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Saving 90% on ink printing costs

Martin Weiss

Martin Weiss

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While our wax printer was away for repair, I bought a cheap Canon MP610 ink printer. Turns out, it also prints on DVDs, and better than our outrageously expensive Bravo II dedicated DVD printer.

A friend told me I could save buckets by getting a so-called CISS system, continuous ink supply system.

IP6700-with-CISS.gif

Looking on eBay, there a many different offerings, all from cheap Asian to custom-built solutions for each printer. I chose an offering from down-under, rihac (http://www.rihac.com.au). Installation is just a bit complicated, but if you managed to screw together a RED, you´ll do fine.

The result: cheap printing (did you know that drugs - the illegal type - are cheaper than printer ink?), never having to worry about which colour might run out just as an important printing job is up, and saving the environment.

Rihac uses very good ink, and I did some printouts just before installation, and afterwards, and could not see a difference. Some reviewers wrote that the Rihac ink is more light resistant than the original one.

Bottom line: if you rather spend money on film gear than ink, get yourself a quality CISS system. Search on eBay, there are many different providers. I for one can recommend the one I chose, but find out for yourself.

Happy printing.
 
I was expecting something like enlargement pills - levitra, viagra and whatever after reading the thread`s title... :)

Since my first Epson I didn`t buy any original refills but always the cheap but equally good sets...
 
Michael Lindsay said:
with a statement like that you may find you get a few PMs asking for your mates phone number:shifty:
Click to expand...

LOL!

I remember reading an article where they compared the price of a gram of heroine and a gram of printer ink, and the latter came out more expensive... $8000 per gallon! http://www.realtechnews.com/posts/5499

That said, I have no contacts to any seller of the former :)
 
Printer ink / ink cartridges are such a scam. These days, inkjet printers are practically free for the low-mid range models, they make the money on ink. Retail stores also mark up the ink quite high because they make money on the consumables and accessories and not the large items anyway. I just have to shake my head when I walk into the office supply store and see a USB2 cable for $39.95.

That said, I've given up trying to buy off-brand generic ink. I always have problems with it, and mostly the colors are off compared to the actual name brand stuff. Sometimes cheaper isn't better.
 
Yeah, lasers are cheaper on the toner side of things. Until recently, color lasers were very expensive though. Lots of things that can't be printed on a laser printer though -- dics, certain types of plastics, etc..

Laser printers, both color and monochrome, are my work-horse printers for most things. Inkjet for everything else, discs photos, etc.. My fax/ copier / primary printer is a brother all-in-one laser unit. My primary color printer is an HP Laserjet 3800n. It's been great. I bought it over a year ago and I'm still on the original set of toner, but have already bought replacements as I'm due to run out of black any day now. Or so I've thought for the last month or so. If it lives through the next set of toner that will no doubt be installed by the end of the year, then it will be the cheapest color printer I've ever owned.

It replaced a Minolta/QMS color laser that only lived 2 years and turned out to be a horribly expensive printer. In the end, it was more expensive to buy the new drum, toner and fuser that I needed to keep it running than it was to buy the new HP printer.
 
Jeff Kilgroe said:
That said, I've given up trying to buy off-brand generic ink. I always have problems with it, and mostly the colors are off compared to the actual name brand stuff. Sometimes cheaper isn't better.
Click to expand...

If you're printing photos, the color is important. I've heard that there are some expensive equipment and laborious steps that can be taken to measure the error and correct it in software like you can with monitors, but I haven't tried it.
 
All printers and ink systems need to be properly measured and appropriate color tone profiles built for serious print and photo work. Just like we would calibrate display devices for color correcting video / film. The thing is, with the nicer inkjet printers from Canon, HP, Epson -- the inks and colors are guaranteed and they are consistent. With off-brand ink, there are no such guarantees. Or at least I haven't found any. And one cyan cartridge may vary from the next every time you change ink and they never match the manufacturer colors in my experience. So ICC profiles from HP, Canon, etc.. for their printers are worthless if you're not using their inks and it can take days to build your own to match some generic ink that isn't going to be the same the next time you buy it anyway.

If you're just running general color documents, printing web sites, occasional photos / snapshots, etc.. Then cheap ink is fine. But for anything serious or business related, I honestly don't see how anyone could rationalize using generic ink products. I can usually do alright by shopping around for ink and stocking up when there are deals.
 
I just have to shake my head when I walk into the office supply store and see a USB2 cable for $39.95.
Click to expand...
Heh, did they try to sell you an extended warranty on it?

I remember going to The Source (Radio Shack, but not called Radio Shack in Canada). I didn't know where else to get a 4pin to 4pin firewire cable fast. The sales rep tried to sell an extended warranty... on a product that comes with a lifetime warranty from the manufacturer.
 
