Epson M1100/1200 Eco Tank Black & White Printer for Weekly Printing - Any Good ?

[dissel]

Hello forum members and Experts,

As the title suggests anybody here has experience/suggestions / see in action about the Epson M1100 or M1120 Black & White Ink Tank Printer?

After lots of reading, I came across these are targeted to SME business that needs a Large amount of printing every day and comes with a 3-year / 3 Lac Page warranty, in this case, my need will be the weekly print of B/W text-based page, In my findings as of now, I hardly required anything in color so I don't want to pay for color cartridges...despite set to 'Grayscale' color inkjet printers will use color in every print.

At this point the default recommendation B/W Laser printer but once the Drum roller gets malfunctioned replacement cost will be higher, Also Tonner powder is another thing which the original one cost much higher.

For the above-mentioned printer Original Epson 005 ink bottle cost ony 600 - 700 bucks online.

Never own any laser printer, If I buy now this will be my 5th printer purchase since 2004/05. So far used and all are Color Inkjet Printers - Epson > HP (Worst) > Canon > Canon

 

[lockhrt999]

At this point the default recommendation B/W Laser printer but once the Drum roller gets malfunctioned replacement cost will be higher, Also Tonner powder is another thing which the original one cost much higher.

Drum rollers etc don't cost that high. Toner powder costs a hundred or two that will survive you thousands of prints. If you don't print frequently, laser is recommended. These days, I print once in a month and there's no issue of toner drying up.

Don't bother buying original. Nobody does that. Check parts rate on https://dubaria.shop/ first and then decide on which one you want to buy. Don't buy any printer which has chip on it's toner/cartridge.

 

[blr_p]

After lots of reading, I came across these are targeted to SME business that needs a Large amount of printing every day and comes with a 3-year / 3 Lac Page warranty, in this case, my need will be the weekly print of B/W text-based page, In my findings as of now, I hardly required anything in color so I don't want to pay for color cartridges...despite set to 'Grayscale' color inkjet printers will use color in every print.

How many B/W pages per week ?

At this point the default recommendation B/W Laser printer but once the Drum roller gets malfunctioned replacement cost will be higher, Also Tonner powder is another thing which the original one cost much higher.

Drum for my Brother laser printer is rated for 12,000 pages. Original toner is designed to work best with it. I did not bother with other kind since my printing needs are less and i don't think i will ever reach that many pages even in ten years

 

[dissel]

How many B/W pages per week ?

32 to 35 pages, but some times more.

 

[blr_p]

So that's about ~1,800 pages per year. Would last 7 years for a drum with a 12,000 page duty cycle. That is how long it would take to replace the drum.

 

[montsa007]

I've been using an Epson L361 for good 5 years, never had any issues except it couldn't print borderless, print volumes were anywhere between 10 to 50 pages in a week.
Have recently shifted to Cannon Pixma G3000 (Borderless), print volumes have slightly increased (30 to 100 pages a week)

The + point in pixma is that it has 2 user replaceable print heads (Black & Color), other printers like HP, Epson & Brother have a single head which simply means bigger fatka if print head is dead on latter brands. Per page cost is very low if you are ok with slightly lower print speeds.

What I learnt is lower speeds = higher gsm paper printer can take. Cannon can eat upto 275 GSM, whereas Epson will take no more than 180 gsm since it has to maintain speed.

As for laser printer, the cartridge cost kills (I know one can do local refill & stuff to cut costs) but I don't want to get into all those things am happy to order a liquid refill & fill it on my own.

You can check Pixma starter series if it fits your budget have a look

 

[salian]

I've been using an Epson L805 for five years now, it also has an Ecotank feature with ink tanks for each colour.

I am still to refill the color tank since original purchase, while I have refilled the black ink tank a couple of times. During times when there's not much to print, the ink dries up and then you have to use the power flush feature to get things working again. This works but is a bit wasteful of ink.

In summary the fear of having to pay to refill colored inks is unfounded, but if you don't have a lot of printing to do then I suggest you stick to laser.

 

[dissel]

Thank You all for pouring all the suggestions and feedback so far, as the most point out towards Laser Printer.

So far I gather about Laser printers from Amazon IN

(1) There is no laser printer exists in 2022 which offers Chip-free Tonner/ Cartridges, There are some New HP models which offer pouch-based (Called Laser Tank Printer) refilling but needless to say, the whole refiling system is a proprietary, Single Function with Wi-Fi HP Laser Tank 1020w with 50000-page drum cycle (MFP version of the Same) which takes HP 158 A (Small - 2500 Page Company Claimed) and 158X (5000 Page Company Claimed) tonner pouch.....I know HP can't be trusted about their claim be it drum/tonner cycle.

(2) There is no Brother product available anymore, Maybe due to supply chain issues and the looming Global Recession in 2023.

(3) Found some Chinese brands named 'PANTUM' which provides low cost as well problems out of the box....Never heard the name, Looks like a garbage box.

------------------

Anyhow below comments put me off about the above Epson models which I targeted, this is going to happen if someone is extremely lucky.

- It is true the print heads are fixed not get replaced every time once the cartridge change, As I was interested in those models only because Ink Tank is just situated on top of the print head - No pipe involved.

 

[montsa007]

I've been using an Epson L805 for five years now, it also has an Ecotank feature with ink tanks for each colour.

I am still to refill the color tank since original purchase, while I have refilled the black ink tank a couple of times. During times when there's not much to print, the ink dries up and then you have to use the power flush feature to get things working again. This works but is a bit wasteful of ink.

