burkphoto Loc: High Point, NC

If you need volume, the best choice is a higher end P-Series that uses larger ink cartridges. Cost of the best output (ink plus paper only) is between $1.25 and $2.00 per square foot.

Yes, there are less expensive alternatives. The 1430 is one of the printers that can be adapted to external third party ink tanks. Do PM the person above who said he could help... It’s obviously working for him.

I generally tell folks to print their own for

Immediacy
Privacy
Print longevity
Widest color gamut
Color control
Paper choice

... but not low cost.

Sidwalkastronomy Loc: New Jersey Shore

Hi I would like a better source for ink. Please let me know what you find.
Mike. Email is mkozicdds@aol.com

Picture Taker Loc: Michigan Thumb

I always purchased my ink directly from Epson. The few times I had a problem, called Epson and they could see I used Epson Ink and not rep refills and bent over backwards to help. Eventually gave printer to a friend and now use Canon 1000. But the Epson was a great p[rinter.

Ron Dial Loc: Cuenca, Ecuador

Using after market inks is a mixed bag. If you do a lot of printing (meaning you print something every day)you will probably have good success. That is the key . If you tend to let the printer set for weeks between use, you will likely have problems with clogging. OEM inks will clog less. That is a major issue for after market inks.

tcthome Loc: NJ

Check out vids from Jose Rodrigues on you tube. He deals with a company called Precision Inks for refilling cartridges & resetting the chips.

Bill P

I'm about to need a magenta cartridge form my R2000. I checked Amazon. Wow, OEM cart from Amazon was over three times Epson's list price, and prime not available. That's just dishonest. For that price they should fly it first class to me.

Picture Taker Loc: Michigan Thumb

I don't understand. We pay thousands for equipment, buy the best printer we can. Talk about the best picture can produce in technical detail and look for the cheapest ink you can buy.

Bill MN Loc: Western MN

I just ruined a good Canon $400. Pixma printer because of cheap ink. I took it to a place that sells and repairs Canon printers. He looked at the ink and said it could not be repaired. You get what you pay for. He did explain what happened. Most of it I did not understand.

Floyd Loc: Misplaced Texan in Florence, Alabama

I have worn out 3 Epson Artisian 1430 printers. With the last two, I've used Precision Colors as recommended by another contributor to this site. Their refillable cartridge system costs $100 for 6 refillable cartridges, 6 bottles of 6oz of ink and the needle tops for the bottles. Just received my second order from Precision Colors after the first set of refilling cartridges were refilled 7 times. After previously purchasing ink from several good vendors at a minimum of $45 (usually closer to $50 for the 6), I've saved more $200 with no problems of any kind with the ink. The last time I bought Epson ink I paid $19 per cartridge or $798 per year if I had continued to buy Epson ink. I think I'll stay with Precision Colors ink!

cambriaman Loc: Central CA Coast

Any large or quantity printing I have done at Costco with great results. One-off prints for family are affordable using my Canon iP7220 and OEM inks.

DirtFarmer Loc: Escaped from the NYC area, back to MA

I don't do a lot of printing, but before I retired for the first time the office where I worked had a Tektronix Phaser printer, which later became a Xerox Phaser printer. It was basically an ink jet printer but instead of ink cartridges it uses solid ink in the form of wax pellets. The pellets are heated to make them liquid, then the printer sprays the ink from jets. The printer is highly automated and cleans itself regularly. It has a power saver feature that turns off the ink heat when you're not using it. That means it takes a couple minutes to warm up when you want to print something but it will stay ready for a while after that before turning off again.

So when I retired I bought one. Kind of pricey, around $1000. After using it for a couple years I looked at what I spent on ink and paper and estimated that a full color photo on 8.5x11 paper cost less than $0.40. The black ink is cheaper. I used it for 12 years with only one repair. The self cleaning did its thing with no problems. I used the printer to produce signs and price cards for the farm stand. It was useful because the ink is waterproof (the paper will wrinkle if it gets wet but the ink doesn't run). The ink does fade in direct sunlight.

After 12 years a plastic part broke and was no longer available since the design had moved on. Xerox had a deal for businesses where you paid a basic monthly fee for a couple years. That covered all repairs and you could use the balance in the account to buy supplies. After a year or two (depending on how you signed up) the printer was yours and all the money you paid was used for ink and maintenance stuff. The new printer is a ColorQube 8580DN. It also does double sided printing. Some of the early printers would work on card stock (120 lb paper) but this one is limited to cover stock (67 lb paper). That is adequate for greeting cards and business cards.

It's not perfect but the printer produces acceptable photos for general use. A dedicated photo printer could probably do a better job. If you sandwich the print under glass and expose it to a lot of heat the ink can adhere to the glass and run a bit. But displaying things around the house was no problem for me. YMMV. I used it to print my Christmas cards and could produce personalized birthday cards whenever I wanted.

Since I don't do that many prints (maybe 20/year outside of the Christmas and birthday cards) I find that sending the image file to a photo printer (I use Costco) is cost effective. And Color adds a lot to a letterhead. A monochrome laser printer is much cheaper. I haven't looked at color laser printers recently but 10-15 years ago the color reproduction looked pretty dull to me.

delkeener Loc: SW Rhode Island, USA

Frankly, I suspect the ink jet business model is based one charging a minuscule amount for the printer and three arms and five legs for the ink. Remind anyone of the original Eastman Kodak model ??? And where is Kodak now?

DirtFarmer Loc: Escaped from the NYC area, back to MA

The loss leader model goes back (at least) to 1902 when Gillette sold razors inexpensively and jacked up the prices for the replaceable blades.

tainkc Loc: Kansas City

http://www.ccs-digital.com/inkpage.asp?coupon=&done=DONE

speters Loc: Grangeville/Idaho

No, I did not so far and I will not in the future, I have always used Epson ink in my printer and it cost me $500 to replace the ink in my printer, but it sure is worth it, I have never regret it! And I will not take a chance on that!