Just a little update. Half a year ago I bought 1 liter (which is about a Quart for you Americans, about 2 pints for you Brits or exactly 1 litre for you French) of black ink for the price of 2 black cartridges. Since then I've printed about 10.000 pages - research for our next documentary, mostly b/w photocopies with lots of gray. And I still have half a liter left.

For the money saved I bought a lovely 85/1.4 Zeiss prime :)
 
Martin Weiss said:
Half a year ago I bought 1 liter (which is about a Quart for you Americans, about 2 pints for you Brits or exactly 1 litre for you French)
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Hey, we know what a Quart is! It is short for quarter of a gallon, after all!!

...but what's this "litre" you talk of?!! ;-)

Dom.
 
Yeah I tried "carrot ink" back in the day. It was worse than the Epson stuff. But if you have *THAT* much ink I don't think it would be a problem to get your printer dialed in. :D

-----

I think I actually know liters better than quarts.

Pop(West Coat)/Soda(east coast)/Coke(south) comes in 1 and 2-liter bottles.

And through bizzare twists in the economy of food a gallon of milk is cheaper than 2 quarts so I almost never see a quart of anything. :D
 
Abul Kader said:
I also Installed the Rihac CISS Ink System on my Canon Printer. Installation was't easy. People can find it a bit messy, specially when priming the tubes. I would suggest to wear gloves, because staining your hands can be very much hard to remove. Undoubtedly it's a very good solution from cost perspective & time over the long term. It saves a lot of hassles when compared to refilling the cartridges on other after-market products without continuous ink supply.

Printed photo is excellent color, all other printing is Ok. Saves time on refilling cartridges on other after-market products without continuous ink supply once installed. I will recommend this site https://www.microtonersupplies.com.au. I shop from them on a regular basis. I have saved hundreds of dollars using it as I have to print a lot of colour pages just bought my first refill bottles arriving after two working day. Refill ink is very easy,you just have to follow the instructions. and be sure to always check ink tube connected to avoid jam.

The cons are - due to the tubing connected to the tank which sits outside the printer, the printer needs to be in slightly open position. I usually leave the printer in open position to prevent the tubes touching the extreme left which could damage the tubes later.
Click to expand...

You do realize this is an 8 year old thread. LOL
 
Sometimes the ink in the printer's head dries over time because of the printing nozzles exposure to the air, thus wasting the ink. You can use this method. To begin, using a cloth dipped in the water, gently wipe the print head to remove any dirt of dust. Take a small paper towel or a cloth and damp it. It must be only slightly damped. so that no water would get into the cartridge through the nozzles.

Place the damp paper towel over the nozzles. Insert the cartridge in a plastic bag. Then store the cartridge in the fridge. At low temperatures the print-head will remain wet, and the ink will not dry into the nozzles. Place the cartridge nozzles up. This will stop any leakage and avoid colors potential mixing. Every week check to make sure that the towel is still damp. If it's getting too dry, wet it again. Hope this answers your question. You can also visit https://www.vicemode.com/ for other hints and advises on how to best use and maintain your printer.
 
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Martin Weiss said:
While our wax printer was away for repair, I bought a cheap Canon MP610 ink printer. Turns out, it also prints on DVDs, and better than our outrageously expensive Bravo II dedicated DVD printer.

A friend told me I could save buckets by getting a so-called CISS system, continuous ink supply system.

IP6700-with-CISS.gif

Looking on eBay, there a many different offerings, all from cheap Asian to custom-built solutions for each printer. I chose an offering from down-under, rihac (http://www.rihac.com.au). Installation is just a bit complicated, but if you managed to screw together a RED, you´ll do fine.

The result: cheap printing (did you know that drugs - the illegal type - are cheaper than printer ink?), never having to worry about which colour might run out just as an important printing job is up, and saving the environment.

Rihac uses very good ink, and I did some printouts just before installation, and afterwards, and could not see a difference. Some reviewers wrote that the Rihac ink is more light resistant than the original one.

Bottom line: if you rather spend money on film gear than ink, get yourself a quality CISS system. Search on eBay, there are many different providers. I for one can recommend the one I chose, but find out for yourself.

Happy printing.
Click to expand...

Passing by.

Yeah, seen them (wish they could do something with my laser. Still waiting for a good cheap A3+ laser multifunction. Pity no Kickstarter, would be great to have A1/A0 with multiple A4 papoer print and correlation, with pro toner and tb3 and scanner. Yum :))

As you say, watch ink, and test ink fade, durability, liquids on it, smudging, spread, contrast, color accuracy if needed, but that it won't stuff up your printer head. I agree with these systems a lot, but check each out (particularly durability of CD/DVD print and pro quality media jobs).
 
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