Red and YELLOW and green and blue... (Epson T0454)

Member Name: Teena2003

Product:	Epson T0454
Date:	15/02/05 (303 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: original consumables

Disadvantages: expensive

Since early last year I am the owner of an Epson C84 inkjet printer. The first lot of ink cartridges was luckily provided in the box when I first got the printer so I didn’t really need to think too much about replacements at that time.

The C84 uses individual ink containers for each colour. The black ink tank space is double width and can house a really good size double cartridge – if you can find one that is – but the other three colours are single spaced and individually exchangeable. Gone are the days when you had to change all three colours at the same time because the cartridge was three-in-one. Now all you need to do it remove the empty cartridge and replace it with a new one of the same colour, click it into place, push down the little lever that keeps it in place and you’re done. Simple.

There are so many different cartridges on the market nowadays that it is a little tricky finding the ones you are actually looking for. I wish they printed the names/numbers of the printer the individual ink cartridges are suitable for much bigger. How on earth can someone see the numbers when they are printed so tiny? So many times I thought I had the correct one in my hands only to find out that it is not the one I need.

Of course, the order numbers of the replacement cartridges are printed somewhere inside of the printer cover and can easily be found in the instruction manual but I am the kind of person who doesn’t necessarily go out with the aim to buy new ink. In most cases I am in a computer store looking for something different when I pick up the cartridges. And in these cases I don’t have the order numbers with me and the big search starts.

Most of the original Epson cartridges come in similar packaging and if you stand in front of the hundreds of different ones, in the end, you are lucky to find what you are looking for. In case of the Epson T0454 Yellow, the box is white and blue with a picture of a beach scene, the chair and umbrella in bright yellow. (looking for cyan or magenta you will find that the chair/umbrella are in red and blue) Or it’s just me being a little thick.

According to manufacturers guidelines, this one cartridge will last for around 250 pages. Whether or not the statement is correct depends very much on how much yellow you need to use each time you print. If your print contains a lot of yellow areas you will of course need a lot more than if you print mainly monochrome.

Something Epson are particularly proud of is their new-fangled ‘DURABrite™’ technology. They promise their inks to be water, smudge and light resistant, a special pigment based ink technology to keep your print outs bright and crisp over years. I’m not sure that it is absolutely necessary for everyday printing but it does come in handy when printing a lot of photos. It is irritating when photos start fading in the light after only a few months.

I printed of a number of photos, I have a little nephew and niece and my brother provides me with new photos every few months. I printed off quite a few early last year and despite them pinned to my corkboard for the best part of a year, not one of them has faded or lost colour in any way. I am certainly impressed.

Like a lot of people I am often tempted to use refills or do the refilling of the cartridges myself. I used to do it with my old printers but so far I have not yet tried it out on this printer. I am a little wary as I messed up one of my printers when the refill smudged my print outs and it was not worth the hassle. And the colours were never as clear and crisp as from an original product.

Epson cartridges also have a little microchip that will tell the printer how much ink is still inside the cartridge. It is annoying to see that a warning window pops up quite early when there is still plenty of ink in the cartridge. And even when the warning told me that there was no more ink in the Yellow cartridge, I removed it, shook it gently and noticed that there was still quite a bit of ink left. I distrust the warnings and don’t react until I notice that the print is actually suffering before putting a fresh cartridge in.

The Epson Stylus C84 series printer uses 4 print cartridges, Black (T0441), Cyan (T0452), Magenta (T0453) and Yellow (T0454)

Replacements are available from all good computer stores, online ordering and some supermarkets. As always the black colour is most expensive to replace, each of the colour cartridges are available from £6.95 depending on where you shop.

For more information go to www.epson.com or www.epson.co.uk

Thank you for reading.

© Teena2003/Minnitee

Summary: