# Epson DTG F2100 Ink expansive ripoff



## Gigflyinc (Aug 4, 2017)

Hello everyone. I recently purchased an epson f2100 DTG printer. When I went for the demo they said white ink cost would be low and that ink would probably cost around $2 per t-shirt print. I ended up purchasing the printer and I am now finding out that that cost was totally wrong. It is costing me about $6 to print each t-shirt. This ink is very expensive and is a total rip-off. I recently tried to purchase a bulk ink system and ordered some cartridges from AliExpress with chips and I also ordered Kodak DTG inks. But it looks like the chip that was provided to me it's not working with the printer. When I load the cartridges in it goes on a cleaning cycle then says the ink is not compatible. I'm getting pretty frustrated with this as the white ink is getting very expensive and I'm making zero money off this machine. I have also tried messing with the settings but I find that if the printer isn't on one of the highest quality settings it gets a very low quality print which I am not satisfied with. Has anyone else used a bulking system on this printer? If so where did you purchase your cartridges from and how did you get them to work? Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance


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## TABOB (Feb 13, 2018)

Probably due to the US firmware. The European versions are required by law to allow the use of compatible chips and ink cartridges.


Using non-epson white ink is tricky and you can easily damage your printhead using the wrong one. I used dupont inks when I had the printer, but I forgot which version is the compatible one. I think it was the 3500... not sure though. I have no idea if Kodak ink is compatible.


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## Amelion (Apr 30, 2015)

TABOB said:


> I used dupont inks when I had the printer, but I forgot which version is the compatible one. I think it was the 3500... not sure though. I have no idea if Kodak ink is compatible.





I tried the 5000 series of dupont inks and the white is incompatible, so TABOB is probably right and is the 3000 series that works.


You can also try the F-series of image armor that work very well, but is not cheap as the dupont.


Anyway, 6$ per shirt seems to me very high. I found that the garment creator lay down too much white ink for many prints and with a different rip you can save from 15% to 30% of white ink (depending by the graphic).
If you haven't done yet, you can also check again into the process of pretreatment. Many times a different shirt brand and better pretreatment process can save a lot of ink


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## Gigflyinc (Aug 4, 2017)

I verified that the Kodak inks are compatible with my printer. It is the chip set that I got that isn't working. Was just wondering where everyone got their chipsets from or cartridges?


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## TABOB (Feb 13, 2018)

Amelion said:


> Anyway, 6$ per shirt seems to me very high. I found that the garment creator lay down too much white ink for many prints and with a different rip you can save from 15% to 30% of white ink (depending by the graphic).
> If you haven't done yet, you can also check again into the process of pretreatment. Many times a different shirt brand and better pretreatment process can save a lot of ink


Epson's $2 claim is for a 6x8 print area. If you print 12x16 it will obviously cost 4 times that amount... Which is $8.
Overcomplicating things is never a good thing. Reducing the amount of ink, or increasing the amount of pretreatment will affect washability. Using a more economical ink is as far as I'd go.


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## Gigflyinc (Aug 4, 2017)

TABOB said:


> Epson's $2 claim is for a 6x8 print area. If you print 12x16 it will obviously cost 4 times that amount... Which is $8.
> Overcomplicating things is never a good thing. Reducing the amount of ink, or increasing the amount of pretreatment will affect washability. Using a more economical ink is as far as I'd go.


 Yes I agree with this totally. But I can't have ink cost like this. How do I make money? It's almost criminal.


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## TABOB (Feb 13, 2018)

Gigflyinc said:


> Yes I agree with this totally. But I can't have ink cost like this. How do I make money? It's almost criminal.


 It is like that unfortunately. What you can do is adapt and diversify.
1. Create designs that require less ink,
2. find a way to use cheaper ink.
3. use other printing methods.


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## Amelion (Apr 30, 2015)

TABOB said:


> Epson's $2 claim is for a 6x8 print area. If you print 12x16 it will obviously cost 4 times that amount... Which is $8.
> Overcomplicating things is never a good thing. Reducing the amount of ink, or increasing the amount of pretreatment will affect washability. Using a more economical ink is as far as I'd go.





never said to increase the amount of pretreat, but to check the process. There could be many reasons behind a non optimal pretreatment and a non optimal pretreated surface generally force to put more white to obtain decent results.


second point I print mainly big image (generally from 12x15 to 12x17) and 80-85% of black garment. My average amount of ink per print is less than 5 ml and it's very difficult that one print use more than 10 ml.
I don't care what Epson claim, I prefer to do my own math. 



Last, but don't least, before change the ink, I would try to make the things work with the original inks.
I haven't find a more overall reliable inks than the Epson that works well with this machine.


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## TABOB (Feb 13, 2018)

Amelion said:


> never said to increase the amount of pretreat, but to check the process. There could be many reasons behind a non optimal pretreatment and a non optimal pretreated surface generally force to put more white to obtain decent results.
> 
> 
> second point I print mainly big image (generally from 12x15 to ) and 80-85% of black garment. My average amount of ink per print is less than 5 ml and it's very difficult that one print use more than 10 ml.
> ...


Maybe you print line art... Dense prints like photos use more ink.
The OP has already bought Kodak Inks to try, and he can do his own reliability tests.


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