CISS (Continus Ink Supply Systems) Information and Warnings!

[Josh DeHaan]

Hey everyone,

about a week ago, I ordered a CIS system for my Canon MP830 printer, do to I was having to buy $70 worth of ink every month or 2. I ordered this system from cisinks.com. Everything lead me to believe this was a good place to get the system, and it is to a degree, but, here is the details.



I received the system 2 days after ordering and upon inspection was happy with the quality (look, feel and .ect). I was somewhat bummed with the fact that there was no printed manual but a small disc was in place of it so did not think anything of it until I opened the disc to find only a few manuals, none of which were for my printer model! Bear in mind, this system is FOR my model. SO, moving on, I read the manual for some of the other install guides to get an idea and proceeded with the install.

I took off the caps for the new cartridges ink poured out! My hands, printer and desk were covered in ink, and I mean covered! I was able to install them after letting them purge for a few minutes (and losing a good part of the ink I paid for). These are the new versions that come with auto reset chips installed, and they all recognized and worked once in place. Finally got everything cleaned up and installed, which included cutting some of the plastic from my printer so it would not pinch the tubes after closing the lid. Want to point out that even the manuals for other printers said not much as to where and how to install the tubing, it is basically a "good luck figuring it out" kinda deal, took a few minutes of thinking things out, but got it working perfect.

Prints after all of that had better been worth it, right? Well, they were! They looked amazing, ink flowed nicely and could not tell much difference between this ink and factory ink.

I placed a call into support about all this and sense the pigment black was not feeding ink anymore. I explained to the guy that answered what all happened, and that I believed the reason for the huge amount of ink loss was due to it being shipped to high altitude, as I live in Denver, CO. and got a slight chuckle out of him before he said "yes, we have had that problem from being in Colorado / high altitude areas. When asked why there was no warning to open the external tanks to vent excess air before install (which no manuals said) he was unable to give an answer. He did however after putting me on hold offer to replace the pigment black (since it was the worst in ink loss) if I could provide a photo of the damage. Just spending 2 days cleaning up, there was not a whole lot that could be shown, but I assure you, it was massive before cleaning.

After this all, and figuring the reason for the black not feeding was due to no ink in the cartridge (since it emptied on ME) it was unable to cause a suction to pull ink from the external tanks. Also, my prints were a little darker than they should of been, nothing bad, just something to note but was informed, also in high altitude ares, the printer has to be a little (inch or so) higher. With all this in mind, I posted a review on the cisinks.com site, rated it 3 out of 5 stars for the lack of warning and manuals, but still 3 stars because after all the hard work, it does work and am happy so far. I then found that the site removed my review, for what I am guessing is because they do not want to fix this problem, just cover it up. Have sent a message demanding to restore my review or that I would be returning my system and buying from another store, and am waiting for a response.

I will post any change in their business ethics but as of now, I can NOT recommend buying from cisinks.com

P.S. If you do not know what the rubber washers are for, they are to be installed over the feed necks inside the print head assembly to give the cartridges a tighter seal when installed. Again, not a huge deal but no manual for my model kinda left me out of the loop as to where they went.

Now, if any of you bought from cisinks.com, or somewhere else please share your experience or ask any and all questions you want!

[Josh DeHaan]

Today I received a package from CISInks.com with a replacement bottle of the pigment black, which I mentioned earlier that was the worst in ink loss. This is a good sign from them, as I was getting worried that they might be a bad place to get a CIS system from.

Even though my review is has still not be restored to their site, I feel a bit better about recommending CISInks.com

Will post updates, if any, as I get them...

[MuddyG]

Hi, Josh. I was just wondering how your experience has been with the CISS from cisinks.com. I am contemplating a purchase, but their have been some negative reviews including your own. I know sometimes people don't bother to post good reviews, so I was hoping to get some feedback now that you've been using the system for some time.

Thanks,
MuddyG

[Josh DeHaan]

Hey Muddy,

I did indeed keep the system for my canon mp830 and my thought after some time are that if you are going to be printing at least ever couple hours, every day of the year, then it is worth it. However, for normal printing needs with some projects running through your printer, I do not suggest this system. Here is my reasoning...

This system has MANY problems unless it is used, as the same says, "Continuously". If I go for more than a day with out printing something I have to do a print head clean to prime it. It's kinda fun to watch the ink fill the tubes the first couple time, but after 5, 10 times it gets really old!

Another problem is that I am sure my printer is covered in ink inside. The print heads sometimes just leak ink because there is no stable pressure. This might be in part to I am in a high altitude state (Colorado) but never the less, as said above this issue with high elevation was not mentioned in any info with the system, on the site or anywhere else until I called, mad because my hands were a mess from the tanks draining on me from install.

Bottom line, I am mad that cisinks.com got my money because they do not deserve the business by how they handle (or not handle) issues. Sure they sent me a bottle of blank ink, but what about the fact that they STILL do not warn people about these issues, or correct the problems. When I talked about sending the unit back, instead of getting the whole "well how can we get this worked out/fixed" story, I got more of a "don't like it, don't keep it" rap.

