help me choose an epson CIS system!

I'm about to purchase a CIS for my r200 from ebay. Which of the sellers has the best merchandise? They all seem to be near the same price. There's Toppy-Jess and a few others. Reccommendations please! Thanks in advance...

You are looking for trouble if you buy any of those cheapo no name kits. You are taking a very high risk of killing the print head. How much are you printing? If it is just for personal use, you are not going to be beter off with a cis. The good quality ones require constant maintence to keep them running properlly. It's easier to just refill cartirges unless you are doing a substantial amount of printing. I looked at some of the kits on ebay out of curosity and a few even recomended using pigment based inks in dye ink printers for beter longevity (a guarenteed way to kill the print head). If you want to go with a cis and really think that you prit enough, here is a good place to get decent equipment.
http://redrockinnovations.com/Mercha...Store_Code=IJG
I'm not sure what they have for the r200. Cis systems are not designed to just sit idle so that you never have to refill ink and they do not perform well when used this way. They only work well in a high usage enviroment where constantlly maintaining they system is less trouble than constantlly refilling cartriges. The primary reason for this is that proper ink flow and preasure is critical. Too much or too little preasure (usally negative preasure) will cause problems.
Just my 2 cents worth.
Fyi I just checked thier site and it still sucks balls (even worse that it used to). You might want to give them a call and see what they have.

Wow thanks...scrap the CIS, is there a crowd favorite for refillables on these epsons?

Might as well just use compats. I get a full set for mine for £7. Just search around you will find a supplier. Currently using Pro-jet, have used Im-jet too, and Jettec (the most expensive of the three) all with good results.

Is my memory correct when I think there was a thread here reviewing compats or am I thinking of a different place?

Compatible-generic, thats what I use now. But I worry that if I buy in quantity they will dry up, or even more likely, the printer will die. (or commit suicide because the "waste lots of ink here" pad is full.) The thing that angers me the most is how they flush ink from all cartridges everytime you replace any one cartridge. Do the canons do that too? I once saw discussion of ordering from the UK, thus loopholing epson's usa legal thing.
~I hope I'm not getting too off-topic here.

The canons do head cleanings but they generally don't use too much ink. Of course I refill so the cost or how much ink I use isn't an issue for me. I use a canon by the way). It is a little more expensive at first (to get started) but it is worth it if you print a lot. 4oz bottles are about 8$ for dye ink so including the cost of special refillable cartriges and syringes, it comes to the equivalent of about 1$ per cartrige or less. Thats not using cheap ink either. The stuff I am using is top quality, photographic quality ink that has been independantly tested for fade resistance and color gamut and it can hold it's own against canon ink. The brand is media street and if I am not mistaken, the canons have larger cartriges than the epsons so you would get more refills with an epson. I know that they also make ink for epsons but am not sure about the quality (I would assume that it is decent). Compatible cartriges are a good idea if you don't want to mess with refilling but refilling is defanatlly cheaper. If you are interested, give a call to the company I linked to above and see what they have for your printer. If they make the empty refillable cartriges for your model printer, I highly recomend them. It makes it easier.
By the way, this is a really weird coincidence, but about 30 minutes ago my wife was cleaning up some stuff and she hands me an invoice (for the last time I bought ink) and asks "do you need this". The last time I ordered ink was 1/21/04 (those 4oz bottles last pretty long). I still have a decent amount of ink left.

Depends how often you use your printer. I have yet to have any cartridge dry out either in the printer or in the packaging, nor have I run across the sponge problem I have read about.

good info