New Epson printer series uses bottled ink

Check out the new L series.

Looks like Epson is trying out not using the loss-leader model to sell printers. Maybe they feel bad about misleading their customers. More likely, they’ve decided too much business is going to 3rd party ink sellers.

The L series printers have ink tanks attached to the side of the printer, like a Continuous Ink Supply system, but more professional. If I were looking for a printer, I’d consider this.

Wow… they should check the water supply at Epson Headquarters, they’ve finally came to their senses.

I recently dumped my old Epson printer and bought a new one modified with ink tanks, for about the price of a single cartdrige I can refil all the tanks that, by the looks of it, last 20 or 30 times longer than a cartdrige, so up to 120 times less expensive. I’d call that a no brainer.

Incidentally, there’s a bottle in the back, to collect the ink used by the head cleaning process, by the amount of ink flushed with each head cleaning no wonder cartdriges last so little. I shouldn’t wonder if 5% or more from each cartdrige was being flused away.

Me too - I bought one that I knew I would be able to get third party refillable cartidges for - they’re transparent and have a rubber stopper in the top, so I just squirt more ink in once a month or so. The cost saving is quite incredible.

I can’t quite believe Epson won’t find some way to charge the earth for an OEM refillable solution.

Where did you hear about this printer? I wonder, because a Google for “Epson L Series” returns results that leads me to suspect that these are being (and have been for a couple years) sold in the Asian market, but not in N. America.

Excerpt from most relevant/recent article that reinforces my suspicion:

I saw it in Singapore. It’s still quite new here, because there’s a poster showing all their printers and it’s not on the poster yet. A bit more info: on the brochure it says black ink is SGD$9.90 for a 70 ml bottle, which is supposed to last 4000 pages. If this is even remotely true, it’s amazing and cheaper than a $100 toner cartridge that only lasts 2000 pages.

I wonder how they fixed the leaking and air bubble problem, though. I thought one of the reasons they didn’t use CIS was too much hassle for the average user, only the very determined/technical/high volume users would go for it. It’s bad reputation for your company if you sell a cheap printer than stains users’ desks.

Hey, whaddaya know, Singapore has stuff America doesn’t! :smiley:

Can you use Epson inks in these types of systems? If you can, I’ll have to look into something like that. If not, are any of the third party inks as good as the Ultrachrome inks, with their wide color gamut and 100+ year lightfastness ratings? It’s been years since I looked into third party inks, and I wasn’t happy with what I saw back then.

Let me check…

Hang on…

Haaaaang on…

Alright, I’ll call you back in 100 years and let you know how it went. :smiley:
Seriously though, I see no reason why I couldn’t put original Epson ink into the reservoirs.

I guess that’s the question. Can I buy those inks in bulk?

What about the problem with the jets clogging? Aren’t clogged jets the main reason cartridges fail? Priming sometimes helps, but if not then a new cartridge is needed.

Refilling the ink is great if there’s a way to service the jets.