[Oliver Ritter-Wolff Silver Member Posts: 196]

Epson Printers

on: July 26, 2021 at 2:34 am

EcoTank, an interesting new technology without the expensive cartridges. Kevin’s article made me curious because I wanted to banish my office printer, an HP Color Laserjet from my environment as soon as possible. Due to current circumstances, I stumbled across various articles in which the suspicion was expressed that the fine dust from laser printers and laser copying machines could be linked to lung cancer.

Even if it is only a suspected case, I wanted to make a cut here and have replaced the laser printer with an Epson EcoTank ET-5170, which will arrive this week.

Beyond office printing, however, I am interested in the stability of the device. Do the nozzles dry out, are there many maintenance runs, how high are the printing costs in practice really.

Also exciting to see if this technology without print cartridges will catch on in the medium term with FineArt printers. The current generation of top devices still relies on cartridges.

Oliver

https://www.riwodot.de

https://vero.co/riwodot

https://www.instagram.com/riwodot/

[Mark D Segal Silver Member Posts: 871]

Re: Epson EcoTank Technology

Reply #1 on: July 26, 2021 at 9:20 am

Oliver, I got rid of my last small HP all-in-one some years ago after I got totally fed-up with their bloated software, recurrent functional unreliability and premature obsolescence; HP has a huge reputation in the large-scale print machine segment where they excel, but in this small stuff, back then not so much. Then I replaced that with a series of Epson and Canon all-in-ones, which each for their own reasons were poor performers. Finally last year I bought an Epson Eco-Tank ET-2760. This is just for office work – it’s a multi-function. After using it for about a year I have to say I have no complaints – in fact more positively – it’s very good. It is EXTREMELY economic on ink, and I have only had to do a nozzle cleaning once since I got it. There are no issues of needing to use it at regular intervals to keep it running properly. There are plenty of print setting options, it’s real easy to set-up and use, it works reliably and on the higher quality settings it produces very good output.

Mark D Segal Author: "Scanning Workflows with SilverFast 8, SilverFast HDR, Adobe Photoshop Lightroom and Adobe Photoshop". Please check the PhotoPXL Store for availability.

[Oliver Ritter-Wolff]

Re: Epson EcoTank Technology

Reply #2 on: July 27, 2021 at 3:23 pm

Hello Mark,

that sounds good. The good piece will be delivered tomorrow. I hope it runs smoothly in the office.
My children will certainly use the printer quite extensively as part of their studies.

I will report how it performs in the long run.

Oliver

https://www.riwodot.de

https://vero.co/riwodot

https://www.instagram.com/riwodot/

• This reply was modified 2 years, 4 months ago by Oliver Ritter-Wolff.

[Oliver Ritter-Wolff Silver Member Posts: 196]

Re: Epson EcoTank Technology

Reply #3 on: August 6, 2021 at 10:15 am

The Epson ET-5170 is installed and in use. The print quality is surprisingly good, even on plain paper. The scan and copy quality is also much better than I expected.

Now I’m curious how the ink consumption and longevity are?

The installation via smartphone was quick and easy to understand. The multifunction device is very easy to use from Android devices, as well as iPhone and iPad on WLAN. The printer drivers were also installed quickly and smoothly under MacOS and Windows 10 and work flawlessly.

The Epson Smart Panel app is easy to use on Android and works well.

I am curious whether the EcoTank technology will also establish itself in the FineArt Pigment Injket Printer sector?

Oliver

https://www.riwodot.de

https://vero.co/riwodot

https://www.instagram.com/riwodot/

[Mark D Segal Silver Member Posts: 871]

Re: Epson EcoTank Technology

Reply #4 on: August 6, 2021 at 10:28 am

Epson has published an interesting technical promo paper on this ink which you can find here: https://files.support.epson.com/pdf/sc88__/sc88__du.pdf

Mark D Segal Author: "Scanning Workflows with SilverFast 8, SilverFast HDR, Adobe Photoshop Lightroom and Adobe Photoshop". Please check the PhotoPXL Store for availability.

[Oliver Ritter-Wolff Silver Member Posts: 196]

Re: Epson EcoTank Technology

Reply #5 on: August 6, 2021 at 11:33 am

Hello Mark,

an interesting document on the classification of the current Epson inks.

