Online Magazine

Recent Posts

Tags

More Places to Go

Archives

Running out of Ink?

15th June 2021

I quickly get tired of using my computer monitor to show others a photo or two. Of course one way to “fix” this is to make prints of these pictures. But this brings up another problem – making a bunch of prints quickly drains my ink cartridges and puts a dent in my wallet too.

A few weeks ago, I saw an advertisement for a printer that uses large, refillable ink tanks. My only hesitation was about the quality of the prints from a relatively inexpensive printer. With a money-back guarantee, I decided to go for it.

Sitting on my computer’s desktop is a folder labeled “To Be Printed”. As I take snapshots or find an interesting image, I drop it into this folder. By the time the printer arrived, I had accumulated close to a hundred images.

Here’s my experience with the Epson Ecotank 2720



The printer itself is quite compact but capable of printing onto 8-1/2″ x 11″ media. I purchased the printer primarily to make smaller prints. Here’s my stack of 4″ x 6″ glossy photo paper.


These are the first couple of prints that I made. Note the initial ink levels on the front of the printer.

During my first session with the new printer, I made about thirty 4″ x 6″ prints.


I found the print quality to be very good for both color and black and white images.

After printing my stack of 100 of so images, the ink levels dropped only slightly.

Epson claims that out of the box the printer includes enough ink for about two years of “normal” printing. My guess is that the ink will not last that long for the type of printing that I intend to do. Refills cost about $50 per set.

To date, I’m happy with this printer which set me back $200. Compared to other ink jet printers this is more costly, but factoring in the significantly lower cost of ink and the sparing me the inconvenience of having to run to the office supply store to get a replacement cartridge, I feel that this was a good purchase.

The printer is “attached” to my computer via wi-fi so there are no cables to worry about. It also doubles as a copier and has a built-in scanner too.


The printer ink is delivered in four containers – cyan, magenta, yellow and black with an additional black container.

Epson claims that they provide enough ink