In summary the fear of having to pay to refill colored inks is unfounded, but if you don't have a lot of printing to do then I suggest you stick to laser.

I've been using an Epson L361 (Or 360?) for quite some time, it was lying unused for nearly a year or so (Lockdown period), but never had to flush it. Ran like butter when we took a print after nearly a year. Were you using original refills?

Sometimes Amazon has sellers who label their stuff trying to make it look original, but have replica stuff inside them, I don't mind paying a few extra bucks for original ink, saves the printer.

Thank You all for pouring all the suggestions and feedback so far, as the most point out towards Laser Printer.

So far I gather about Laser printers from Amazon IN

(1) There is no laser printer exists in 2022 which offers Chip-free Tonner/ Cartridges, There are some New HP models which offer pouch-based (Called Laser Tank Printer) refilling but needless to say, the whole refiling system is a proprietary, Single Function with Wi-Fi HP Laser Tank 1020w with 50000-page drum cycle (MFP version of the Same) which takes HP 158 A (Small - 2500 Page Company Claimed) and 158X (5000 Page Company Claimed) tonner pouch.....I know HP can't be trusted about their claim be it drum/tonner cycle.

(2) There is no Brother product available anymore, Maybe due to supply chain issues and the looming Global Recession in 2023.

(3) Found some Chinese brands named 'PANTUM' which provides low cost as well problems out of the box....Never heard the name, Looks like a garbage box.

------------------

Anyhow below comments put me off about the above Epson models which I targeted, this is going to happen if someone is extremely lucky.

- It is true the print heads are fixed not get replaced every time once the cartridge change, As I was interested in those models only because Ink Tank is just situated on top of the print head - No pipe involved.

You'll always find a negative review for something everywhere, you have to check multiple sources before deciding whether it is good or bad, did the guy mention in the review how was the printer handled?, its a simple line saying sent 5 times to service center, but for what reason!? I'm not saying epson printers are the best, but it aint so poor, I had used mine well, gave 0 issues till I sold it off as I had to shift to borderless. Brother's support may be a problem choose between HP/Epson/Cannon, my local printing shop (who always has crowd at his place) uses an Epson L805 (6 color one).

 

[salian]

Epson's L805 is an amazing printer and in general I recommend it to everyone who needs a high volume photo-capable printer. It's very popular with local printing shops for photo prints. The L805 print head component is used by all Chinese OEMs who make specialty printers like T-shirt printers, ID card printers and sublimation ink printers for merchandise. My L805 runs reliably on wi-fi, and hardly ever jams. Epson does make competent and reliable printers that can be used at commercial scale.

I believe the Epson color inks I used were original because they came as a set with the L805 printer itself. So my experience is that an inkjet ecotank printer is not the best choice where one only needs an occasional print once in a few weeks.

However I see mentioned somewhere in the thread that OP @dissel plans to take ~150 prints a month; now in that case he should be fine even with an inkjet printer.

 

[montsa007]

Epson's L805 is an amazing printer and in general I recommend it to everyone who needs a high volume photo-capable printer. It's very popular with local printing shops for photo prints. The L805 print head component is used by all Chinese OEMs who make specialty printers like T-shirt printers, ID card printers and sublimation ink printers for merchandise. My L805 runs reliably on wi-fi, and hardly ever jams. Epson does make competent and reliable printers that can be used at commercial scale.

I believe the Epson color inks I used were original because they came as a set with the L805 printer itself. So my experience is that an inkjet ecotank printer is not the best choice where one only needs an occasional print once in a few weeks.

However I see mentioned somewhere in the thread that OP @dissel plans to take ~150 prints a month; now in that case he should be fine even with an inkjet printer.

You got multiple bottles of original black ink with the printer itself?
If yes maybe you got a lemon, if not the ink may have caused the jackup

 

[salian]

You got multiple bottles of original black ink with the printer itself?
If yes maybe you got a lemon, if not the ink may have caused the jackup

It's mainly the color inks that gets dried up and needs flushing because of low usage. The black ink gets good usage.

With 5 color bottles (apart from black), even if one ink isn't printing well, the colors are off and then everything needs to be flushed. I don't think there is a way to flush just one ink.

From online forums and videos I understand this is a common issue if one prints low volumes with any inktank-based printer.

 

[blr_p]

I've been using an Epson L361 (Or 360?) for quite some time, it was lying unused for nearly a year or so (Lockdown period), but never had to flush it. Ran like butter when we took a print after nearly a year. Were you using original refills?

Was it powered on throughout that one year or did you disconnect it from the mains power ?

Sometimes Amazon has sellers who label their stuff trying to make it look original, but have replica stuff inside them, I don't mind paying a few extra bucks for original ink, saves the printer.

Definitely. The idea of using generic ink to save money and get subpar quality prints as a result makes no sense.

It would have been better to use a print shop in the first place and save the money instead of buying the printer.

You'll always find a negative review for something everywhere, you have to check multiple sources before deciding whether it is good or bad, did the guy mention in the review how was the printer handled?, its a simple line saying sent 5 times to service center, but for what reason!? I'm not saying epson printers are the best, but it aint so poor, I had used mine well, gave 0 issues till I sold it off as I had to shift to borderless. Brother's support may be a problem choose between HP/Epson/Cannon, my local printing shop (who always has crowd at his place) uses an Epson L805 (6 color one).

Exactly, I find these one-star amazon reviews more of a headache than informative.