# Initial impressions for Inkjetfly Bigfoot CIS for Epson R1900



## marlbly (Dec 1, 2009)

I have an Epson R19'', and by and large I'm pretty happy with this printer. Just the cost of the ink. OUCH! 

I use the printer for both personal and professional printing. So the main reason for trying out the CIS, was to look for ways to cut costs and improve profit and feel a bit more free to experiment and print my own pictures. Which is hard when you're always hearing that little voice in the back of your head telling you just how much that print is going to cost!

I'm always looking to maintain that balance between quality and cost where I can. Which is why I still use Hahnmuhle papers for the majority of my printing, I've tried a lot of cheaper ones, but they just don't give me results that I'm happy with.

I was hoping it would be different with ink. It isn't all bad, but there are issues.

*Installation*

I took my time and I followed the instructions to the letter. Installation took around 2 hours. By and large it went without a hitch. It is a bit unnerving to have to pull the cartridge cover off the printer though. Taking it off requires considerable force to break the hinge to get it off.

Installation involves filling each of the ink tanks, allowing the ink to fill each cartridge, installing the cartridges and fiddling with the ink feed lines so they allow proper movement of the print head.

My pack came with a syringe for each ink to be used for filling the ink tanks. However one needle for the syringes was missing. Which I didn't notice until I went to fill that last ink tank. Pretty annoying.

Air filters for the ink tanks don't do anything. The rubber cap for the ink refill hole prevents the air filter from sitting flush. Which doesn't really matter though because the filters don't seal anyway so air just goes *around* the filters and not through them. This is a concern as I live in a rural area, near a dirt road and there is plenty of dust around. Fingers crossed I don't end up with a clogged head.

*Ink feed lines jam up against left side of the printer cover (above the print head)* When the print head moves all the way to the left the ink feed lines hit the printer cover. It makes it quite "sticky" at that spot. The print head will move all the way to the left, though not without slowing down or a change in it's speed of movement. No matter how I adjust the ink feed lines it still hits this. The only solution I can think of to this is to actually cut out a part of the plastic.

I haven't done a 13" test print yet, but I am concerned that it won't print correctly in that area. I am also concerned about excessive wear as every time the print head moves to that position it is effectively slowed down and extra force applied to the mechanism that moves the head.

Once everything was installed I ran a nozzle check. Came up fine. Ran head cleaning and nozzle check a couple of times just to make sure and there were no problems.

*The first test print*

The first issue was that the printer cover has to be completely open when printing. The ink feed lines constantly hit the cover when moving left/right. Personally I'm not completely comfortable with this as having the printer open all the time would allow more dust etc to enter the printer, and there is always the risk of accidentally dropping something in there.

It was pretty obvious to me that something was different with the test print. My first test print was on Hahnmuhle Fine Art Pearl and of a landscape with quite a dynamic range of tones and colours & black bordered.

The print definitely lacked the pop the Epson inks produced. On closer examination there was some distinct bleeding of the PK ink. At first I assumed it was the PK as the black was nowhere near as black as the Epson PK. After some more test prints the culprit turned out to be the Gloss Optimizer. Printing *without* GO produced a nice deep PK the same as the Epson PK, with images as sharp as with Epson inks. I can not tell the difference between Epson and Inkjetfly inks in this regard.

To my eye, the inkjetfly PK is actually *better *than the Epson PK. When not using the GO. There is also no bleeding when NOT using the GO. *Using the GO causes bleeding and produces slightly blurred and less black prints.*

By allowing the ink to dry properly and then running the print through the printer again as a blank white print with GO set to full produces a print identical to a print made using Epson ink. Yay! 

It's not the most ideal solution but it works.

Both my Matte test print and B&W print also produced results as good as Epson inks.

*Final thoughts*

For the most part it works and works pretty well. The issue with the Gloss Optimizer is annoying, but at least resolvable. The concern about the print head and ink feed lines is a big one for me, and I think I will be changing to refillable cartridges once this batch of ink is used, maybe sooner if it wont print correctly in that area. Once I do a 13" test print I will update with results.

My recommendation is if you are considering using Inkjetfly inks for the R19'' is to use the refillable cartridges. I haven't tried using Epson GO with these inks as I would have to remove the feed line and cartridge and I can't see a way to put it back if I needed to. The other plus with using cartridges is that it would allow you to close the printer properly. Using the CIS requires you to to have the top cover open in order to allow the ink feed lines to enter the printer.

Would be interesting to see if using Epson GO causes bleed or not. If it doesn't then using refillable Inkjetfly cartridges with Epson GO could be a very viable and very cost effective alternative to using Epson inks.

If anyone has tried this please let me know!


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## Denis Pagé (Dec 1, 2009)

Prints may look the same when fresh and young. But what about longevity?...


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## marlbly (Dec 1, 2009)

Good point. There doesn't exist any longevity testing for the Inkjetfly inks that I am aware of.

However if this is a concern for you there is always the option of the Lyson inks which have had that testing done.


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## TedAK (Nov 11, 2016)

Hi,
 I know this thread might be old but I have a question now. I purchased a inkjetfly CISS ink for an Epson RX595 printer. In fact I purchased two Epson RX595 printers and the CISS system outlasted both printers so I was using it over a span of maybe 5 years and several quarts of ink.  The CISS system worked well but I think it led to the death eventually of both printers. No matter how I routed the tubes connecting to the external ink tanks eventually it would cause a problem where it caught the printer head carrage that moves back and forth, there would be some terrible grinding noises and the printer might work after the blockage was cleared or was dead. I've used up all of the RX595 printers I had and just opened up a new Epson R1900 printer. Since to a large extent I was pleased with the inkjetfly CISS system I wanted to purchase one for the R1900 which they use to offer. It appears that they no longer offer it and in fact may not be in business, contact calls and emails go unanswered. So does anyone have experience with another CISS system for the Epson R1900 they would recommend?

I can see where in the original review the reviewer was concerned about the printer carriage slowing down in certain areas. I think that was like the problem I had with the RX595. Eventually the printer might break because of this. The reviewers conclusion is that he would go with refillable cartridges.  Does anyone have experience with any they would recommend. I found the only problem with refillable cartridges was if you actually had to take them out to fill them. They are also messy and a pain. But if you didn't have to remove them but could refill them while they were still in the printer it might work. Any suggestions?

All the best,
TedAK


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