220 Or 440?

[player]

I have an SP540V and I have always bought 220mml carts. I try to always keep an extra set of 4 inks in stock so I never run out. I recently bought a 440ml cart and I am wondering if it is worth the extra cash in inventory to save the little bit on the inks. I don't print a whole lot, but have printed more recently. I also am losing the space at the end of my machine with the extra long carts.

The 220ml carts cost me about $71 each x 4 in the machine and 4 in inventory =$568

The 440ml carts cost me about $126 each x 4 in the machine and 4 in inventory =$1008

The savings in buying the larger carts is $128, or about 1 large cart free for every 8 large purchased.

How long can they sit in the machine? On the shelf?

 

[Gino]

I think the shelf life is something like 2 years. If you aren't using a 220 up in that time span, I wouldn't worry about stocking up, changing size or anything.

When we got ours, it came with a full set in the machine and two extra sets of 220's. They were not the MAX version, either. I don't think the 440's were even on the market back then, but we were going through a two or three cartridges in a few days. As soon as we saw the 440's we switched over and still kept a set in reserve. Once we got our flatbed, our roll to roll needs cut back to we go through a set about once every two weeks or so. Even our vinyl consumption has gone down.

Seriously, if you are using a cartridge a month or so, I'd just order a week or so out and keep your inventory fresh. Once in a while our distributor will be out, but we have two competitors within 10 minutes of us who will sell us what we need. We all return favors back 'n forth. Heck, one time... this one gal printed, lamed and cut out two partial wraps for us, when our printer was on the fritz for a day or so. Our tech was here doing some work and put a screwdriver through a board and shorted everything out and when the new board came in, he had ordered the wrong one, so we had to wait another day for that. Set us back considerably, but we have good:Big Laughcompetition.

 

[MikePro]

o i remember those days..... my new HP has 750ml cartridges in my HPlatex, no big deal
...actually, its a HUGE deal! constantly ordering/stocking/swapping ink cartridges is a pita, in the long-run.
and lets say if you're saving $100 per set of 8 cartridges, then I saved about $2000 each year for the 8years I ran that printer.

ink is cheap, packaging is not. go big, or waste your money on nickles and dimes.

shelf life is the expiration date on the cartridges, technically, although I've grabbed 4yr old expired 440 cartridges that were buried in storage, swapped chips, and thrown into my mimaki jv3 and they printed just fine. you just want to make sure to "stir"(not shake) the cartridges in your hand for a couple of minutes, as the pigment separates from the solvent over time. this is recommended for new cartridges, as well, for good measure.

 

[player]

Is it a problem to pull the carts out of the printer and stir or shake them periodically?