Digital BW, The Print

Is it my imagination or am I getting very nice B&W results from my C84 ($24 
net from Office Depot a couple of weeks ago) using the regular Epson 
Durabrite ink and printing black-only on EHM?

I finally gave up doing black-only printing on my two old 860s using MIS 
Eboni - the results were very nice but I was getting persistent clogs every 
couple of prints, even with new carts and new Eboni ink from MIS.  So I 
decided to unpack the new C84 that had been sitting on my "darkroom" floor 
since it arrived.  I've ordered the EZ inks from MIS, but thought I'd just 
check out the printer with the included inks to be sure it was 
functional.  Well, I am just delighted with the results.  Using black and 
white RGB files that I printed last Christmas on a Canon S9000 with Lyson 
Quad Black inks, and with the C84 set for Best Photo, Black Only and Gamma 
1.8 I get what I think are wonderful prints on EHM, although they are quite 
a bit warmer than the Lyson Quad prints on Legion Matte.  And compared to 
the 860 this C84 is FAST - not quite as quick as the Canon, but under 3 
minutes for the 8x8 images that I was printing as compared with over 10 
minutes on the 860.

The C84 comes with a double size (or more) black cartridge, which appears 
to cost about $30 to replace.  But if it will do 100 8x8 prints (the black 
ink level isn't going down very fast on the status monitor, and I think one 
of those cartridges is supposed to do over 500 pages of text) and if I can 
stock up on EHM at a CompUSA 2-for-1 sale, I can probably make my 800+ 
Christmas prints for about what it cost me last year using Legion Matte and 
Lyson Quad bulk inks.  And although I'll certainly try the MIS EZ inks when 
they arrive, my recent reliability problems have me wondering if it might 
not be worth sticking with OEM inks.

A basic question, though - while I'm not too concerned with 100+ year 
longevity, I would like for things to last for something like half that 
long.  I gather that the Durabrite inks are pigments, and I understand that 
pigments normally are expected to last longer than dyes.  But as this is my 
first real look at Epson ink on Epson paper, I haven't paid a lot of 
attention to those particular details for these products.  Are there tests 
out there to indicate the likely longevity of these Durabrite inks on EHM?

Also, does anyone have any reliability comments on the C84/EZ ink 
combination so far?  I've ordered a set of the filled cartridges, to try 
out before springing for the CFS, but if somebody has made a lot of prints 
with the C84 I'd appreciate hearing how well it keeps chugging along.

Thanks for any suggestions.

Cheers,
Kip