Printer Internal Ink Cartridges '' Vs '' External Ink Reservoir

[ThaiLife]

Roaming around the IT mall’s ive noticed several places that you take your Printer ink cartridge to for a re fill ,there they have on display an external bank of ink reservoirs that sit at the side of a printer and feed the ink into the removable internal ink cartridges.

When I looked closer it seem’s small plastic feed tubes go from the new external ink reservoirs to a new set of internal ink cartridges.

I was just wondering how the ink is fed into the new set of internal ink cartridges from the new external ink reservoir when the external ink reservoir sits at a lower level than the ink internal cartridges.( it seem’s the ink from the new external ink

Reservoir has to some how be pumped upwards )

Also how does this new external ink reservoir and new internal set of ink cartridges

Get over the original internal ink cartridge chip sensor problem

May be I’m missing some thing..?

[Thanh-BKK]

Hi

These systems are only worthwile when you REALLY print a lot. The ink is "sucked" into the internal cartridges by the vacuum that is the result of the ink level dropping, instead of a small hole for air (as in the original cartridges) these have the little hose that runs to the outside tanks. This works pretty good.

For the chip they are probably using hacked chips that reset themselves upon powering up - so the printer always "sees" a full cartridge. The chips in regular cartridges can also be reset, there's devices available that do that. Often i had printers (particularly Epson!) refuse to print with the "out of ink" BS when the cartridge was still about 25% full.

Best regards.....

Thanh

[Guest Reimar]

You can use the following Printer Brands with external Ink-Tanks:

Epson; Canon; Brother

The advantage is that you don't need to remove the catridges and therefore the connectors to and on the catridges last much longer that if you rmove them for any refill. If you print a lot it really pays off. Normal an inkcatridge has 5 - 10 ml ink and cost THB 300 up to 1200 depend on Brand and Model. 

I use an Epson R310 and CX5100 and an Brother DCP-330C all with Tanks. The R310 is now 3 1/2 years old and exept the chage of the Chips one time not any problem.

Cost per A4 page app 2 Baht in Color!

Cheers.

[torrenova]

I have a Canon for pictures and an HP for paper and the Canon eats ink for the photoprinting (it is a photo printer). I have got copy inks now but they are a fuc_k about. I bought it cheap I'll admit but when I can budget more, I'll go for the external tanks on the next model.

[RickySmith]

External cartridgs are really beneficial and useful and provide some amazing printing quality.

[lopburi3]

Pray tell how external tanks provide "amazing" quality? They provide cheaper ink supply - that is it. For many that is important; although expect most such users use laser printing these days.

Edited October 7, 2009 by lopburi3

[gmac]

Pray tell how external tanks provide "amazing" quality? They provide cheaper ink supply - that is it. For many that is important; although expect most such users use laser printing these days.

As the ink costs a tiny fraction of the cost of genuine cartridges it's "amazing" how good the results are! I like them anyway.

[roog]

Thought I'd jump onto this thread, as some poster talked about vaccuum supply... maybe he can shed light and save me a trip to Bangkok... I have one of these systems on an Epson C90 - the yellow ink resevoir is obviously still 80% full, yet NO yellow ink comes out of the jet. The (hacked) sofware reports that the yellow tank is full. Is there anything I can usefully do in effort to fix this myself? ... cheers.

[lopburi3]

Pray tell how external tanks provide "amazing" quality? They provide cheaper ink supply - that is it. For many that is important; although expect most such users use laser printing these days.

As the ink costs a tiny fraction of the cost of genuine cartridges it's "amazing" how good the results are! I like them anyway.

Have to agree with that logic - to an extent. If you expect to hang a photo for more than a few months I suspect your "amazing" may quickly turn to "awful".

I do agree if you print documents a lot it makes good sense - but for those of use who only print a few pages a week I do not believe it is a good investment - even refilled carts are iffy and have learned to avoid them also. In many cases there is another factor involved; new print head is in the cart so a new cart takes care of most problems.