That said, this is a good system if you totally dive into it and MAKE it work I have been printing a lot some days, normal some days and doing projects with the inks only at half, were as I would have had to buy 3 or 4 sets of tanks from canon, at least by now.

So, if you do a LOT of printing and do not mind the ink draining back down the tube, print head cleaning every 12-24 hours to prime it, huge drips of ink on prints until you get a head cleaning that gets the droplet of ink off the heads, so they can fire correctly. Then sure, this is a great system to get! Yes, I do mean that, but it takes a lot of work to keep it up. Not to mention that I had to cut some parts of my printer to make it install right, also something that they do not tell you. But the fact is, I am not spending a ton on brand name ink, I am saving money and when it works like it should (with some work sometimes) it does work great.

[Josh DeHaan]

Update:
Well, As from the above posts you can guess I am not a huge fan of this system, at least how it works. I finally got desperate and started thinking how to deal with this problem. What I ended up doing was removing the chips from the systems tanks and placing them on the old canon factory tanks. I drilled out the plastic ball used to plug the tank after the factory filled it. Then I used part of the systems rubber plugs to then plug the tanks after refilling them with a syringe using the same bulk ink from the system. The result? PERFECT prints, no ink leaking, no priming after letting the system sit to long with no printing. So, I am now happy with this system, just had to remove it for me to be happy. Will post pictures of my modded factory tanks soon for those that wish know how it was done in detail.

[juanddz]

Hello man, please tell me what to do... Well, when I do the clean printhead in my CISS, the black ink (text) doesn't flow in the tubing from the recipient to the cartridge.. I really tried everything to make it work, but usually after the printhead cleaning I only can print a couple of pages with good quality, after that in the next pages some lines looks a bit erased and all the printed stuff starts to look creepy.
I made this things to make it work..but NOTHING helped;
- I filled the cartridge to half with the ink and started to do clean printhead (the sponge inside the cartridge wasn't covered with ink)
- I used a syringe to fill the sponge with the ink like the other cartridges
- I almost filled the recipient outside the printer (about 70%) to help the ink go to the cartridge by the tubing, after doing the clean printhead it was the same problem, the ink wasn't flowing to the cartridge
- I went to the guy that sold me the CISS system and he gave me for free the cartridge, I changed it and made the steps above.
I don't know what to do, maybe because the cartridge of the black ink is bigger it doesn't suck the ink.. when I take the recipient above the cartrige I see that the ink is moving in the tubing. other problem is that sometimes I see nothing because the black ink covers what is happening in the tubes.

Please tell me what should I do, really is a pain in the *** that I can't print documents and other stuff like normal ppl... The ink to print photos and CD's works 100%

Thank you and I hope that you have the answer I need dude.

 

[Josh DeHaan]

This is a though problem to fix. Make sure the tanks & printer are level (sitting on the same surface) but, this is not always a fix. This is pretty much the reason I gave up and converted them to just normal tanks that I can refill.

As I pointed out before, Even if you get the tube primed, if you let it sit to long it will just drain back. These systems are designed to print, not sit. So, in this case, even if you use it 24, 7 for photos, to much time before printing text black will let it drain back.

The suction from the tanks is not enough to pull ink from the external tanks by itself, so it has to be done by hand, which means pulling the tank using a syringe to push ink into the tank, putting it back in and making sure to use it at least every few hours (photo & text) or it will have to be done all over again. It is a pain, I put up with it and found it is just not worth it.

I will get a video posted of how I converted my tanks so I can refill them with the bulk ink, but not deal with the external tanks and priming it over and over.

I know it is not great news, but that is the sad truth about these systems. 99% of the time it ends in tears, pain or at least some problem.

[juanddz]

Thank you very much for the answer, If the problem is almost impossible to fix I will modify my black cartridge to make it work like you did. I'm looking forward to see your video tutorial  .
I hope there's no problem If I do this only for the black ink, the rest of the cartridges works really fine and I'm happy with the results.

PS. The level of the recipients is the same as the printer, but I don't know it the level of the ink inside should be 20, 50 or 70%. The level of the inks that work is about 15% and everything is ok

[Josh DeHaan]

Well once again, I waited to long to reply. Sorry! The reason?
Do to the mass amount of ink that was purged into the internal workings of my printer, it is now worthless. I am thinking about contacting a lawyer to collect damages to my hardware do to all that happened (noted above).

Because of my printer going down, it was not in the best interests of what I was trying to prove to make the video on how to mod the stock tanks. I am shopping for a new printer and will be (most likely) modding it for refilling once I get it, so, once again I leave it at... Will update soon.

But, I will once again say:
STAY AWAY FROM CONTINUOUS INK SYSTEMS
Unless you are ready, willing, able, and mental stable for this kind of venture. Even then, will most likely end like this.