Looking for a new printer

[chongsta]

Hi all,

My Epson 1290 literally blew up today and spilt ink everywhere! big pool of lovely ink all over my worktop, nice!

So, im in the market for a new one. Im after some recomendations from you guys?

Im looking to spend around 50p ....sorry, upwards to about £100 max, preferably 4 colour as i dont see any difference with 6 at all.

Ive been looking at the EPSON B40W, any good?

cheers all
Dave.
p.s. I would also prefer a printer that i dont have to break anything to get the CISS into, just a plain old cartridge change will do

[Paul]

Hi all,

My Epson 1290 literally blew up today and spilt ink everywhere! big pool of lovely ink all over my worktop, nice!

So, im in the market for a new one. Im after some recomendations from you guys?

Im looking to spend around 50p ....sorry, upwards to about £100 max, preferably 4 colour as i dont see any difference with 6 at all.

Ive been looking at the EPSON B40W, any good?

cheers all
Dave.
p.s. I would also prefer a printer that i dont have to break anything to get the CISS into, just a plain old cartridge change will do

JSR bought B40W and had some problems with green... but i am not sure.
I think if you had 1290 so it would be nice to go for A3 printer in your case. I recomend B1100. cheap. 4 colors and good printing results

[bms]

p.s. I would also prefer a printer that i dont have to break anything to get the CISS into, just a plain old cartridge change will do

Then that will give you the choice of... (drum roll)... the Ricoh GXe3300

[JSR]

Hi all,

My Epson 1290 literally blew up today and spilt ink everywhere! big pool of lovely ink all over my worktop, nice!

So, im in the market for a new one. Im after some recomendations from you guys?

Im looking to spend around 50p ....sorry, upwards to about £100 max, preferably 4 colour as i dont see any difference with 6 at all.

Ive been looking at the EPSON B40W, any good?

cheers all
Dave.
p.s. I would also prefer a printer that i dont have to break anything to get the CISS into, just a plain old cartridge change will do

I initially bought a B40W because I couldn't afford to replace my 1400. After spending a couple of weeks trying to get the right colours out of it, I pretty much gave up and went for another 1400. The B40W does fine enough when printing limited colours, but trying to get a match for photos is the problem I have with it. For instance, when printing a white horse (okay, a "grey"..!) my 1400 does a reasonably fine job of it but the B40W gave me flat image with yellow everywhere.

The B1100 uses the same cartridges as the B40W so I just presumed it would give me the same results, which is why I took the bull by the horns and just went for another 1400 in the end.

The new 1400 didn't produce the exact same results as my previous 1400 "out of the box" but, using the v2.5 profile and desaturating everything in Qimage gets me within a gnat's whisker of the same results. I still intend to work with the B40W once I find the time (probably after Christmas) but it was more important to get something I could use. Even if I don't get it working, it's a nice little A4 budget wireless printer and I could always dump some regular dye ink in it and use it as a normal printer.

I'm currently using refills in both the B40W and the new 1400. I will most likely swap out the old CISS into the new 1400 when the mood takes me, but I'm glad I didn't "invest" £250+ for a CISS for the B40W.

This all doesn't really help you because you want the cheapest option. Your cheapest option is a B40W with refills and using whatever Artanium ink you have on your shelf from the 1290. If you go down that path, I'll cross my fingers that you have better success than I did.

[chongsta]

Thanks JSR, some good points to note there. I cant see me going to £245 quid though. I never once used the 1290 to its A3 capability anyway so i think ill go with an A4 this time round.

Martin, i though there were a few printers that didnt need any "cosmetic" surgery done to them, the 1290 didnt need anything doing to it. I shall dig more.

cheers guys
Dave.

[bms]

All the Epson A4/A3 printers need the cartridge lid mechanism to be removed. The Ricohs are just plug in the cartridges without any modification.

[JSR]

Martin, i though there were a few printers that didnt need any "cosmetic" surgery done to them, the 1290 didnt need anything doing to it. I shall dig more.

I guess you're talking about refillable cartridges (which can be used without removing the lid mechanisms or any other modification). They are available from other sources for the supported printers. I have refillables in an old 1290S, in one of my 1400s, and in the B40W. The cartridges for the B40W are identical to the ones for the B1100. I know because I bought B1100 refillables (it comes with two blacks but you only need one in the B40W) and I have them in my B40W now - if I ever go for a B1100, I'll be able to use the same cartridges.

They are certainly the better option when trying out a new printer if you already have some Artanium ink. As I mentioned before, I would have been gutted to spend £260 on a CISS for my B40W only to abandon it a short while later.

[bms]

The cartridges for the B40W are identical to the ones for the B1100

The cartridges may be physically the same but the chips on the cartridges are different so you will need different chips on these to make them work in the B1100.

[JSR]

The cartridges for the B40W are identical to the ones for the B1100

The cartridges may be physically the same but the chips on the cartridges are different so you will need different chips on these to make them work in the B1100.

Who told you that? I bought my refills as B1100 cartridges (that's why they came with two blacks) and they work fine in my B40W.

I draw your attention to the Epson website, re: [url="http://www.epson.co.uk/Store/Ink-Toner- ... Rhino-Inks]http://www.epson.co.uk/Store/Ink-Toner- ... Rhino-Inks[/url] and to [url="http://www.epson.co.uk/Store/Ink-Toner- ... affes-Inks]http://www.epson.co.uk/Store/Ink-Toner- ... affes-Inks[/url]

Those pages clearly state that the inks T1002, T1003, and T1004 (colours) and the T0711 (black) all work in both the B40W and B1100 just fine. The only difference is that the B1100 uses two of the T0711 cartridges. No "chip swapping" required.

Further info can be found on these two Epson webpages: [url="http://www.epson.co.uk/Store/Printers-a ... ccessories]http://www.epson.co.uk/Store/Printers-a ... ccessories[/url] and [url="http://www.epson.co.uk/Store/Printers-a ... ccessories]http://www.epson.co.uk/Store/Printers-a ... ccessories[/url] which both list the common inks T0711, T1002, T1003, and T1004 for use in both the B40W and B1100.

Who told you that we'd need to change the chips? Don't tell me that Sawgrass' CISS for the B40W is based on the T0712, T0713, and T0714 cartridges. If so, why? Is it just to prevent customers from using the same CISS in the two printers, so we'd have to buy again if we went for the other printer? Because that'd be daft.

[bms]

I was under the impression that the TO71 range of carts were for the B40W and different ones for the B1100 - not based on anything other than memory (obviously faultering). If they are interchangeable then that's great. We sell so many of the TO71 range cartridges that I tend to loose count of which ones they fit into (especially after a late night last night!)