epson pigment printer

[paul 44]

HI folks,

any tips on a cheap but good printer that uses pigment inks throughout?

I currently use an epson xp-720 (5 colors) and having a lot of problems with it, was told it used pigment inks but turns out only photo black is pigment, the colors are dye based (polar bear inks)

If there are other inks (pigment) that I could use with this I'd like to know but I can't find any at all??

Paul

[James990]

Look on ebay! I get my pigment inks from there for my epson

[paul 44]

I'm not sure whether I can use pigments (for colours) in this printer James, might have to sling it, not sure?

I priced up a workforce Epson WF-3620 but could do without having to change to yet another printer.

[mags1892]

you can put your own pigment in but again beware cheap chinese as these say theyre pigment but the percentage of pigment used is so low its barely legal to be called that. You can use pigment in this machine and any epson.

[paul 44]

I called epson today and spoke to them, they said it's a no no due to the print head and it may get clogged, or rather, they advised against it as the print head is mainly for dye inks, I told them that the photo black in the printer is pigment so why would the print head be an issue if the colours were also pigment, thenm he tried to get me to buy inks that were a fortune haha, typical.

Im not sure whether the epson is still under warranty but got it from currys, may attempt to take it back and swap it out for the workforce, I was also offered a Epson WF-3620 with 6 sets of inks for £199.00 and the printer only for £119.00.

[mags1892]

Epson are like that Im a qualified engineer on the wide format Epsons they alse say the sublimation is designed from the ground up as a sublimation printer funny that as its EXACTLY the same as the pigment printer even in spare part numbers . Take it with a pinch of salt theres no diffrence between a dye ink head and a pigment BOTH are ground from a product infact the PIGMENT (if a good one) will casue less blockages as the pigment is resin encapsulated to avoid (clumping) where the pigments bind together (happens a lot in cheap chinese pigments), Dye also is ground from a solid block so its all marketing bull feller. Like the ricoh and sawgras and the mutof and sawgras its EXACTLY the same hardware even though they try and say different. lol.

[paul 44]

Cheers Mags, ok so I take it i'm lookng at 3rd party pigment inks here to fit this printer, it usually uses 26 polar bear inks but i'm obviously looking to get decent pigment inks loaded up because they are crap for image printing. If I can get a hold of them I'm looking possibly at a system flush of the dye so that it is then totally pigment in the jets?

Funny you mention blockages, I've just had to clean the 720 yet again because it was printing crap, had to print on a matte setting(not good) to get a decent print, standard printing on normal papers using jpss is just not cutting it now and it's less than 12 months old hence i mentioned taking it back to the seller namely currys.

Thanks

[mags1892]

Yeah would have to be third party inks although I know places to get OEM epson inks from drained carts if needed

[paul 44]

I may be able to sort out a brand new printer (here's hoping) as on my current one, I took out a warranty on it, any faults and I can take it back so i'm going to take it back and get the workforce, basically just a swap out for a new one...which uses the correct inks !

[paul 44]

Well, just been on the phone to Epson to ask about issues, they can't advise as they don't manufacture paper such as JPSS or opaque 3g so no profiles available, I mentioned banding issues and that nozzle checks were fine etc and they said the media is the reason I'm getting banding?

I usually use the plain paper setting and standard printing for images (on JPSS) but I'm not getting the quality i want so i am needing to up the quality setting.

What profiles do others use for printing images using an epson?

I asked if i upgraded to a printer with epson pigment inks, according to epson, I would have the same issue, no profiles etc to print on jpss