 Quick Links |
| Partners |
|
InkRepublic.com - Review of InkRepublic Artisan 50 / R280 / R260 i-INK2 System
March 10th, 2009
Michael Sokol
Hagerstown, MD 21740
Here's a picture of my printer "closet" which allows me to shut the door so I don't have to listen to all the printers working. This is not the prettiest room as it started life as a utility closet and now holds my Brother Laser and P-Touch label printer as well as the Epson R260. As you can see the Epson R260 has your i-INK system installed. I use the R260 to print the address side of my promotional postcards and envelopes which includes color sponsor logos. I also use it to print color letterhead merged documents, all part of the promotion for my HOW-TO Sound Workshop tour. I have a bulk-mail account at the local post office, and they supplied me with the pre-sort indicia graphic. This allows me to print the postal "stamp" on each letter or postcard and pay for the postage at bulk rate without sticking any stamps, a real time saver.
Since I generally print about 2,000 postcards per week along with an additional 500 envelopes and 500 letters on the R260, ink cost was a huge factor. I found out very quickly that the cost of the Epson brand ink cartridges was prohibitive, and which also required almost constant changing at my printing rates. I then found a generic source for ink cartridges, but while the price was about one-third of the Epson brand, I was still losing a lot of time replacing empty cartridges.
I found your i-Ink system via Google and immediately ordered a kit. Installation took less than an hour including various experiments on my part. The cost of the ink from you is now about 1/10 the original cost of Epson cartridges, plus I only swap in a new bottle of ink every week or so. Once installed there has been zero problems with the i-INK system, even though it's printed over 200,000 postcards, envelopes, and letters so far. I've reset the counter in the R260 several times using your reset program, and there now is a groove worn in the feeder from so many postcards. That groove allows it to feed postcards great, but the paper feeder hangs up on envelopes once in a while since they're a little wider than a postcard. I also admit to a few overflows of the little ink well, but that's my fault for not paying attention to the level and sucking it out as needed.
Per your recommendation, I've located and ordered an R280 as a replacement to my aging R260. However, since the R260 still works great on postcards the plan is to get a second i-INK system and keep the R260 printing postcards and let the R280 print envelopes and letters. That will double my print capacity and let me do emergency print runs more quickly.
Thanks for a well engineered and affordable product. Your i-INK system has saved me literally thousands of dollars in ink costs over the last two years.
Feb 25th, 2012 Update:
I've been using your i-Ink-2 system for a number of years...I've now run a two hundred thousand more postcards on my aging Epson 280 printer...
Jan 16th, 2015 Update:
My Artisan 50 has run around 250,000 postcards over the last 2 years!!!
|
|
|
|
|