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InkRepublic.com - Review of InkRepublic Epson P800 i-Refill System
May 9th 2016
Marco Laurita in France
I'm an inkrepublic customer since 2011 when I bought an Epson Stylus Pro 3800 and about a month later I decided to buy the corresponding inkrepublic refill kit.
I took this decision because the price of the OEM cartridges was about 4 times the inkrepublic ink price.
I considered different refill kits from other manufacturers but to me seemed that the inkrepublic one was the most effective, in particular for the ink quality and also for the cartridge system.
In fact there are two big plus with the inkrepublic cartridges that are the possibility to refill the system without removing the cartridges from the printer and the bigger capacity of the tanks.
After printing for 5 years and about 12000 pages the Stylus pro 3800 started having problems so I decided to replace it with a new printer. I decided for the Epson Surecolor P800 which is the descendent of stylus pro 3880 and 3800.
When I took the decision to replace the old stylus pro 3800 I realized that there wasn't compatible refill kit for the p800 on the market.
I asked Inkrepublic if they had plans to release a refill kit for the surecolor p800 and yes, they did!
Less than a week I had the kit at home with me ready to install.It was a positive surprise for me to see that the system for p800 is very similar to the one for the stylus pro 3800.
The installation is really straightforward and even simpler than it was for the stylus pro 3800.
The cartridges have already installed their own chip ready to work. All you need to do is to fill the tanks with the corresponding ink and install them in the printer.
As for the 3800 kit the tanks are bigger (150 ml) than the epson one (80 ml) so the ink cover won't close completely and there is a special key to place in the printer to simulate the ink cover closed position.
As soon as the cover key is in place the printer starts his new cartridge recognition procedure and put the system under pressure and in about 10 seconds is ready to print.
In total starting from opening the package to having the printer ready to work it will take about 15 mins to have the job done.
No special skill is required to install the system, nothing more than being able to replace an epson original cartridge.
The inkrepublic cartridges are translucent so the ink level is always visible and there is no risk to run out of ink, as is the case with other systems where the tanks are not visible because they are hidden by the ink cover.
There is no need to manipulate or remove the cartridges to refill them, they have a cap on their top side to refill them. The ink bottles have a needle to refill the tanks so the refill process is really simple and clean.
Obviously the ink levels presented from the printer are not valid, the real one are the levels visible through the tanks.
To reset the printer ink levels it's enough to remove the cartridges from the printer and reinsert them.
Another point to consider is that the maintenance tank is resettable too, the inkrepublic kit include a resetter for the maintenance tank.
The maintenance tank for the p800 is the same as the pro3800 one. The possibility to reset the maintenance cartridge offer another mean to make money savings.
When the tank is full you can empty it yourself and reset it with the resetter.
A super positive note for the customer care very responsive and efficient. Final note about shipping time. I receive in France all inkrepublic shipping in about 5 days.
Final review:
Very happy with system, even I've never try other systems on the market I recommend Inkrepublic one for the following reasons:
1) High ink quality and print quality.
2) Easy to install.
3) Easy to refill, no need to remove the tanks from the printer, just open the tank cap and fill the ink.
4) Real ink levels inside the tanks always visible, no risk to run out of ink.
5) Resettable maintenance tank.
6) Shipping speed: 5 days in France.
7) Customer care: very responsive.
8) My previous positive experience with stylus pro 3800 Inkrepublic kit.
Marco Laurita
Following are some pictures of the kit
The package:
Inside the package:
Package content:
Empty tank and corresponding ink bottles:
Cartridge refill and tank translucency:
Display showing full ink levels:
Similarities between surecolor p800 and stylus pro 3800 system
As it was the case for the stylus pro 3800 print quality is excellent
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