Richo 3110 and expired ink. Buy Ink or switch to Epson/Cobra ?

[efimage 42]

Just trying to figure out what direction to go in . 2 of my Ink cartridges have been expired for over a month and the other 2 are coming up.  My dye sub volume is not huge but has been slowly picking up in the last 2 months.  Not sure if I want to drop $300 + for a set of ink or for the same price move to an Epson/Cobra ink system.   From speaking with Conde it looks like I can go a few months past the expiration date but who knows.   My choices or keep running until I am out of ink refill and hope I do not brick the Ricoh or Buy an Epson/Cobra system.  Run it in tandem to the Ricoh until I get everything matching and then switch?

 

I know with the Epson and my current volume I will need to run a test sheet every few days but not worrying about expired ink and the lower price of the ink might be worth it.

 

What do you guys think?

[Dakotagrafx 7,297]

heck with the gx7000 I went more than a few months after expiration - why not run it till it dies - you own it already

[efimage 42]

That is what I was thinking but if I make the move to the epson I would like to get it before I run out of ink on the Richo so I can get everything set up and running smooth.  Just not sure if I want to make the jump.  The 3110 has been pretty good but I always seem to have some banding on solids which I can mostly adjust out but they keep coming back.

[jaybyrd 3,770]

The date is a joke. I've had them 2 years out of date and worked fine. It covers them for warranty issues and convinces people to buy new cartridges when they may not be truly necessary.

[MadHatterGraphix 1,258]

I say use them until you notice a major difference. Everything has an expiration date and most of the time when It comes to ink its a joke. I have used HP in 3 yrs after expiration and never noticed a difference. I cant say about Epson ink its never sitting around... I never went Richo I always used an Epson for sublimation and never looked back. The only difference is you have to print every couple of days so the heads don't clog. However the upside is the ink I buy is 54.00 for 4 colors and I use a CIS so I cant tell you how many cartridges I would have filled.

[OWJones 1,981]

If you don't do a lot of sublimation and you don't want to deal with printing test pages every week to keep the printer from clogging, then stick with the Ricoh.

 

However, you can upgrade to a 13x19" Epson with pre-installed CISS kit and sublimation ink for $369 from Cobra Ink, which is only a little more than 1 set of Ricoh sublimation cartridges...

[djque 246]

I would go with epson wf 7620 i have a 7510 and love it. I'm actually going downtown la to pick up some sub ink right now $15.00 for 180ml. I have gone weeks without printing and run a clean and I'm good

[MadHatterGraphix 1,258]

Are you going to printpayless?