Just purchased a new Epson 7900

[Happyprinter]

Just received our new Epson 7900. We are currently setting it up and hopefully will have it online early next week. My question is, is there a cheaper solution to purchasing ink for this unit other than from Epson. I went into sticker shock when I started pricing 350mL and higher. Yes, my fault for not being more inquisitive before the purchase but regardless, we are happy with the machine just want to see what alternatives there are for this unit. What about bulk connections for it, or reinking cartridges. Any suggestions would be appreciated.

 

[Padzilla]

Third party ink

Third party ink

You have to be careful with that, using third party inks could void your warranty. When I installed a 10600 at a previous gig, we used ColorScience to manage color, and they wouldn't support anything but Epson ink.

If you do find a good third party supplier, though, I'd love to hear about it. I was never able to find any one that could deliver consistent color, but this quite a while ago.

 

[dleather]

Also, be sure your'e getting what you pay for. I orderd ink for my Epson 4880 through a third party and the ink was much older than ink I ordered from Epson around the same time. The older ink required the heads/nozzles to be cleaned more frequently.

 

[Barrie]

What do you need most?
Epson with quality and consistency or problems with profiling, damaged heads and blockages?

The 7900 does need more cleaning of heads than the previous model (7880) but the output is excellent and well worth the extra cleaning. Do the Nozzle check rather than a power clean as this will save on ink wastage.

My work involves me with all the Ultrachrome, Vivid and HDR ink models of the Epson SP printers. I am not exaggerating when I say that every printer I have seen that has converted to non-Epson inks has had to have the heads replaced and in many cases it has been cheaper to scrap the printer and buy a new one.

 

[Happyprinter]

Thank you for all the replies. I believe we will just bite the bullet and stick with Epson ink until a tried and true new and cheaper ink solution comes around. I guess the old adage, you get what you pay for, holds true most of the time.

 

[Robert Seckendorf]

Be very careful when using third party inks.

Be very careful when using third party inks.

Be very careful about using third party inks, If you are within the 1st year of use on your new printer and you require printer service from Epson that will definitely invalidate your warranty. If price is an issue, shop around... You won't see a tremendous fluctuation, because there isn't that much margin for dealers in the ink cost, but even if you can shave a few dollars off the cost of your ink it will reap margins in the long run.

 

[fbjr4print]

I would strongly suggest NOT to do that to your new printer. Original inks will give you better color results.

 

[akalaray]

I have purchased epson ink on Ebay

 

[Big Dave]

For those true die-hard "use OEM" people : don't kill me for saying this !

For the 7900's I believe there are 2 third-party inks available: Ink2Image and InkJetMall
I have good feedback on both above companies.

On our 7880, we've been using InkJetMall's ConeColor inks and couldn't be happier. We used OEM Epson 220ml inks for over a year, then switched to refillable 220ml cartridges from InkJetMall.

Profiled the printer and colors look great.

We also put the original Epson chips (from our old OEM carts) on the refillable cartridges so the printer thinks they're genuine, and just reset the chip when we refill the cartridges.

Significant savings too.

 

[DianeH]

Are you still happy with your Epson 7900? We're considering getting into the wide format market (in a small way), wanting to do maximum size of 24 x 36". Any feedback after having your machine for a while?

 

[Happyprinter]

Still very happy with the 7900. It opened up a whole new market and we have added 3 more oversize printers. Still hate the high cartridge price but price your prints correctly and you still make good money. BYU the way, what great quality that printer produces. WOW!!

 

[PrintMaster]

Original inks only please, you want to maintain your warranty on it. I have several 9980's and colour calibrations / maintenance / reliability are all too important to cheap out on inks. You dont want to lose your warranty over this too!