John Hollenberg
New member
My Epson 2400 produces great prints, I would like to print a bit larger and have been thinking about the Epson 7800. Everyone claims that the savings in ink costs is great, so if you print a moderate amount you will end up ahead. I figure that the ink on the 220 ml cartridges runs about 40 cents/ml, while the Epson 2400 cartridges are more like $1.00 per ml (or a bit more).
However, from previous (bad) experience of owning a flaky Epson 9600, plus a number of threads on the internet, it seems questionable whether this saving is realized for those who print a modest amount. See for example this discussion:
http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/readflat.asp?forum=1003&thread=18738232
especially the last few posts.
It seems that the Epson X800 printers will do cleaning cycles even when they aren't needed, and that there is no way to turn these cleaning cycles off. With my Epson 9600, I found that just turning the printer on consumed from 2 to 16 ml of ink, depending on what mood the printer was in and how long it had been sitting idle. This was just for the automated start up; often more cleaning cycles were needed to get a good nozzle check. For one day (24 hours) since the last print, these automated cleaning cycles would generally use 2 ml, but sometimes 7 ml. For one week, 7-16 ml. If one were to print a 12X18 print daily, at 2ml/square foot coverage this would be 3 ml ink for the print and 2 ml for a mini startup cleaning cycle. Already the advantage of the lower ink cost is not nearly as great, since the 2400 cost $3.00 worth of ink and the X800 used $2.00 worth. The 2400 seems to need cleaning cycles infrequently with even moderate use.
Questions:
1) Has anyone figure out how much ink is used per square foot for their usage pattern, including the ink that goes into the maintenance tank?
2) Is there any way to turn off or minimize these automatic cleaning cycles?
Thanks.
--John
However, from previous (bad) experience of owning a flaky Epson 9600, plus a number of threads on the internet, it seems questionable whether this saving is realized for those who print a modest amount. See for example this discussion:
http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/readflat.asp?forum=1003&thread=18738232
especially the last few posts.
It seems that the Epson X800 printers will do cleaning cycles even when they aren't needed, and that there is no way to turn these cleaning cycles off. With my Epson 9600, I found that just turning the printer on consumed from 2 to 16 ml of ink, depending on what mood the printer was in and how long it had been sitting idle. This was just for the automated start up; often more cleaning cycles were needed to get a good nozzle check. For one day (24 hours) since the last print, these automated cleaning cycles would generally use 2 ml, but sometimes 7 ml. For one week, 7-16 ml. If one were to print a 12X18 print daily, at 2ml/square foot coverage this would be 3 ml ink for the print and 2 ml for a mini startup cleaning cycle. Already the advantage of the lower ink cost is not nearly as great, since the 2400 cost $3.00 worth of ink and the X800 used $2.00 worth. The 2400 seems to need cleaning cycles infrequently with even moderate use.
Questions:
1) Has anyone figure out how much ink is used per square foot for their usage pattern, including the ink that goes into the maintenance tank?
2) Is there any way to turn off or minimize these automatic cleaning cycles?
Thanks.
--John