I own a epson 1400 to print film for exposure. I printed less than 10 sheets and I'm already less than half. its this normal?
My main question is that theres a lot of 3rd party brands that sell ink cartridges for this printer at one third of the cost 6-7 dollars compared to 19-20. have any of you used those brands before and does it have the same quality.. would you suggest buying those.. its a big difference in price
I have the 1400 and use the refillable cartradges and claria compatable ink from inkjetcarts.com. The claria is a dye based ink that a lot of people say don't use but it works qand doesn't fade for me using JPSS for whites and alpha gold for darks. Good luck.
Terry
Epson sell printers at cost and their ink costs more than perfume, the smaller printers are expensive on ink but if you use a large format with 220ml inks then it's peanuts compared to the film.
Get an old 3000, it's a workhorse.
Hiya, I've had the epson 1400 for about 3 months now and I've been using a 3rd party refill ink set I found on ebay. The colors are bright and so far I haven't had 1 problem yet. I highly recommend buying ink this way because epson inks cost way too much. The whole set will last you about 10 cycles and costs 50$. A set of epson inks cost around 100$ correct? So if my math is right if I had bought a set of epson inks 10 times, that's 1000$. I spent 50$ for the inks and the carteridges. So pretty much I saved 950$.
All in all, yes it's worth giving it a try, I haven't had any problems with my printer so far and it's been about 3 months and I get beautiful quality prints (i use 19x13 double sided matte paper).
Yes, this is in fact why inkjets are so cheap (however laserjets have plummeted in cost over the years also).
Also, a lot of inkjets printers come with cartridges that are only partially filled. When you buy replacements, the replacements can have 2-4 times as much ink.
I suspect that is what Epson does. Because I too have an Epson 1400 and burned through the initial black cartridge in no time printing positives with everything set on maximum.
I'm looking into continous ink systems for Epson 1400. There are a lot of really cheap ones.
The I got my epson online for $300 with a $100 rebate. They are even cheaper now. I'm actually thinking of getting a second one. Then have one, just for printing catalogs and one for positives.
For printing positives my idea is to get an empty cis cartridge and fill the whole thing with just black and use accurip on the all black feature.
Then have a second Epson 1400 to print 11x17 pages for my catalog of flags that I sell.
Quote:
Originally Posted by PositiveDave
Epson sell printers at cost and their ink costs more than perfume, the smaller printers are expensive on ink but if you use a large format with 220ml inks then it's peanuts compared to the film.
Get an old 3000, it's a workhorse.
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Re: 3rd Party Ink for Epson 1400 question
I'm very good friends w/ the AWESOME people who own softwareforscreenprinters.com; they have a killer thing going on for solid black (all black cartridges) for most common epson printers; and they also make accuRIP software. Sorry for the plug, I have no financial interest in their company. wish I did. they're doing great things. Ryonet has pretty much endorsed them for nearly all of that marketshare through his supply company if it tells you how good their products are. BTW - I still don't own an epson. LOL. When I do, I'll be calling in that 'favor' from my friends. Hopefully risky plugs like this will get me a little friend capitol!
accurip is a great software i just tried the trial and will be buying it soon. just waiting for the long beach show to see if there will be any show specials tom i wonder if my plug will help (lol)!
Location: A foot and a half away from way too many monitors...
Posts: 86
Thanks: 57
Thanked 2 Times in 2 Posts
Re: 3rd Party Ink for Epson 1400 question
Quote:
Originally Posted by Madrod
accurip is a great software i just tried the trial and will be buying it soon. just waiting for the long beach show to see if there will be any show specials tom i wonder if my plug will help (lol)!
haha I'll fwd them your post and this thread so they know they're getting some action/play. Maybe they will offer an at-show coupon or some kind of limited discount to people on this forum. I'll see. I dunno if that's getting too involved in helping them as they are friends of mine first. Oddly, I only realized by 6 degrees of separation that my friend's second company (I know them from graphic design), has recently started dominating some market share. wooHOO! Go friends! btw - the guy behind the company, Charlie, is an old-schooler who evidently has been in the screen printing industry for years. I can't wait to bug them for info and knowledge. Glad you had a good experience with their software!!!
Please keep in mind that the cheap ink properties can damage your print heads with time and the reason why to go with the more expensive ones. I have tested many inks and have only found 3 major manufactures that work the best and also prevent head clogging or damage. I understand the printers are cheap to, but time is money and how much does it cost you to be messing with head cleans when you get a head clog or damage a print head and have to look for another cheap printer.
The more expensive inks also last longer do to the fact that they were designed specifically for screen printing and blocking out the UV rays.
A closed cartridge is best when not using often due to air getting in the ink and causing it to coagulate which can cause head clogs and ink loss due to having to do more head cleanings.
3rd Party Ink for Epson 1400 question 
tom i wonder if my plug will help (lol)!
