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Author Topic: Epson Surecolor P 600 A3+ Printer  (Read 10327 times)

Landscapes

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Re: Epson Surecolor P 600 A3+ Printer
« Reply #20 on: April 19, 2015, 12:44:06 pm »

For Canon the approach to clog management is different; the print head has spare nozzles and the heads are consumables, so the flip side of the cleaning cycles we experience with Epson, is print head replacement for Canon, and they cost about $500 each. I have no idea how many sq. ft. of coverage the average Canon head is good for, but if any one does, a factor that should be weighed into a rigorous comparison of printing costs.

The numbers that I've come across are.... 4 Litres of ink or 35,000 square feet.  Now, if its 4 litres of ink, does this mean per color channel?  I have no idea.  If so, this would mean roughly 30 of the 130ml carts.  But if the head is only good for 4 litres total, across 6 color channels, then this would mean only 5 carts for each color, and I'm sure this isn't the case.  In terms of the square footage number, this would mean roughly 5,800 24x36 prints, which is quite a bit.

Anyway, the other way to look at it is this.  With either printer, you get 1 year warranty.  When the head goes on an Epson, I've read it costs $2000 for the part and service.  When you head go on the Canon, lets just call it $1000 for the two.  But the nice thing is that these new heads have a warranty for 1 year, so if they fail before the one year, they will be replaced for free.  Even if they fail after the one year mark and you have to buy 2 new heads again and spend another $1000, this gives you another year of warranty.  In my mind, it just seems like better bang for the buck.  Plus of course there are no issues with switching blacks and all the associated air problems with that.

Anyway, this thread isn't about the bigger printers so sorry for the distraction. :)
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hugowolf

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Re: Epson Surecolor P 600 A3+ Printer
« Reply #21 on: April 19, 2015, 01:29:42 pm »

The difference in weight of the cartridges before and after the initial priming of the printer, should give an accurate enough estimate of the ink used for priming. The ink is aqueous and pretty close to 1 g = 1 ml. It is actually a little less dense than water, but close enough.

Anyhow, Red River does ink use estimates for a large number of smaller format printers, including the p600
http://www.redrivercatalog.com/epson-surecolor-p600-cost-per-print.html

... form which it would appear a p600 13" x 19" print using PK would cost about 9% more than the same print on the Epson r3000.

Does the p600 not have the Printer Watcher Utility that the 3880 has? For the 3880 it will produce CSV files showing ink uses for each logged print for each color to the nearest 0.1 ml. It does not, however, include cleaning cycle waste.

 Brian A
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Mark D Segal

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Re: Epson Surecolor P 600 A3+ Printer
« Reply #22 on: April 19, 2015, 02:49:32 pm »

The difference in weight of the cartridges before and after the initial priming of the printer, should give an accurate enough estimate of the ink used for priming.

 Brian A

Once the ink leaves the cartridges for the priming operation, part of it goes into the waste tank and a larger part remains in the lines and dampers for making prints, and given the size of the lines it is a lot of ink capable of making many prints. Unless you know the split between the two you don't know the extent of inaccuracy of your priming estimate if you are trying to derive net available ink for printing.

Anyhow, on first reading, the Red River Methodology looks OK, but I am surprised by how high their ink cost turned out for a 13*19 print. This means, apart from any other factors, that the cost of the ink per ml is higher than for the 4900, which is to be expected given the much smaller size of the cartridges. My costing model for the Epson 4900 indicates CAD 1.66 (including taxes) worth of ink for an average borderless 13*19 inch coverage, or about half the Red River calculation for the P600. This CAD 1.66 would be about USD 1.32 with taxes or USD 1.17 without taxes. (We have a 13% HST rate in Ontario.)