It would be ideal if Epson would bring the Ultachrome K3 inks the EcoTank technology to the next generation of FineArt printers, so that you could fill them with the bottles cheaply and less waste is produced with the cartridges.

Many greetings
Oliver

https://www.riwodot.de

https://vero.co/riwodot

https://www.instagram.com/riwodot/

[L Berle Participant Posts: 26]

Re: Epson EcoTank Technology

Reply #6 on: August 6, 2021 at 5:46 pm

Mark D Segal wrote:

Epson has published an interesting technical promo paper on this ink which you can find here: https://files.support.epson.com/pdf/sc88__/sc88__du.pdf

Interesting and I also searched for the referenced ‘Epson Ink Solutions Document’, though I could not find that specific one I do note that the date of the doc you link to and the few others I could find were 2006 or 2007.

So, Epson have it seems not had much to say of late about where their inks are going???

[Mark D Segal Silver Member Posts: 871]

Re: Epson EcoTank Technology

Reply #7 on: August 6, 2021 at 6:02 pm

Ya but it’s still relevant. And actually with every new ink generation that accompanies new model printers they do publish quite a hoop-la about the new, new, new, new inkset, but that document at least has some useful technical content.

Mark D Segal Author: "Scanning Workflows with SilverFast 8, SilverFast HDR, Adobe Photoshop Lightroom and Adobe Photoshop". Please check the PhotoPXL Store for availability.

[Oliver Ritter-Wolff Silver Member Posts: 196]

Re: Epson EcoTank Technology

Reply #8 on: August 7, 2021 at 6:36 am

I’m particularly interested in EcoTank technology as a new technology carrier and perhaps also as a basis for pigment inks in fine art printers later on.

Epson writes that the black ink is already a pigment ink, while the other colors are dye inks.

Thus, there seems to be nothing technically against using the EcoTank technology together with pigment inks.

Oliver

https://www.riwodot.de

https://vero.co/riwodot

https://www.instagram.com/riwodot/

[Mark D Segal Silver Member Posts: 871]

Re: Epson EcoTank Technology

Reply #9 on: August 7, 2021 at 9:25 am

Let us recall there are continuous supply systems available for a number of these printers, and they don’t depend on cartridges. See for example: https://www.theimagingwarehouse.com/Products/CIS-Continuous-Ink-Bulk-Systems. Though I hasten to add I have never tried such systems, so I have no idea how well they work, whether the inks are a satisfactory replacement for Epson’s inks or how many printer models they are adapted for. I would not be at all surprised to see Epson adapting its own Eco-Tank solution to new models of these “fine-art” printers some time down the road.

Mark D Segal Author: "Scanning Workflows with SilverFast 8, SilverFast HDR, Adobe Photoshop Lightroom and Adobe Photoshop". Please check the PhotoPXL Store for availability.

[Oliver Ritter-Wolff Silver Member Posts: 196]

Re: Epson EcoTank Technology

Reply #10 on: August 7, 2021 at 11:39 am

Hello Mark,

I had a CIS like this for my former https://www.epson.de/products/printers/inkjet-printers/photo/epson-stylus-photo-r2880 for a few years, until the printer nozzles broke down. On the whole, it had worked well.

Sytem and ink were then from https://www.easy-inks.de/private/shop/ . These inks were very close to the original. I had created the appropriate ICC profiles for my papers and was able to print very satisfied and cheap for a few years until the nozzles of the printer were broken.

Then we bought the HP z3100, which unfortunately had an expensive defect after only three years, which made repair uneconomical. After that, we went back to the Epson 3880, a printer from this manufacturer.

Oliver

https://www.riwodot.de

https://vero.co/riwodot

https://www.instagram.com/riwodot/

[Oliver Ritter-Wolff Silver Member Posts: 196]

Re: Epson EcoTank Technology

Reply #11 on: August 7, 2021 at 11:46 am

The ink for the Epson r2880 is no longer available but for the new K3 compatible models.

In english: https://www.easy-inks.de/en/products/ink-for-epson-stylus-pro/epson-stylus-pro-3800-3850-4800-7800-9800/

 

Oliver

 

https://www.riwodot.de

https://vero.co/riwodot

https://www.instagram.com/riwodot/

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