pad were full. That was nearly four years use.

You should NEVER turn the printer off as it causes a cleaning cycle which wastes ink. An R1800 in standby uses 1.3 watts that is 11.3 units of electricity a year. In the UK electricity costs approximately 0.09 per unit that is a total annual cost of 1.02 UKP. You will waste as much as that in one cleaning cycle. Curiously the new R1900 uses 4 watts in standby so would cost 3.15 UKP to run for a year.
--
Brian

Guillermo Shashte said:

Some questions for owners of Epson non-professional printers, Epson
1400, R1800, R2400, 1280 with CIS only:

1) Using OEM cartridges- Have you had to service the printer due
waste ink tank full?

Click to expand...

Yes, an old printer indicated that service was needed and the pads were clearly not "full". An electronic reset took care of the problem.

Guillermo Shashte said:

2) Using CIS system without external waste tank installed, same as
above question.

Click to expand...

I have a CIS with an external waste tank, see below...

Guillermo Shashte said:

3) Using CIS system with an external tank: how fast does the external
tank fill? If you don't use the printer for a few days, do you
notice a lot of ink going to the external waste tank when you turn on
the printer?

Click to expand...

How fast the waste tank fills depends entirely on the number of on-off cycles, prints, head cleanings etc. Each cleaning cycle wastes between 5-10 cc and most waste tanks run about 100-200 cc.

Guillermo Shashte said:

The reason I ask these questions is that I suspect that all the Epson
non-oem sponge-less carts marketed by third party vendors normally
leak a lot compared to OEM carts when not in use. These probably are
relatively small leaks that may not affect substantially printer
performance but after a few month of use they could add-up to a lot
of ink. Suspect also that if you don't use your CIS system for
several weeks you maybe able to notice a substantial loss of ink if
you pull out the CIS carts

Click to expand...

We use an IR CIS system. Functioning properly, it doesn't leak. With replacement ink as inexpensive as it is, the costs are nominal. The only significant question in our minds is that of longevity.

Guillermo Shashte said:

Want to know what is the personal experience, preferable from users
who have being using their printers for more than one year (questions
1 and 2 above); less than a year experience is OK if using a CIS with
external waste tank.

Click to expand...

I'm one of them.

Guillermo Shashte said:

My experience is based on the use of sponge-less carts without a CIS
system. I do not want to start a discussion about the above
statement; on the contrary I am hopping that user experience will
prove that I am wrong as I would like to get a CIS for my new 1400.

Click to expand...

We haven't encountered any of the problems with our CIS that you have described. Good luck.

Guillermo Shashte said:

--
GS

Click to expand...

Guillermo Shashte said:

Some questions for owners of Epson non-professional printers, Epson
1400, R1800, R2400, 1280 with CIS only:

1) Using OEM cartridges- Have you had to service the printer due
waste ink tank full?

2) Using CIS system without external waste tank installed, same as
above question.

Click to expand...

The "waste ink tank full" service message is initiated based on the ink usage as recorded by the printer. Even if the CIS system leaks, the printer would have no knowledge of that, and will not initiate any sooner.

BrianDeveloper said:

You should NEVER turn the printer off as it causes a cleaning cycle
which wastes ink. An R1800 in standby uses 1.3 watts that is 11.3
units of electricity a year. In the UK electricity costs
approximately 0.09 per unit that is a total annual cost of 1.02 UKP.
You will waste as much as that in one cleaning cycle. Curiously the
new R1900 uses 4 watts in standby so would cost 3.15 UKP to run for a
year.

Click to expand...

How and Why did you come up with these electricity usage facts?!
Quite neat.

WayneB.
====================

How. Simple arithmetic from the information provided on Epson's web site in the specification for the printers.

Why - We are beset with environmentalists assuring us that leaving any appliance on standby is akin to original sin. A figure of £30 pa is often bandied about as the cost of leaving a TV on standby. Whilst this may have been true for some older models it does not apply to current models. In the case of printers it is a straight economic decision to be made 365 cleaning cycles or a a pounds worth of electricity.

Since I did those calculations the price of electricity as shown on my latest bill has risen so the current costs are R1800 £1.29 R1900 £3.99. (Electricity charged at £0.114 per kw hour). Even at these exorbitant costs it is still much better to leave them on.
--
Brian

I am using an 1400 with one of those cheaper CIS Systems.
After more than 1.2 liters of ink that went through the nozzles:

• no clogging problems
• no service for the waste ink tank/pads was necessary yet
• no automatic cleaning cycle when switching on/off
• automatic cleaning cycles sometimes take place when leaving it off

for more than a week
or when printing several hundred pages in one go and the printer "thinks" a
catridge needs to be replaced.
--
Best regards from Hamburg (GMT+1).
Helmar

Good for you!!!!!!!!!!

