Re: Epson is stopping non-Epson ink sales

On Mon, 19 Jan 2009 19:40:01 -0800, Arthur Entlich wrote:

All inkjet printers are not created equal, not only by model, or even by
individual units, but even more importantly, by the niche they are
marketing to.


I think they learn that in the 3rd grade.



The lines have blurred over the years, and the inkjet manufacturers
haven't helped because they want to sell their printers as an answer for
all purposes.


Nothing wrong with wanting to stay in business.

Along the way, pricing of consumables have all become very closely priced.

So, the advantages that Epson had from the beginning, which was a
permanent head, which did not alter in quality throughout the life of
the printer, yet keeping the cost of consumables down since the ink
cartridge was just a container. Also, back then, the cartridges were
relatively simple to both refill or reproduce by 3rd party ink
packagers. The image quality surpassed any other brand on the market at
anywhere near the cost.

In contrast, HP cartridges had the head integrated into the cartridge
which made them more costly to make and which were more costly to buy.
The head was designed, in principal as a throw away after one use, they
were made difficult to refill, and the overall print quality was fine
for text and pie charts but not appropriate at all for photographs.

As I stated, the marketplace has since very much blurred. People found
ways to refill the HP cartridges and found they would often last several
refills (although the print quality might be compromised). HP developed
technologies to decrease dot size and increase density and accuracy of
the dot position. In the meantime, Epson reduced the size of their
cartridges while raising the cost, developed ways to make their
cartridges harder to refill, and had a few issues with low humidity
areas and manufacturing tolerances which lead to clogs.

So, I do not challenge your experience between the HP versus Epson
printers, only that your experience may easily be very contrary to that
of others who had different requirements and needs for their printers.

Epson still has the most versatile head design, which allows it to move
inks through it no other printer can do. The head print quality is still
probably the best or tied with one or two others. The head is still the
longest lasting of any manufacturer. However, cost of replacement,
should it fail, is very high. The head is more troublesome to maintain,
especially in drier and dustier environments and bad maintenance habits
will be "punished", but overall print quality, especially with pigment
inks is difficult to surpass.

So, my point is that one usually cannot make accurate blanket judgments


After several long winded paragraphs he has a point



about any one technology or brand of printer, and one person's
experience tells more about their type of usage and needs than that a
printer type or brand is always better or worse than another.

Art


If you are interested in issues surrounding e-waste,
I invite you to enter the discussion at my blog:

http://e-trashtalk.spaces.live.com/

TJ wrote:
Joel wrote:
TJ <TJ@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

Paul Heslop wrote:
Frank Arthur wrote:
Epson managed to stop delivery of non Epson ink from a supplier in
Canada.
If Epson prevents me from buying less expensive inks I guarantee I
will never again buy an Epson product again.

How do you feel about it?
I agree with you.

I stopped using Epson years ago. Too many clogs if you didn't print
every day. I was spending half my time unclogging before I could
print, and even then I rarely got it completely unclogged. I can go
nearly a month with my HPs idle with no clogs. And that's with
aftermarket ink, too.

TJ

The information you wrote is totally wrong. You should be able
not to
bother it for at least 1-2 weeks, and you should use 1/2 of your time
to gain more experience to enjoy what Epson has to offer.

No, thanks. My description of my experience with two separate Epson
printers is accurate. It was years ago, as I said. The printers were
bought used, so maybe the original owners were at fault, or maybe I
just got a couple of bum ones. I don't know, and I don't care. My HPs
were also bought used, and they don't clog anywhere near as easily.
YMMV. Again, I don't care. My experience was enough for me.

TJ
.

Relevant Pages

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