This is not always as simple as it seems. There are other things that come into play when going to a bulk system that can greatly affect your machine in the long run which I learned from experience on our older JV3. These machine are greatly affected by the pressure of the ink - in other words if the ink is physically feeding from higher than the original cartridge slots it will have greater pressure and can cause dripping at the heads, lower can cause ink starvation since the pumps cannot pump it uphill fast enough. Another issue can be air nearly dissolved in the ink at higher than normal levels which can cause problems with print heads running hot, overspray, etc as the air comes out of solution when heated in the head.
Not trying to discourage anyone - most newer bulk systems have had improvements that address the pressure problems with things like floats in the dummy cartridges to regulate the level and prevent overpressuring and/or starving the ink system. I think many also now tell you to pour fresh ink into the tanks very slowly and warn against shaking the bottles etc to prevent excessive bubbles.. of course there is always the risk of spills but with care that should not be a problem but out of many dozens of bulk systems I've seen over the years they inevitably all have ink on the outside of the tanks as well as inside.
That being said - if you have the volume then bulk is the way to go and can really cut your costs once you overcome the cost of the bulk system itself which will usually run from $500 to over $1500 with the tanks, dummy carts, permanent chips, etc. And again - the newer bulk systems are greatly improved over the older ones and do work great. Some of the older ones you literally had to adjust the hight of the tanks almost daily to keep the pressure right. I think "fuss" is the wrong term below for cartrdiges - they would be the least amount of "fuss" since you simply plug them in. We do use Triangle JVV cartridges in our JV33 machine but I am planning on switching it over to a bulk system due to the volume we are running on that machine (averaging 20 or so cartridges a month!).
I just want other to be cautioned that bulk is not for everyone. If you do go to a bulk system make sure you get one from through an authorized dealer of a well known and proven brand like Solaris, Bordeax, Triangle, etc and be sure they are giving you the most current type bulk system and not trying to offload some of the older type units. Personally I think if you are not using more than a full set of cartridges a month then you are probably better off sticking with cartridges - aftermarket ones that is.
If your going to make the switch to 3rd party inks I wouldn't fuss with the cartridges, go full bulk and pay $70.00 per liter instead of 70.00 dollars per cart.