Edited October 8, 2009 by lopburi3

[gmac]

Pray tell how external tanks provide "amazing" quality? They provide cheaper ink supply - that is it. For many that is important; although expect most such users use laser printing these days.

As the ink costs a tiny fraction of the cost of genuine cartridges it's "amazing" how good the results are! I like them anyway.

Have to agree with that logic - to an extent. If you expect to hang a photo for more than a few months I suspect your "amazing" may quickly turn to "awful".

I do agree if you print documents a lot it makes good sense - but for those of use who only print a few pages a week I do not believe it is a good investment - even refilled carts are iffy and have learned to avoid them also. In many cases there is another factor involved; new print head is in the cart so a new cart takes care of most problems.

All very true. I found I was printing very little and if I forgot to do an occasional test print the cartridges were drying up and I had to buy new ones. So far no probs with the cheap stick on ones. So cheap keeps me cheerful!

[gmac]

don't consider only ink price, consider the shipping service, after sell service, and also include whether the store provide money back guarantee or not.

Who cares when a new printer costs 2500 Baht but 2 genuine cartridges with next to no ink them cost 1700. The external cartridges with 10 times the amount of ink pay for themselves in no time. If it wrecks your printer you're no worse off than if you had bought 2 new sets of cartridges. As with everything with a 'designer' name, you pay for the name far more than the amount of product. If the copy product is adequate for your needs why pay more?

[sumrit]

Pray tell how external tanks provide "amazing" quality? They provide cheaper ink supply - that is it. For many that is important; although expect most such users use laser printing these days.

As the ink costs a tiny fraction of the cost of genuine cartridges it's "amazing" how good the results are! I like them anyway.

Have to agree with that logic - to an extent. If you expect to hang a photo for more than a few months I suspect your "amazing" may quickly turn to "awful".

I do agree if you print documents a lot it makes good sense - but for those of use who only print a few pages a week I do not believe it is a good investment - even refilled carts are iffy and have learned to avoid them also. In many cases there is another factor involved; new print head is in the cart so a new cart takes care of most problems.

I've got an Epson R300 in Thailand and an Epson R285 in the UK. Both are fitted with external ink supplies and both print directly on to CD's/DVD's. I download a lot of TV video then burn it to disc and print pictures on the discs and sleeves instead of just writing on them. I have many discs, some that were printed on several years ago, and the pictures on both the discs and the sleeves are still 'as good as new'. None of them have become 'awful' with age .

Edited October 8, 2009 by sumrit

[lopburi3]

Do you hang them on the wall? There is a huge difference between storage and display when talking about fade.

As for all that burning/printing work - why? They play just as well from a HD or USB stick. I know they look nice that way but in a very short period they will be the 8-track tapes of my generation; and useless to anyone.

[angiud]

I have a canon printer and I print CD with my films (I like to have a kind of collection) and if they will be obsolete like 8-track cassettes, mai pen rai, I'll see anyway.

About separate ink tanks, I have a Brother with big ink tanks, but the system is very safe because there is not need for the small pipes cause the big tanks fit in the location of the original ones.

About the quality of the inks: Canon durabrite and other original brands are for sure much better quality and duration of the commercial inks, but if you choose made in Japan or Korea inks, instead of made in China and Thailand, you will have a better quality inks and less fading.

For bulk inks try Comax, average/good quality.

[lopburi3]

I have a canon printer and I print CD with my films (I like to have a kind of collection) and if they will be obsolete like 8-track cassettes, mai pen rai, I'll see anyway.

I expect that is it for some of us - something to do. For my mother it was recording cassette tapes to listen to when too old to read - but when that time came it was also too old to operate recorders - but did provide a semi-productive hobby.

A newer version might be to use Coollector software rather than burn.

Sorry - off-topic but hope it may help someone.

[Cuban]

Thought I'd jump onto this thread, as some poster talked about vaccuum supply... maybe he can shed light and save me a trip to Bangkok... I have one of these systems on an Epson C90 - the yellow ink resevoir is obviously still 80% full, yet NO yellow ink comes out of the jet. The (hacked) sofware reports that the yellow tank is full. Is there anything I can usefully do in effort to fix this myself? ... cheers.

