Epson Artisan 730 with Continuous Ink Replacement

SoTightEcoLPI on 29/03/2023 - 09:52

I've had my Epson 730 with continuous ink for around 12 years. The CISS was supplied by Ricah. Anyway, the printer is not printing properly with certain colours not working.

This is common after some time and I normally drop it in for a service at Rihac which is around $45-$55, but to be honest this is an old printer. I am mainly printing school stuff for the kids, documents and scanning etc. I would go threw around 2 reems of paper every 2-3 months. I've tried priming the tank and it is still off now i've got the waste pad full message and I don't want to spend money to reset it.

I was looking to upgrade the printer and colour is a must, I do not print photos.
I narrowed it down to a Brother Wireless Colour Laser MFC Printer MFC-L3770CDW.

I want to know if this is infrequently used say once or twice a week will the laser toner still last on this model?

Would I have any issues running Ebay Toner ink long term with chips and compliance from the brother software?

The replacement cartridges are $60ish for 4, scanner function is automatic so that is great.

If this is no good, any printer recommendations would be great!

Electrical & Electronics Epson Ink Cartridge

Comments

  • BewareOfThe Dog on 29/03/2023 - 10:15

    Epson Ecotanks.- Yes it is an Ecotank, but the Ink lasts a few years, and are usually under $20 each.

    ET2820 - $479
    ET-4850 - $648

    • SoTightEcoLPI on 29/03/2023 - 10:26

      Interesting thanks so much for sharing. I've never heard of ecotanks. Would they have waste counter issues long term? $479 looks good.

      • BewareOfThe Dog on 29/03/2023 - 10:39

        Not that I'm aware of. We bought the original one 6 years ago, and only had ink replaced once. At the time it was $399, and it was automatic replacement under Product Care (It didn't require inspection). We replaced it with the ET2820 3 years ago, and the original (ET-2500?) is being used by my daughter. I also have an ET 4750 which has a paper feeder , as well as printing double-sided.

        My partner is a school teacher so she prints heaps, and I used to do site evaluations, which involved 50 page printouts.

        They are also smaller than a Laser.

        Canon and HP have their own versions, however they are an automatic replacement under 12 month warranty (Epson need to be serviced).

      • rumblytangara on 29/03/2023 - 13:56

        FWIW the Ecotanks also have some kind of waste catching reservoir that according to Epson cannot be refreshed. So if you do lots of ink purges, in theory it shortens the service life of the printer.

        I ran one for 3-4 years, did a load of purges, replaced the tank once. It never ran out of reservoir space though.

        I've looked at the Ecotanks here in Oz. Looks like anything that's under $800 is only 3 colour + black, which means not great for photos. Okay for kids school stuff, but don't bother doing fine art prints :/

  • GordonD on 29/03/2023 - 10:19
    +1

    Yep, as BewareOfTheDog says, Epson has a whole range of EcoTank printers which have extraordinarily cheap ink.

    As he also points out they are pretty expensive for what features you get because Epson has to make their money in the initial printer purchase if they don't charge a fortune for the ink.

    And, yes, there are 3rd party inks, but you wonder what their appeal is when Epson ink is cheap.

    • BewareOfThe Dog on 29/03/2023 - 10:40

      An Ecotank is like buying a Tesla (and having 21 Solar panels + 2 batteries at home).

  • ThithLord on 29/03/2023 - 10:20

    Ebay Toner ink

    Toner and ink are completely different things, mate, just be aware

    • SoTightEcoLPI on 29/03/2023 - 10:26

      Mmm yeah of course I meant toner. I've had ink too long now

  • SoTightEcoLPI on 29/03/2023 - 10:40

    Thanks so much all. Compared to the brother laser I am guessing the Epson will print colours a bit better and have a smaller foot print on the desk? Makes sense if replacement ink so cheap and genuine. Thanks

  • rihac on 29/03/2023 - 11:55
    +1

    Morning! There are so many reason not to get a Laser over an inkjet printer, especially if you have any intention of printer photos, colour documents or the like in the future. Laser printers have incredibly expensive consumable and when you talk about getting them cheap, it would be because they don't have a great print output. Ecotanks are fine, if you happy to purchase a $50 printer with hundreds of dollars worth of ink stuck to the side. What I would strongly suggest is to give Rihac a call again for some advice and they can point you in the right direction.
    Regarding the waste pad reset, it is possible to reset it yourself for free as long as its not been reset before. A trial reset from the likes of WIC would sort you out. The printer is old, yet if its printing ok it really is worth the effort getting it back up and running as the newer printers are simply not built to last like the Artisans.

    • GordonD on 29/03/2023 - 15:58

      if you happy to purchase a $50 printer with hundreds of dollars worth of ink stuck to the side

      That's an accurate description of Epson's EcoTank ink jet printers. A cheap printer sold at a high price by having ink tanks rather than ink cartridges. You get cheap ink refills. But for the price you pay up front the printer is expensive for the features you get. I only bought my ET-2820 because it was nearly half price because it was Epson refurbished. Barring one of those being available I'd suggest anyone look at Brother's DCP-J1200W "continuous ink" printer.

    • SoTightEcoLPI on 29/03/2023 - 22:05

      Thanks Ricah, you've been amazing every time I have had my printer serviced. I am pretty sure I've had the waste pad reset before. I really thought it was on the way out. I will touch base for more advice. Thank you!

  • Chris Topher on 29/03/2023 - 19:24

    With my older Epson printer and also using (and recommending) Rihac CISS, I changed the paper settings to Epson Premium Glossy and it prints everything in all colours as per the required image on standard A4 or whatever plain paper or glossy.

    Mine had blocked black ink jets and without doing anything but the paper setting change in both the printer and windows printer defaults, the black is as crisp and sharp as it ever was.

    It uses more ink and takes longer, but it prints OK on standard paper. If it runs out of CISS ink because of this, so be it. New printer time after getting advice from the Rihac people.

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