Your Old Dog Posted December 31, 2010 Share #1 Posted December 31, 2010 Advertisement (gone after registration) Was reading up on the Epson 4900 now that someone else is inquiring about it. I liked everything about it except the part about 6 month ink shelf life once the cartridges are opened. These cartridges cost $99.00 each in the US and there are 11 cartridges. Anyone know if that's just the factory being cautious or is that really the shelf life of these high end product inks? Anyone know if most (or any) color printers will allow you to just load B&W print inks and NOT load the color inks? I would like the ability to print color occasionally but my heart is in B&W. A google search turned up little in B&W only printers. Thanks in advance. Ray........... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Advertisement Posted December 31, 2010 Posted December 31, 2010 Hi Your Old Dog, Take a look here Ink life once opened?. I'm sure you'll find what you were looking for!
hoppyman Posted December 31, 2010 Share #2 Posted December 31, 2010 Ray I have had the 3800 for I guess a couple of years. That one has 80ml ctgs in it. My experience is that lesser used ctgs (matt black in my case or a couple of the colours that are not heavily tasked) can work fine 12 months after opening. However there is a large caveat. You need to exercise the printer regularly (weekly at least). Pigment inks certainly can clog and lead to wasteful and annoying cleaning cycles. Nevertheless they hold by far the largest share of the market and can deliver superb results on good media too. I tend to print in batches personally which is fine but idle periods can trap you and wasting expensive media as well is to be avoided of course. My advice is to only consider this level of pro printer if you realistically expect to be printing significant volumes. Much better to be exhausting ctgs than letting them die of old age. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Your Old Dog Posted January 2, 2011 Author Share #3 Posted January 2, 2011 Thank you Geoff It's a big expenditure and I want to be sure I'm making the right choice. Opportunities to spend this kind of money for a printer don't come along often for me! I think I may go for the Epson 4900. What few advances there are in it over the 38and 4800 series may be worth it to me. Ray....... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jeff S Posted January 2, 2011 Share #4 Posted January 2, 2011 Here's everything you want to know about the 4900 in practical use, including tons of detail on ink usage and expenditures...The Epson 4900 Printer: Hands-On and Down to Work Jeff PS If you want all black inks, you can replace the Epson inks with Cone inks for most Epsons...http://shopping.netsuite.com/s.nl/c.362672/.f Cone also claims to get better mileage from their inks. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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