Germany has spoken.
What does your post have to do with using electricity with your
printer tho?

=========================

HelmarFoto said:

I am using an 1400 with one of those cheaper CIS Systems.
After more than 1.2 liters of ink that went through the nozzles:

• no clogging problems
• no service for the waste ink tank/pads was necessary yet
• no automatic cleaning cycle when switching on/off
• automatic cleaning cycles sometimes take place when leaving it off

for more than a week
or when printing several hundred pages in one go and the printer
"thinks" a
catridge needs to be replaced.
--
Best regards from Hamburg (GMT+1).
Helmar

Click to expand...

Thanks for replying, Brian.

The electrical costs of using my printers is not a concern here.
My electric hot water tank here in Canada is a concern since hydro
is so expensive now.

WayneB.

=================

BrianDeveloper said:

How. Simple arithmetic from the information provided on Epson's web
site in the specification for the printers.

Why - We are beset with environmentalists assuring us that leaving
any appliance on standby is akin to original sin. A figure of £30 pa
is often bandied about as the cost of leaving a TV on standby.
Whilst this may have been true for some older models it does not
apply to current models. In the case of printers it is a straight
economic decision to be made 365 cleaning cycles or a a pounds worth
of electricity.

Since I did those calculations the price of electricity as shown on
my latest bill has risen so the current costs are R1800 £1.29 R1900
£3.99. (Electricity charged at £0.114 per kw hour). Even at these
exorbitant costs it is still much better to leave them on.
--
Brian

Click to expand...

WBirch said:

What does your post have to do with using electricity with your
printer tho?

Click to expand...

When I can report that the printer does not do useless cleaning cycles when always switching it off after usage,
this implies that you can save electrical power and the environment.
Using a CIS itself is a way of avoiding waste (empty cartridges).

My other statements answered the inital questions of the opener of this thread, imagine that.

If this is not easy for you to understand, I will phrase my sentences more simple, next time for you, WBirch.

--
Best regards from Hamburg (GMT+1).
Helmar

Helmar,

I am pleased to hear that the R1400 does not do a cleaning cycle on switch on. This should be a considerable saving in ink. The R800, R1800 and R1900 however do a clean cycle when switching on. This is probably because they are pigment printers rather than the dye inks used in the R1400.

Incidentally how are you finding the permanence of the bulk ink you are using in the 1400. I was thinking about getting one for my other premises but have rather concerned about the permanence when using dye ink.
--
Brian

BrianDeveloper said:

Helmar,
I am pleased to hear that the R1400 does not do a cleaning cycle on
switch on. This should be a considerable saving in ink. The R800,
R1800 and R1900 however do a clean cycle when switching on. This is
probably because they are pigment printers rather than the dye inks
used in the R1400.

Click to expand...

I have an R1900 and it has never done a cleaning cycle just after being turned on. It does occasionally go through what sounds like a cleaning cycle just before making a print (not necessarily the first print after being turned on), but this is rare and so far I haven't been able to tell if there is any pattern to when it happens.

Never clogging, poor printing, nor any messages about ink pads. And I ALWAYS turn my printer off when not in use. The quickest way for an electronic device to wear out and have electronics burn out is to leave it on all the time.

An I only use OEM ink tanks from atlex.com

BrianDeveloper said:

R1800 and R1900 however do a clean cycle when switching on. This is
probably because they are pigment printers rather than the dye inks
used in the R1400.

Click to expand...

Maybe-maybe not. I guess it depends on the quality of the chips used by the CIS. Maybe some lower quality chips are recognized as "NEW" cartridges always when switching on the printer.

BrianDeveloper said:

Incidentally how are you finding the permanence of the bulk ink you
are using in the 1400.

Click to expand...

No problems with fading colors (yet).

--
Best regards from Hamburg (GMT+1).
Helmar

HelmarFoto said:

Maybe-maybe not. I guess it depends on the quality of the chips used
by the CIS. Maybe some lower quality chips are recognized as "NEW"
cartridges always when switching on the printer.

Click to expand...

Interesting thought but the chips I am using on the R1800 reset when they show 90% or more consumed. Also my R800 which uses OEM cartridges only, also does a cleaning cycle on switch on. My neighbours R1900 also does a clean cycle at each switch on.

HelmarFoto said:

No problems with fading colors (yet).

Click to expand...

How long have you had this printer and do you have prints from it on display?

--
Brian

I bought the printer in June 2007 including the CIS.

Some pictures are framed (with glass in front) and every day the sun is shining on them (for some hours) since last X-mas. So lets wait and see...
--
Best regards from Hamburg (GMT+1).
Helmar

That is very useful information. Thanks very much

--
Brian