Epson 7900 ink printing costs

[RandomJoe]

I am trying to calculate average ink costs for a print
on an Epson 7900
I know the cost per ml on the cartridges
and I know paper cost.
just trying to figure out how many ml per Sq ft or Sq inch
the printer my use on average.
does anyone have any information they could share to help determine the price
I realize this price may change depending on the saturation of a given image.
lets assume a photo has 200% ink coverage.

[KenLane]

I don't have the answer you are seeking.., yet.  I can tell you that the 7900 menu provides data on the last 10 print jobs and will tell you the milliliters in ink and the square centimeters of media you consumed..  and that this data can be very inaccurate as far as ink consumption goes when you print immediately following a nozzle cleaning, as the ink usage data includes the ink used to clean the nozzles.  The numbers for ink usage per job seem as though they are accurate when nozzle cleaning is not required.  I'm currently keeping a notebook with info on my printing, including date, ANC sat or not, nozzle pair cleaning performed, etc.  Eventually I hope to have a good source of data for my cost of consumables.

[Wayne Fox]

I don't have the answer you are seeking.., yet.  I can tell you that the 7900 menu provides data on the last 10 print jobs and will tell you the milliliters in ink and the square centimeters of media you consumed..  and that this data can be very inaccurate as far as ink consumption goes when you print immediately following a nozzle cleaning, as the ink usage data includes the ink used to clean the nozzles.  The numbers for ink usage per job seem as though they are accurate when nozzle cleaning is not required.  I'm currently keeping a notebook with info on my printing, including date, ANC sat or not, nozzle pair cleaning performed, etc.  Eventually I hope to have a good source of data for my cost of consumables.

If you are doing any ink consumption tracking using the job sheet, you might try printing a nozzle pattern right after doing any cleanings.  The nozzle pattern shows up as a job, so that actually gives you a very good idea how much ink was actually used in the clean, since the nozzle pattern requires miniscule amounts of ink. This also prevents any actual jobs from getting distorted by cleanings.

Of course, if you are using any automatic cleans you might still run into problems, since the printer might clean right before it prints your job.  Those you have to pretty much disregard.

[pierre.goyette]

RandomJoe,

I haev an HP z3100 and created a nice Excel worksheet and macro which calculates precisely what the cost of a job is given information such as ml's of ink and square footage. The 7900 probably provides you similar numbers so if you want the spreadsheet, just PM me...

Pierre

[Paul2660]

Inkjet art also has downloadable spreadsheet.  It only has entry for 8
carts but it you should be ablevto modify for the extra number of carts
for the 7900.

www.inkjetart.com


Paul Caldwell

[Steven Draper]

I've just printed a number of images, approx 20" x 14". B/W or colour on Ilford Gold Fibre Silk.

Appears to be averaging 2.5 - 4 ml per print.

I've left ANC on for the time being and the two cleans seem to use up 12 -  20ml, (including the following print.)  

So the 10 prints I've made have used approx 55 ml of ink. of which I guess about half is cleaning.

[RandomJoe]

I've just printed a number of images, approx 20" x 14". B/W or colour on Ilford Gold Fibre Silk.

Appears to be averaging 2.5 - 4 ml per print.

I've left ANC on for the time being and the two cleans seem to use up 12 -  20ml, (including the following print.)  

So the 10 prints I've made have used approx 55 ml of ink. of which I guess about half is cleaning.

wow im surprised how much of that was ink waste
I thought the average would be about 1.5ml/sq ft

[Wayne Fox]

wow im surprised how much of that was ink waste
I thought the average would be about 1.5ml/sq ft

You may want to do a forum search and read up on the 7900 and ANC.  There is a very good chance those cleans were unnecessary.  This is why most are disabling using ANC and many are cleaning using service mode to also avoid unnecessary cleans.  There is a lot of discussion in older threads.  ANC can actually cause faulty readings and continually clean until it fails, resulting in 60 or more ml of ink used.  In addition, I've found that doing a  service menu  CL1 clean on affected colors has nearly always resolved the problem, even after multiple full head cleans using large amounts of ink fails.  It's as though the cleaning itself causes nozzle failures. A service menu CL1 uses only about 1 to 1.5ml of ink per color, so full head is only 10 to 15ml, one color pair is 2 to 3ml of ink.  Rarely do I need to clean more than one pair.

