Going back to Epson ink?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Alan Justice
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Alan Justice

I'm having so much trouble with MediaStreet ink (continuous flow system) for
my Epson 2200 that I may go back to Epson, at 5 times the cost. Can I put
back the orginal Epson cartridges I took out, even though they're not full?
At least one is empty, but I don't remember which.

Alternatively, I might just use the Epson yellow with the other MS
cartridges. MS yellow cartridge is notoriously bad, and now I can't get it
to work at all. I could just take out the MS cartridge, plug the tubing,
and put in the Epson cartridge, right?
 
Alan Justice said:
I'm having so much trouble with MediaStreet ink (continuous flow system) for
my Epson 2200 that I may go back to Epson, at 5 times the cost. Can I put
back the orginal Epson cartridges I took out, even though they're not full?
At least one is empty, but I don't remember which.
Click to expand...

Weigh them if you have digital scales or balance them on a ruler/seesaw.
 
Are these the spongeless cartridges used in the continuous flow system?
There are postings about some spongeless cartridges designed for the Canon
printers (bci-6) on http://www.nifty-stuff.com/forum/

Exclusive of the possibility of being used in a continuous flow system, they
didn't work all that well without some special management. There is a
fairly precise balance of ink retention to prevent leaking, internal
pressure regulation, air flow to balance ink output, etc. that the
cartridges seem to maintain best with the built-in sponges on Canon carts.
Might be true as well with Epson. Others may be interested in knowing,
however, if the inks from Mediastreet were safe and a good color match.
 
Burt said:
Are these the spongeless cartridges used in the continuous flow system?
There are postings about some spongeless cartridges designed for the Canon
printers (bci-6) on http://www.nifty-stuff.com/forum/

Exclusive of the possibility of being used in a continuous flow system, they
didn't work all that well without some special management. There is a
fairly precise balance of ink retention to prevent leaking,
Click to expand...

What a headache. Is the focus on phtography or on tinkering with printers?
 
Alan Justice said:
I'm having so much trouble with MediaStreet ink (continuous flow system) for
my Epson 2200 that I may go back to Epson, at 5 times the cost. Can I put
back the orginal Epson cartridges I took out, even though they're not full?
At least one is empty, but I don't remember which.

Alternatively, I might just use the Epson yellow with the other MS
cartridges. MS yellow cartridge is notoriously bad, and now I can't get it
to work at all. I could just take out the MS cartridge, plug the tubing,
and put in the Epson cartridge, right?
Click to expand...

I have an Epson Stylus COLOR 880 printer and have used compatible
cartridges
for the last three years with excellent results.
I find the photo paper I use affects the quality of prints and find that
Epson Photo gloss paper gives a superior result.
I use Choice Stationary at www.choucestationary.com
Blair
 
Alan said:
I'm having so much trouble with MediaStreet ink (continuous flow system) for
my Epson 2200 that I may go back to Epson, at 5 times the cost. Can I put
back the orginal Epson cartridges I took out, even though they're not full?
At least one is empty, but I don't remember which.

Alternatively, I might just use the Epson yellow with the other MS
cartridges. MS yellow cartridge is notoriously bad, and now I can't get it
to work at all. I could just take out the MS cartridge, plug the tubing,
and put in the Epson cartridge, right?
Click to expand...
CFS's usually have good tech support from the seller. What are your
exact problems and what did their tech support have to say?
Frank
 
Frank said:
CFS's usually have good tech support from the seller. What are your
exact problems and what did their tech support have to say?
Frank
Click to expand...


It is AfterMarket ink! :-(
 
Alternatively, I might just use the Epson yellow with the other MS
cartridges. MS yellow cartridge is notoriously bad, and now I can't get it
to work at all.
Click to expand...

While my Epson was the dye based printer, my symptoms were the same.
First the yellow went, then black and the other colors. No clue if
this is a cartridge problem or a clog problem, I would tend to believe
it was a clog problem.

But silly question, does MediaStreet not sell their ink in referbished
epson carts? Seems a logical step to isolate whether your
unspecified issues are a result of the CFS or the head.

The problem I see with re-using the an old set of ink where one went
empty is that purge cycle the printer goes through. When I was foolish
and replaced one, it purged them all and the rest became empty.
 
I am not surprised Mediastreet's CFS does not work with their ink.
In fact, some people have luck to prevent clogging, most of dont.

this is because of the sponged CFS cartridge that mediastreet sell.

