Does anyone know if there are genuine differences between the inks for 4-colour Epson Ecotank printers?
I am considering buying one as cartridges are just too inconvenient and hope a built-in CISS is less messy than an add-on version. However I have noticed that the bottles of Epson inks seem to be for specific printer models with low initial cost printer having higher running cost inks and vice versa.
For example, Ecotank 104 bottles yield about 2500 pages for £10/colour (0.4p/page/colour), compared to Ecotank 102 bottles which yield 6000 pages for about the same price (0.16p/page/colour). So the 102 bottles work out less than half the price of the 104 bottles.
However Epson say these inks are for different printer models.
104 bottles are for ET-2710/2711/2720/2726 & 4700, while the lower running cost 102 bottles are for ET-2700/2750/3700/3750 & 4750 printers which are generally more expensive units.
Since the lower cost inks go with the higher cost printers this looks like yet another version of the Gillette razor blade sales model, where the low printer prices are recovered with high ink costs. But I freely admit that Epson's (and other printer manufacturers) excessive use of this approach has made me somewhat cynical of their sales methods, so I may be wrong. However both 102 and 104 bottles are 4-colour dye ink systems, so I also suspect they are exactly the same inks.
Can anyone confirm this? Are the lower running cost ink bottles capable of being used on the lower cost printers without specialist printer profiles?
I am considering buying one as cartridges are just too inconvenient and hope a built-in CISS is less messy than an add-on version. However I have noticed that the bottles of Epson inks seem to be for specific printer models with low initial cost printer having higher running cost inks and vice versa.
For example, Ecotank 104 bottles yield about 2500 pages for £10/colour (0.4p/page/colour), compared to Ecotank 102 bottles which yield 6000 pages for about the same price (0.16p/page/colour). So the 102 bottles work out less than half the price of the 104 bottles.
However Epson say these inks are for different printer models.
104 bottles are for ET-2710/2711/2720/2726 & 4700, while the lower running cost 102 bottles are for ET-2700/2750/3700/3750 & 4750 printers which are generally more expensive units.
Since the lower cost inks go with the higher cost printers this looks like yet another version of the Gillette razor blade sales model, where the low printer prices are recovered with high ink costs. But I freely admit that Epson's (and other printer manufacturers) excessive use of this approach has made me somewhat cynical of their sales methods, so I may be wrong. However both 102 and 104 bottles are 4-colour dye ink systems, so I also suspect they are exactly the same inks.
Can anyone confirm this? Are the lower running cost ink bottles capable of being used on the lower cost printers without specialist printer profiles?