ANC can and does work well for some, for others it is completely unreliable and wastes large amounts of ink.

[KenLane]

If you are doing any ink consumption tracking using the job sheet, you might try printing a nozzle pattern right after doing any cleanings.  The nozzle pattern shows up as a job, so that actually gives you a very good idea how much ink was actually used in the clean, since the nozzle pattern requires miniscule amounts of ink. This also prevents any actual jobs from getting distorted by cleanings.

Of course, if you are using any automatic cleans you might still run into problems, since the printer might clean right before it prints your job.  Those you have to pretty much disregard.

Thanks for that tip Wayne.  I'll incorporate it into my process.  ANC is off. I've learned how to do a nozzle pair clean.  Haven't tried CL1 in service mode yet. Hopefully I won't have to go there.

[RandomJoe]

how do you get into service mode?

[fjmcsu]

how do you get into service mode?

http://www.photo3dart.com/wordpress/?p=220

[pleverington]

I was just getting ready to post a question on how to go about getting the ammount of ink used doing a clean when I got my answer reading this thread. I did notice myself that a clean and a nozzle check gave me a read on the job report, just as Wayne has confirmed, but I thought everyone had a way to get just the cleaning ink ammount used until reading that.

After a black ink change, my 9900 most of the time will go into a auto cleaning cycle, even though that has bee disabled, and the last time used up 28 ml of ink! Give me a break Epson! No wonder I switch to third party inks! But thats a whole nuther discussion.

That provided link clears up my dilemas. Thankyou!

My theory is that after the black ink change basically all that is needed really is a swipe of the wiper blade over the head and your back to printing. Too bad the printer doesn't have a button to do only just that. That wiper by the way, I have  found needs to be kept clean, and is the source of a lot of head clogs--maybe most of them after you have had the printer for a while.

Paul

[LeiMeng]

I am trying to calculate average ink costs for a print
on an Epson 7900
I know the cost per ml on the cartridges
and I know paper cost.
just trying to figure out how many ml per Sq ft or Sq inch
the printer my use on average.
does anyone have any information they could share to help determine the price
I realize this price may change depending on the saturation of a given image.
lets assume a photo has 200% ink coverage.

Here is my data after a month of usage with 9900:
Epson enhanced matte poster board: 1.76 ml/sqft
Epson canvas matte: 1.61 ml/sqft
Epson luster 260: 1.44 ml/sqft

Not very accurate because of small statistic samples, but still might be a useful reference.

[RandomJoe]

Here is my data after a month of usage with 9900:
Epson enhanced matte poster board: 1.76 ml/sqft
Epson canvas matte: 1.61 ml/sqft
Epson luster 260: 1.44 ml/sqft

Not very accurate because of small statistic samples, but still might be a useful reference.

Thank you

[KenLane]

I was just getting ready to post a question on how to go about getting the ammount of ink used doing a clean when I got my answer reading this thread. I did notice myself that a clean and a nozzle check gave me a read on the job report, just as Wayne has confirmed, but I thought everyone had a way to get just the cleaning ink ammount used until reading that.

After a black ink change, my 9900 most of the time will go into a auto cleaning cycle, even though that has bee disabled, and the last time used up 28 ml of ink! Give me a break Epson! No wonder I switch to third party inks! But thats a whole nuther discussion.

That provided link clears up my dilemas. Thankyou!

My theory is that after the black ink change basically all that is needed really is a swipe of the wiper blade over the head and your back to printing. Too bad the printer doesn't have a button to do only just that. That wiper by the way, I have  found needs to be kept clean, and is the source of a lot of head clogs--maybe most of them after you have had the printer for a while.

Paul

I don't recall seeing anything in the manual about cleaning the wiper blade.  Is this a simple procedure?