Printer Ink Types and Switching Between Them: How to Choose Dye or Pigment Ink for Your Epson Printer
- By Kevin Day
- On Feb 05, 2025
- Comment 0
Question:
Are Any of Your Ink Products Compatible with the Epson 16650?
Answer:
Yes! You can complete all the steps of filling the ink cartridge if you have compatible ink for your machine, such as the Epson 16650, which can be found on our website, BCH Technologies (https://bchtechnologies.com).
Go to “Printer Ink,” then “Printer Ink for Epson.” Any of the links on that list will work in your printer.
Which Do I Use in My Printer — Pigment Ink or Dye Ink? I Fear Making the Wrong Decision.
Thank you for subscribing! Sorry for the delay in responding. We know that printer problems are urgent, and we try to give complete and thoughtful answers. We love support—push us on our YouTube channel (https://youtube.com/@bchtechnologies) at BCH Technologies. This feedback assists us in improving our technical capability.
The upshot is that there’s no such thing as a “wrong” choice since your printer can work with either dye or pigment ink. But here are some of the main differences:
- Pigment-based printers do self-clean more often than dye-based ones.
- A good pigment printer effectively washes away the dye, and clogging is more likely a problem in dye inks. Sure, running the printer through frequent cleaning cycles wouldn't affect it; it would probably clog less, too.
- If you run dye printers with pigment ink, you may want to do even more frequent manual cleanings, as dye printers do not self-clean as aggressively.
Take, for instance, the Epson Artisan 1430—a dye-ink printer, yet I've seen many print shops successfully use pigment ink to print t-shirts. You must do a little extra maintenance if you have a dye-based printer and opt for pigment ink.
Pigment Vs. Dye Ink: What’s the Difference?
For several reasons, we usually recommend dye ink:
- Affordability – Compared to pigment ink, dye ink is cheaper.
- Clogging Risk – A dye ink is more straightforward to unclog, whereas a pigment ink clog is almost always permanent.
- Dye Ink Improvements – New formulations have fixed old dye-based inks that could not be double-sided printed.
- Durability—Although some claim that pigment ink is more resistant to the fading effects of sunlight and water, most everyday printing will never be exposed to these substances.
Dye is best for standard day-to-day printing. Dye ink will keep your printout intact even if you spill coffee on it unless it stays wet for a long time. Dye ink reigns supreme unless you’re printing for the outdoors and keeping the prints in the rain.
We prefer the following dye inks:
- For Epson Printers: BCH Standard 600ml 4-Color Refill Ink for Epson (https://bchtechnologies.com/standard-600-ml-4-color-refill-ink-for-epson-kd600x-ce/)
- For HP Printers: BCH Standard 600ml 4-Color Refill Ink for HP (https://bchtechnologies.com/standard-600-ml-4-color-refill-ink-for-hp-kd600x-ch/)
- For Canon Printers: BCH Standard 600ml 4-Color Refill Ink for Canon (https://bchtechnologies.com/standard-600-ml-4-color-refill-ink-for-all-printers-kd600x-cu/)
For a more in-depth comparison, check out these articles:
- Dye vs. Pigment Ink Comparison (https://support.bchtechnologies.com/hc/en-us/articles/200555919)
- Why Dye Ink Prints Look Better (https://support.bchtechnologies.com/hc/en-us/articles/200677489)
Is It Safe to Switch Ink Types? Can I Mix Pigment Ink and Dye Ink?
Changing between dye inks is easy enough. However, some precautions should be taken when using pigment and dye inks.
Mixing dye and pigment inks over a long period is not recommended. The reason is that:
- A chemical matrix is needed to suspend pigment ink in the liquid carrier medium.
- When you mix dye with pigment, this matrix becomes compromised, causing the pigment particles to bind and clog your printhead.
If you switch, you can reduce risk by:
- Use as much old ink as you can before changing over.
- When you first switch, print several pages immediately to help flush out old residual ink.
- Do not mix third-party inks—each ink manufacturer employs different base solutions and will not be compatible.
- Equipment used to clean your printhead before using (switch) the flushing solution. BCH offers:
- Dye Ink Base Flush (https://bchtechnologies.com/universal-dye-ink-base/)
- Pigment Ink Base Flush (https://bchtechnologies.com/universal-pigment-ink-base/)
In short:
- There is no issue with using dye ink in a pigment printer.
- If you are using pigment ink in a dye printer, that requires more cleaning to avoid clogs.
- Once you find a suitable ink for your printer, you should keep using it because otherwise, you risk clogging it.
Final Thoughts
Printer issues can be impenetrable to handle because they are hands-on in nature. I'm sorry, but unfortunately, we cannot troubleshoot printers remotely. However, we do provide an on-site assessment and repair service at our premises (https://bchtechnologies.com/printer-repair-service). Due to high demand, service is first-come, first-served, and there may be a wait of several weeks.
With our cost-effective self-help option, we hope you visit our YouTube channel (https://youtube.com/@bchtechnologies) and search for how-to tutorials on YouTube.
Again, thank you for reaching out and for being so supportive. We hope to continue to service all your printing needs!