(Edited to clarify I am quoting costs here for the 4900)
« Last Edit: April 19, 2015, 03:50:30 pm by Mark D Segal »
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Mark D Segal (formerly MarkDS)
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Landscapes

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Re: Epson Surecolor P 600 A3+ Printer
« Reply #23 on: April 19, 2015, 03:32:27 pm »

This means, apart from any other factors, that the cost of the ink per ml is higher than for the 4900, which is to be expected given the much smaller size of the cartridges. My costing model indicates CAD 1.66 (including taxes) worth of ink for an average borderless 13*19 inch coverage, or about half the Red River calculation for the P600. This CAD 1.66 would be about USD 1.32 with taxes or USD 1.17 without taxes. (We have a 13% HST rate in Ontario.)

Wow.. this is rather surprising.  If I was to do this calculation, for an iPF6400, I'm getting about 90 square inches per mL at the heavy end, or about 160 square inches per mL on the light end.  A 13 x 19 print is 247 square inches, so this translates to as bad as 2.7 mL for a dark image, or 1.5 mL for a light image.  Assuming a 300mL cart is $212 with taxes, that comes out to 71 cents per mL.  Therefore, this is about $1.07 or $1.92 of ink, or of course somewhere in between.  Ok... this isn't surprising at all now that I run the numbers. :)

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JRSmit

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Re: Epson Surecolor P 600 A3+ Printer
« Reply #24 on: April 19, 2015, 04:19:37 pm »

I mean a picture printed on A4 with 3mm borders.
Not a line drawing or similar with only a small portion not white.
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Mark D Segal

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Re: Epson Surecolor P 600 A3+ Printer
« Reply #25 on: April 19, 2015, 04:28:51 pm »

I mean a picture printed on A4 with 3mm borders.
Not a line drawing or similar with only a small portion not white.

Ah, OK; in that case my costing model for the 4900 reproduces your ink usage estimate for that print size very closely.
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Mark D Segal (formerly MarkDS)
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hugowolf

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Re: Epson Surecolor P 600 A3+ Printer
« Reply #26 on: April 19, 2015, 07:44:49 pm »

... a larger part remains in the lines and dampers for making prints, and given the size of the lines it is a lot of ink capable of making many prints.

That ink is gone. It is going to be in the lines when you toss the printer. It doesn't matter whether it is in the waste tank or the feed lines, that volume of ink is gone. It doesn't figure into the calculation. The printer stops printing and requests a new cartridge based on cartridge ink levels.

Brian A
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Mark D Segal

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Re: Epson Surecolor P 600 A3+ Printer
« Reply #27 on: April 19, 2015, 08:27:03 pm »

That ink is gone. It is going to be in the lines when you toss the printer.

Brian A

That's irrelevant - tossing the printer happens perhaps years after you will made the calculations. Anyhow, I've contributed all I can on this topic and I am now signing out of it.
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Mark D Segal (formerly MarkDS)
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JRSmit

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Re: Epson Surecolor P 600 A3+ Printer
« Reply #28 on: April 20, 2015, 07:08:36 am »

Ah, OK; in that case my costing model for the 4900 reproduces your ink usage estimate for that print size very closely.
Yes indeed, i did sort of the same thing you did in your review. Kept a log of ink usage per print and after 30 or so the pattern was quite clear.
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SimonC

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Re: Epson Surecolor P 600 A3+ Printer
« Reply #29 on: April 20, 2015, 10:54:56 am »

Just a point re. the usability issues in the PC Magazine review re. handling fine art papers.  I was also experiencing numerous, frustrating paper skew errors until I discovered its possible to turn the Paper Skew Check off in the Set Up Menu.  No problems now  :)

Simon
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Mark D Segal

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Re: Epson Surecolor P 600 A3+ Printer
« Reply #30 on: April 20, 2015, 11:21:24 am »

Yes indeed, i did sort of the same thing you did in your review. Kept a log of ink usage per print and after 30 or so the pattern was quite clear.

This is good - confirms that with a properly stratified, representative sample of one's output, a sample size of about 30 or so prints is sufficient to provide a reliable estimate with which to portray future ink usage.
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Mark D Segal (formerly MarkDS)
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