Use your printer?
Do you use a printer at all? I know some people don’t anymore. I don’t know why. I have to print random things all the time. I know a lot of stuff has gone completely digital but not everything has. But if you use a printer for a business, or for printing manuscripts for editing purposes… what kind of printer do you have? And how much ink are you using?
That is the question of the day. Why?
Because, I started this blog/website to satisfy the requirement with Amazon to have an affiliate account, and by god, I am finally going to use it for it’s intended purpose.
I’m going to blog about printers, and share with you buy links to Amazon for a printer I think you should absolutely upgrade to.
We print a small ton each month. Not just documents. One of my kids prints embroidery patterns. The other prints images for stickers. We all print something daily.
I had an HP big boy printer, I forget it’s name and serial numbers. It’s in my closet. There’s nothing wrong with it. I bought it a few years ago because I was supposed to get free ink for a certain amount of time and the print quality for photos was supposed to be the best around… well… I’m not going to say anything bad about the printer. It did it’s job. I never could get the free ink thing to happen. So I had to buy ink. A lot of ink. Tons of ink. I think I bought an XL black cartridge every six weeks or so and the color cartridge every two months. And after a year that added up to some big bucks. It seemed like every time I had to print a label for shipping I was out of ink.
So, I got tired of it. I ran out of both black and color ink at the same time in August and was standing in the ink aisle looking at empty slots where the ink was supposed to be. I went to four stores before I found the ink. Combined it would have been eighty dollars for the small cartridges. FOR THE SMALL. Not the XL. They didn’t have any XL and the price for both combined would have been a hundred. For ink.
I left without ink. And that was the last time I used that printer. I think there’s enough ink left in it to print one or two more documents. I don’t know. The warning box came up that last time for both.
I couldn’t keep paying that much money for ink that often. I couldn’t. And throwing away those cartridges… I do try to watch how much we contribute to the landfills. If nothing else I do try to do my part there.
So I decided I was done. And since I already had a second printer that I’d converted to a sublimation printer, I decided it was time to sink the money I would have spent on two ink refills and go ahead and buy a second Epson Eco Tank.
If you were on the fence about the brand, you might be wondering if they are worth the price. Which isn’t as hefty as they used to be. Let me tell you, it’s worth it.
There is one con to both printers. And I’ll tell you about that, but first… let’s talk about the pros.
I spent a little over two hundred dollars after tax. The printer came with four bottles of ink. I filled each tank with the corresponding color… In August. We’ve done our usual amount of printing of labels and documents and more than our usual amount of anything needed color ink. And now, today, the last week of December, the ink levels for the colors have hardly moved. The black level is about 3/4 full. That’s four full months of barely any discernable ink usage. That’s roughly two hundred bucks in ink I would have bought for the HP in this same time.
If you wanted to get an Epson Eco tank but didn’t know if it would be worth it? It is. It really is.
Except for one wee problem, that I have with both printers.
The ink nozzles will clog from time to time. It happens on regular printers too, just not as often. You will have to clean your nozzles and printer heads a bit more often. And that can take a couple hours sometimes to get everything up to quality.
And if you didn’t know you should clean your printer heads and nozzles… when the print quality gets streaky, splotchy, or faded, but your ink levels are fine, that’s when you should clean. Check your manuals and follow the instructions. The printers clean themselves. You just have to have patience and not smash it with a baseball bat until it works through… several times.
Oh, and I should mention, that because I have two, I can’t seem to get the new one to work wirelessly, but that’s a me problem.
Now about that sublimation converted one.
Sublimation is when you print a special ink on a special paper and use heat to transfer the image to a special surface. Like mugs or tumblers or other heat pressed items. Unless that’s something you’re interested in, then you don’t need to worry about this next part, just skip to the end.
So, if you do want to use a sublimation printer for a printing business but the price of dedicated sublimation printers scare the hell out of you… you can absolutely use an Ecotank.
But you can’t convert a used ecotank. You have to start with a new, or never used machine. The term converting is deceptive. You’re not doing anything to convert the machine. You’re just simply putting sublimation ink into your ecotank tanks. Sublimation ink is not the same as regular printing ink. And once you convert you can never really go back.
As far as the ink usage for sublimation goes. I’ve had the converted tank for two years last month. I’ve only just filled the tanks a second time, but I haven’t bought a second batch of ink. The ink is thicker, and it goes a little faster but still in two years I’m still using the original ink. Though, I don’t print as much as I had hoped.
I have two different Epson Ecotank models. They use the same ink. I see no difference in them, save for color and serial number. They are exactly the same. Until you get to price.
If this helps you, that’s awesome. I’m linking the two Ecotanks I have below, along with replacement ink for the regular printer, and if you’re interested in sublimation, I’ll have the ink and paper I use linked as well. As with all links to Amazon… Disclosure: As an Amazon Affiliate participant, any purchases made from the links on this blog will earn a small commission for me, at no additional cost to you… but you can certainly look around for better prices.
First up is the printer I’m currently using for sublimation, mine is black. The price is really good right now through Amazon.
The Epson EcoTank ET-2800
Epson refill ink for both models.
The Epson EcoTank ET-2803
it’s more expensive but I find no difference in the models
And if you’re interested in Sublimation printing below are the ink and paper I use. It is recommended that once you start with an ink to stay with the same brand, or at least empty the tanks completely before refilling.
Hiipoo Brand Sublimation Ink
A-Sub Sublimation Paper
This is the brand I’m using currently. It’s not for use for regular printing. There are other brands. Find one that works for you.
Thanks for playing along. I wish you happy printing in the new year.
Peace,
Mercy
