How to Convert to A Sublimation Printer For Cricut Projects

What’s the difference between an Ecotank Printer and a Cartridge printer?

I’m glad you asked! For a long time, printers have been cartridge-based, meaning that when you bought ink, each color came in a little rectangular box of mostly plastic with some ink somewhere inside it. We would load it into our printer and crossed our fingers it would last longer than the previous cartridges because again, cartridge ink tends to be super expensive. Ecotank printers got rid of cartridges altogether. Instead of cartridges, there are ink tanks that you fill with ink. You can understand why the ecotank system is far more efficient and less expensive for both the customer and manufacturer: far less waste is produced, far less complicated plastic-heavy products are produced, and you can buy ink in bulk that will last you an average of 6 times longer than cartridges! Everybody wins! Less work, less plastic, less hassle! I love it!

Step 2: Replace the ink

So, as I mentioned before, you do need to replace the ink that came with your printer, with sublimation ink, and the ecotank sublimation ink bottles are far far FAR less expensive than cartridge sublimation ink. 

Why do I need to switch the ink?

I think the easiest way to explain this one is to chalk it up to science in the least scientific way possible: you need super special sublimation ink for the super special sublimation process to work.

Think of the ink like an ingredient in a recipe, imagine you’re baking cookies and instead of using sugar you use salt because they look the same. It’s the same situation with regular printer ink vs sublimation ink: just because they look the same does NOT mean they work the same. You’ll notice after printing your first sublimation print job that the colors look extremely dull and not at all like what you were expecting- that’s normal, and after applying heat with your heat press or mug press, you’ll see the end product turns out just as saturated and vibrant and beautiful as you were hoping. 

Ultimately, sublimation ink is weird and just plain different than the regular printer ink that comes with your printer and it’s not sublimation ink the same way salt isn’t sugar in baking. So, save yourself the frustration and don’t ruin blanks by trying to use the ink that came with your printer, and first thing when your printer arrives: swap out the ink!

How do I swap out the ink?

This will vary based on which printer you get and which sublimation ink brand you go with. From what I can tell, usually you’ll be able to just open your sublimation ink bottle, open your printer’s ink tanks, and carefully pour one into the other however this wasn’t exactly the case for me.

I bought this sublimation ink and I have this Epson ecotank printer and as you can see the ink says clear as day that it’s compatible with my printer, and it is, it worked GREAT, but I had to use syringes that came with my sublimation ink to transfer the ink from the bottle, to my printer ink tanks. It was a super slow process but I think the idea was to keep you from spilling the ink everywhere, I mean that would not only be a complete waste but an absolute nightmare spilling an entire bottle of ink all over you, your brand new printer, and all over the floor and surrounding victimized items. So to be safe, read the instructions when you get your sublimation ink bottles on how to load it into your printer- IF for some super bizarre reason they don’t come with instructions, just google it. If you have that question, odds are someone else has too and someone else has answered it so I’m sure you’ll be able to get the help you require by consulting with the all-knowing Google!