It’s now been a year (and what a year) since my post dated 19 December 2019 where I said I would come back and post my results on using the Marrutt bulk ink system for my Epson SC-P600 printer. I think that the experience of using the Marrutt system has been overwhelmingly positive.
I found the filling of the replacement cartridges very easy. There is a small coloured bung on the top of each which you take out to facilitate the filling using one of the syringes in the pack supplied for each colour ink. Don’t lose the bung, it needs to go back in the filling hole afterwards and the syringe rinsed out with clean water. I actually labelled the syringes after I used them with the letters of the colours I used them for. If it is the first time that you have used the refillable cartridge, then you have to prime the cartridge by extracting a small portion of ink (Marrutt recommend about 4-5ml) with a syringe that has a nozzle that fits the hole underneath the cartridge which attaches to the ink feed in the printer. This is used for all the colours and is washed out after use. It does not have to be used once you have filled the cartridge once.
The first time I changed from an Epson to a Marrutt cartridge, I waited for the printer to tell me the colour needed replacing. I then refilled the cartridge with the correct colour inserted it into the printer and it recognized the cartridge as full.
However, changing the printing paper from gloss or pearl etc to Matte paper means that the printer needs to switch the main black ink from Photo Black to Matte Black and vice versa. If there is not enough ink in either one of the cartridges (under 10%) it will not let you switch. Inserting the relevant Marrutt cartridge to replace the one that has nearly run out will not help because the printer has registered the original cartridge as empty and so will treat the new one as being at the same level, which means it will not start the ink switch. It was because of this that I purchased an SC-P600 chip resetter. The cartridge chip of the refilled cartridge is placed against the pins on the resetter and when a green light shows on it then the cartridge chip has been reset so that the printer will read it as full. Replacing the cartridge will then mean the ink switch will then go ahead.
Overall, I am more than happy with the Marrutt inks and system and the cost saving is fantastic. A 60ml bottle of ink from Marrutt at the moment is £13.55, an Epson cartridge is 25.9ml costing £29.00. That means 60ml of ink using the Epson price would cost £67.28 that’s 5 times the price. The little bit of hassle filling the cartridges is well worth it for such a price saving with no loss in print quality.
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