To solve this problem, you can buy spongeless CFS and still use
Mediastreet's ink.

Spongeless based CFS:
http://www.inkrepublic.com

Mediastreet ink:
http://www.mediastreet.com
 
I've been in contact with their tech for months. I've tried everything, and
some things get better, but it's still a pain.

2 main promblems with MediaStreet:

1) Ink is fragile. The exit rollers cause scuffing as the print comes off
(their are some rather elaborate procedures to raise the rollers, but only
just enough, and the configuration is different for each type of paper).
Other rollers cause "pizza wheel" marks. Raising exit rollers appears to
affect these too, but then the print is not held during the final part of
printing. Also, the prints, even after drying a couple of days, scratch
very easily.

2) Cartridges clog (these are MS cartridges, attached by tubing to ink
bottles outside the printer). Usually it's yellow that clogs. It generally
starts up by itself, as none of my manipulations have reliabley helped. But
now I can't get the yellow to print at all.
 
Please explain about this purge system. Are you saying that if I put back
the partially-used Epson cartridge, they will all go empty?
 
Please explain about this purge system. Are you saying that if I put back
the partially-used Epson cartridge, they will all go empty?
Click to expand...

I'm saying if you replace one cartridge, provided that you use the
reccomended method of replacing them, it will purge them all.

I don't have an accurate measure of how much it purges. Might be 1ml,
might be 3ml. I have no idea. There is so much ink that just hangs in
the tubes there is no real way for me to measure. I can say that when
one read empty and the others read 10%, and I replaced one, they all
dropped to 0% except the full one.

The CSS utility does permit changing and has a manual button to purge
either black or color, but not any singular color.
 
What type of CIS are you using, is it sponged or spongeless?

These days I recommend spongeless types which use ink dampers.

These newer types provide much more reliable service. The ones with
sponges tend to trap air, foam and pigment over time. Yellow pigment
inks can be problematical, and also it tends to age more rapidly as ink,
causing clotting or falling out of suspension.

Consider a spongeless system, even for that one ink color.

Art
 
I can't speak for Canon's but the spongeless systems, from all reports
I've received are superior to the those with sponges on Epson printers.

Epson inks tend to foam, have pigments in some cases which gets
accumulated in the sponge and the sponge can also just develop air into
the ink creating some fairly regular gaps.

Also, if the air vent at the bottle is not opened the correct amount, or
if think has settles at the base of the bottle, this is a common problem.

Art
 
MIS instructions for refilling Epson carts for my old Stylus color 900
involved using a 60 cc syringe and pulling a vacuum on the bottom of the
carts to remove as much ink foam as possible from the sponge material and
then injecting the ink into the exit port with a bottom-fill adaptor to a
leur-lock syringe. this was an extra step they suggested because of the
retention of air and ink in the sponge which it retained in a foamy state,
preventing absorption of ink when refilling. Canon carts, on the other
hand, have the reservoir adjacent to the sponge area from which the ink is
drawn, first into the sponge and then through the exit port on demand for
printing. OEM Canon carts have two different densities of sponge in the
cart, one on top of the other. This system seems to control ink flow better
than some of the attempts at new and innovative design, one of which is
spongeless. I am currently using MIS carts that I purchased empty and am
refilling. They have the more typical single piece of sponge that non-OEM
carts have that takes up refill inks more readily than the OEM carts and
work quite well. I have seen a series of posts on a spongeless Canon bci-6
cart used for refilling that was glitchy and sometimes didn't feed well. I
think that you are right in that the sponge in the Epson carts presents a
problem for refilling.

Another series of posts delved into the problem of Canon carts failing to
feed properly after several refills. It appears that some ink solidifies
near the exit port and prevents ink from feeding on demand. As an
experiment, a very innovative person backflushed the non-functioning carts
with hot water, vacuumed out the water, let them dry, and refilled them.
They then worked just fine. Not practical when you consider the low cost of
aftermarket carts that are designed to be refilled, but an interesting
experiment in cart function. While someone may criticize this as a waste of
time and "tinkering", it certainly adds to the base of knowledge for solving
problems when they occur.
 
Sponge? Is that inside the cartridge? I wouldn't know. There's a set of
tubes that go from the ink bottles (4 oz. outside the printer) to the Media
Street cartridges, which look like the Epson cartridges except for the
tubing attachment.
 
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