Work on a surface that can be cleaned or does not matter if the ink leaks, and wear surgical gloves if possible.

Is there yellow ink in the supply pipe or air bubbles?

Take the head out, place on old newspaper, release any air bubbles from the pipe by raising the level of the tank above the print head and unclip the supply pipe from the print head. You should undo the 'breather' stopper cap from the yellow tank first, if the other colors are good leave those tanks sealed - this reduces the amount of lost ink.

You may have to soak the buisness end of the print head in water if that has dried solid, a small amount of water in a shallow saucer is enough - don't drown the thing.

When the air bubbles in the supply pipe are gone, allow gravity to fil the yellow section of the print head with ink until ink is seen coming from the business end. Plug in any loose breather stoppers to stop the flow.

Wipe clean the head.

Check the inside of the printer, where the print head rests there should be a pad that wipes clean the print head while in use, normally sprung or on a mechanical lever, clean this (it will be inky) and see if it is covering the heads when the printer is at rest, turned off. If not this will be a casue of dried print heads.

HTH.

[nidge]

I have an epson stylus C90 with external ink tanks. Before i had the tanks fitted the photographs i printed looked great. Since fitting the tanks the quality dropped considerably. Normal printing however is very acceptable. I print loads, especially books in PDF format as i hate reading books on a monitor and the ink lasts for ages. Now if i need photos printed I put them on flash stick and take them to a shop. It's normally only about 3 baht per print anyway.

Nidge.

[sumrit]

Do you hang them on the wall? There is a huge difference between storage and display when talking about fade.

Yes, amongst other things I printed pictures from when we got married a few years ago and they're all hanging on the wall and none have faded .

As for all that burning/printing work - why? They play just as well from a HD or USB stick. I know they look nice that way but in a very short period they will be the 8-track tapes of my generation; and useless to anyone.

I burn to disc to save the video and music then I can watch and listen to it when I want to, both now and in the future. I print on the discs and labels because it looks better than just writing on them, my choice, and no they haven't faded either. I use a HD or USB stick if I want to download, watch, then delete something but discs are still cheaper at the moment when saving something permanently. If we all thought like you nobody would have bought any records, cassette tapes, eight track, CD's, or DVD's. We would all have waited 40+ years until hard drives and USB sticks were invented, but then why waste your time with them? there'll be something else to replace them in a year or two .

[GungaDin]

I have a canon printer and I print CD with my films (I like to have a kind of collection) and if they will be obsolete like 8-track cassettes, mai pen rai, I'll see anyway.

About separate ink tanks, I have a Brother with big ink tanks, but the system is very safe because there is not need for the small pipes cause the big tanks fit in the location of the original ones.

About the quality of the inks: Canon durabrite and other original brands are for sure much better quality and duration of the commercial inks, but if you choose made in Japan or Korea inks, instead of made in China and Thailand, you will have a better quality inks and less fading.

For bulk inks try Comax, average/good quality.

Hi angiud.

Could you elaborate a little about Comax inks as they appear to be made in Thailand and or Vietnam?

http://www.comax.co.th/ProductInkjet.php?Content=Refill

I'm looking at the discontinued Epson model R230X with bulk tanks, at 6200bt inclusive.

Fair price or not? (Anyone?)

Thanks

[Phil Conners]

I burn to disc to save the video and music then I can watch and listen to it when I want to, both now and in the future. I print on the discs and labels because it looks better than just writing on them, my choice, and no they haven't faded either. I use a HD or USB stick if I want to download, watch, then delete something but discs are still cheaper at the moment when saving something permanently. If we all thought like you nobody would have bought any records, cassette tapes, eight track, CD's, or DVD's. We would all have waited 40+ years until hard drives and USB sticks were invented, but then why waste your time with them? there'll be something else to replace them in a year or two .

In my experience burned CD/DVD don't last much more than 1-2 years here in Thailand, then you start getting serious read errors. Printed CD/DVD last longer but also have their limitations.