Best A4 sub printer

[bms]

During your conversations with Sawgrass Adam, did you at any stage mention that it might have been nice to know all of the 'potential' issues that can arise with CIS systems etc? It strikes me that the general consensus now is CIS installs are likely to be problematic. How much time/ink have we wasted over the years with head cleans, air blockages and so on. Now we're being sold a far superior system, about time eh?

I used CIS for many years with varying issues. Some worked perfectly whilst others went in the bin, all supported systems. As soon as I switched to refil carts problems disappeared. Tests in half a dozen different printers confirmed refil carts were far superior and less likely to be quite so problematic. Why on earth couldn't Sawgrass have come to this conclusion much sooner and looked at the different directions many members here seem to be successful in.

For balance, I've tried 2 different Ricohs and both failed, that said, I will persevere and intend to look again at the latest models

Closed cartridge options were available in for example, I think the D88. Problem being that they were so expensive that most people voted with their pocket and went with the CISS options.

[Justin]

That's right Martin, I used the 'official' carts in both the D88 and 1290, problem was a couple of head cleans and they were empty. With a CIS you don't realise the amount of ink being wasted quite so quickly. I think the issues back then were related more to the ink than the carts/CIS though. Certain suppliers were legally selling their own branded inks which were far from perfect.

[AdamB]

During your conversations with Sawgrass Adam, did you at any stage mention that it might have been nice to know all of the 'potential' issues that can arise with CIS systems etc? It strikes me that the general consensus now is CIS installs are likely to be problematic. How much time/ink have we wasted over the years with head cleans, air blockages and so on. Now we're being sold a far superior system, about time eh?

I know Justin - I think I have had an epson printer in some form or another for .................... well, as far as I can remember and (to be honest) I expected blockages and was just re-leaved to get the issue sorted.

That said, the closed cartridge system must have been in development for some time after all the blockage issues. But, no one will admit that we use a faulty product, just a product that (at the time) was the best system available and like others have said, some have used ciss systems for 'years' with no (zero) blockages.

I used CIS for many years with varying issues. Some worked perfectly whilst others went in the bin, all supported systems. As soon as I switched to refil carts problems disappeared. Tests in half a dozen different printers confirmed refil carts were far superior and less likely to be quite so problematic. Why on earth couldn't Sawgrass have come to this conclusion much sooner and looked at the different directions many members here seem to be successful in.

I have used refillable cartridges also Justin and experienced a problem that would have put me off if I hadn't looked into it (I was going to bin them and go back to a ciss system). It turned out that one of the cartridges was faulty - a simple fault but having so many problems I feared the worse.

Regarding refillable cartridges, do you always get them from the same source? I only ask as I bought some 'expensive' ones from an ink supplier and some others from a seller on fleabay and both were identical to look at (serial number etc)

[Justin]

I tried more expensive carts but finally settled on the cheaper ones, like you say many are the same just with an inflated price. I tend to pay around £10-£15 for a set of 4/6, no more.

Tried a set from China with the 2 bungs in the top, really don't get on with those

[AdamB]

[like] above post ................. sorry Justin, too much time on facebook - you need to get a like button installed as it will save me typing this all the time

[Justin]

Lol, watch this space

[socialgiraffe]

Hi Pisquee

You are right in that I should have not said "any", but the point is that Ricoh's are simply more reliable than Epsons. We know about the power problem, but from what I understand that has been fixed with a software update. Even if it hasn't, the number of power failures is still lower, percentage wise, to the blockage problems with Epsons.

In the same way Ianm, I presume you use your Epson everyday? What do you do when you go on holiday, is it a case that you simply turn it off and then two weeks later turn it back on? If this is the case Epsons have come a long way since I last looked at one. I would love there to be another brand of printer on the market that offers the same reliability to a Ricoh, but in my opinion right now there isn't one. Epson are close and I know that colour wise are probably better, but reliability wise they can not compete.

[Paul]

i think is still earl days for ricoh to compare numbers of ricoh users to epson users

[socialgiraffe]

User wise yes, percentage wise I think not.

I am fairly sure that Ricoh would have sold well over 1000 units for dye sub by now. That being the case the percentage of problems would be approximately the same to 10,000

[bms]

User wise yes, percentage wise I think not.

I am fairly sure that Ricoh would have sold well over 1000 units for dye sub by now. That being the case the percentage of problems would be approximately the same to 10,000

I'm convinced that sales will be in excess of 1000 units, probably a factor of 50 or 100 or more. Our sales alone would make a sizeable dent in your estimate and that's UK, leaving out Europe, US and the rest of the world. Stocks recently of the latest SG3110DN were over 1000 a few months ago and that's just one UK distributor!