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InkRepublic.com - Review of InkRepublic R1800 i-INK2 CIS System
July 19th, 2011
John Robert Woodall
Seattle, WA
This is going to be a long read but I really urge you to read it if you’re comparing systems. I purchased a CIS from Ink Republic for my Epson r1800 printer. This was my second attempt at a CIS as I bought an inferior system on eBay back in September 2009.
I first want to share my experience with the “inexpensive” CIS I purchased on eBay. I actually made the mistake of shopping based on price and went with a vendor who had really good feedback so figured it had to be a good deal… so many positive feedback scores – how could I lose?
Well, for starters, the inks were all very cheap and over time were fading. This is something you don’t realize until many, many months after you’ve left a positive feedback score. The next issue was the shoddy design. It didn’t keep the tubes completely free of the metal wheels inside the printer housing and they would get lightly scraped as the print head went back and forth (prior to the paper feeding far enough in to cover it). This wasn’t noticeable until the wear finally cut deep enough to spill ink all over a print. Fortunately this was caught on the first print and I didn’t end up with ink dumped all inside my printer. I went through my eBay message history to contact the seller and found out they no longer had an account. I later Googled this issue and realized many, many people have purchased cheap systems and either had to take their printer apart to clean it – or just toss it. I’m willing to bet it’s this type of example that leads Epson to warn that Continuous Ink Systems ruin printers. It’s not the fact that you’re using a CIS – it’s that you’re using a very cheap one.
I went back to using the Epson cartridges because I was really scared of trying another one and damaging my printer. After almost a year of shelling out top dollar for cartridges that are becoming harder and harder to find, I decided to look into a higher quality CIS. I Googled “CIS” and “r1800” and “quality” to see what came up. I found an overwhelming number of positive feedback in threads all over the place citing what a good experience they had with the Ink Republic system.
I purchased the CIS from Ink Republic and was eager to set it up (buying cartridges was killing me financially). I had a very minor issue with the system and Ink Republic was very quick to resolve the issue. The communication with customer service was exceptional; it’s rare to find a company that responds so quickly with a professional yet personal feel. I normally feel like “just another number” when dealing with most companies.
The bottom line is that the quality of the system, the inks, and the customer service is something they could easily be charging more for. I’m just glad they don’t. : )
John Robert Woodall
SCI | Tilted Reality Studio
www.tiltedreality.com
www.SpokaneCommercialImages.com



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