Printing costs (INK!): buying a new printer, will it pay for itself?

[RichardJWhite]

I have to make about 2000 prints 9.25" x 12" on Moab Lasal Matte. Currently I am using an Epson R2880. I would think I need 150-180 cartridges. So far the best price I have been quoted is $11.70 per,

so on the low end I am looking at about $1800. Provided I can get the 3880 or 4880 (or any other ink jet) to print a 3 sided bleed on my paper, would I see enough savings/increased print quality to justify the expenditure?

Any thought or experiences around here on this matter?

[Alan Goldhammer]

I have to make about 2000 prints 9.25" x 12" on Moab Lasal Matte. Currently I am using an Epson R2880. I would think I need 150-180 cartridges. So far the best price I have been quoted is $11.70 per,

so on the low end I am looking at about $1800. Provided I can get the 3880 or 4880 (or any other ink jet) to print a 3 sided bleed on my paper, would I see enough savings/increased print quality to justify the expenditure?

Any thought or experiences around here on this matter?

That's a lot of printing and I don't think the 2880 is really designed for that kind of workload.  Is this going to be printing all at one time?  Is it cheaper to outsource?  By my rough calculation that's about 100 hours of printing.

3880 is a more rugged machine (I just upgraded from the 2880 two months ago).  You will see clear savings going to a 3880 given the larger size cartridges and I believe that some folks have done the calculation on the savings.

[RichardJWhite]

That's a lot of printing and I don't think the 2880 is really designed for that kind of workload.  Is this going to be printing all at one time?  Is it cheaper to outsource?  By my rough calculation that's about 100 hours of printing.

3880 is a more rugged machine (I just upgraded from the 2880 two months ago).  You will see clear savings going to a 3880 given the larger size cartridges and I believe that some folks have done the calculation on the savings.

Actually I am making about 3400 prints on 1700 sheets of paper. I thought about outsourcing, there are 340 different images so color correcting all of those would be painfull and expensive (at least it was in the past) as well as the shops we have used in the past have all gone out of business.

I will happy if we can print all of those in a hundred hours....

[Tony B.]

If by '3 sided bleed' you need to print borderless on 3 sides of the paper then you would have to get the 3880.  The other 17" 'pro' printers, Epson 4880, Canon iPF5x00,  do not print borderless on sheets.

If the 2880 is like my desktop printers, including a 13" Canon i9900, you will not be able to get it to feed that many sheets without having feed issues.  My iPF5000 has much less issues feeding.  Its nice when you can load up 40 sheets or so, press print and come back in a few hours and have it be finished.  Originally I was able to run around 40 sheets with no issues, no I can run around 25 sheets before I have to clean the pick up rollers.  I run around 1300 sheets through the iPF5000 each November printing calendars.  With the iPF5000 I doubt you would go through two complete sets of inks.

If you need the borderless option you would have to go with the 3880.  You would come close to spending the same amount of money overall buying the 3880 and needed ink compared to just the ink for the 2880.  But, you would have a new 17" printer after the fact.

Here is a quote from an inkjetgoodies Epson 3800 review

"LIKE GETTING A FREE PRINTER UPGRADE... Although the Epson 3800 is $445 more expensive than the Epson R2400 ($850), the 3800 comes with $450 more ink than the R2400 (and at a lower cost per millimeter) -- so it's almost like getting a free printer upgrade when you're willing to buy the Epson 3800 (17") over the Epson R2400 (13")."


Also  from the review of the Epson 3800 from inkjetgoodies.com to get an example of ink costs per ml.

$1.35 / ml with HP B9180 ink cartridges (27 ml carts)
$0.95 / ml with Epson R2400 ink cartridges (15 ml carts)
$0.75 / ml with Epson 3800 ink cartridges (80 ml carts)
$0.65 / ml with Epson 110 ml ink cartridges used in 4800/7800/9800
$0.58 / ml with Canon iPF5000 ink cartridges (130 ml carts)
$0.51 / ml with Epson 220 ml ink cartridges used in 4800/7800/9800

You would spend close to half buying the 4800 carts (220ml) over the R2400 (guessing similar to 2880)

You would probably have less hassles with the 3880/4880 or iPF5100 over the 2880 so even if there was not any saving the time saved with hassles would be well worth it.  Example-the i9900 I would have 50 or more sheets that I would have to throw out due to partial print misfeeds.  The iPF5000 I might have 5 sheets.

Tony B.

[mills]

why dont you try the cis, continuous ink system, for R2880? that might make more sense to you since you need a lot of cartridges.
inkrepublic has cis system for r2880
http://www.inkrepublic.com/R2880.asp

for more cost effective, i would choose epson 3800 printer and get a refillable system for it. both inkjetmall and inkrepublic have great system for 3800.
http://www.inkrepublic.com/3800-irefill.asp

good luck with your research!

[Wayne Fox]

I have to make about 2000 prints 9.25" x 12" on Moab Lasal Matte. Currently I am using an Epson R2880. I would think I need 150-180 cartridges. So far the best price I have been quoted is $11.70 per,

so on the low end I am looking at about $1800. Provided I can get the 3880 or 4880 (or any other ink jet) to print a 3 sided bleed on my paper  would I see enough savings/increased print quality to justify the expenditure?

Any thought or experiences around here on this matter?

Math is pretty straight forward ... Ink for  2880 is $1.17/ml ( based on the price in your post), 3880 is 0.62/ml, and 4880 is 0.39/ml (last two based on inkjetart.com current price).

Considering how much ink you get with the 3880 and saving nearly half in ink costs the 3880 may come close to paying for itself. Add to that getting a far superior printer and the possibility the 2880 will wear out printing this many pages it is certainly worth considering.

As far as printing borderless think all 3 will be challenging and require a work around.  As far as print quality, all use the same ink and should produce similar quality.