CIS (Continuous ink systems)

Tony_photoplus · 02-23-2007

Have just bought a CIS from e-bay. Has anyone had any experience of them. Like most people I am trying to cut costs down and hopefully this will be the answer. The system I bought was from this seller in Hong Kong

eBay Seller: cis.supply.hk: Printer Ink Cartridges, Printers items on eBay.co.uk

There are others on e-bay, but like most things you hope that this will be the better of all the others. The system for my crap Epson 240 cost me £22.00, the postage was steep £17.00.

As soon as my cartridges run out the system will be in. Let me know of your experiences

Tony_photoplus

**tamlin** · 02-23-2007

That's bizarre - I've been thinking about asking that very same question here for a few days now. I'm considering getting a CIS for my Epson R1800, but I've read a lot of conflicting stories about them on various forums. CISs vary in price quite alarmingly, but, as with a lot of things, I think it boils down to "you get what you pay for". I'm a big fan of Lyson products - after trying various brands of paper, I finally settled for Lyson Archival photographic paper for all my prints - and I know that Lyson make a well-respected CIS for a number of Epson printers. This does represent, however, a major investment (£158 for the system and £211 for a full set of 8 x 125ml PhotoChrome inks), and I don't think they make one for the Epson 240. Unfortunately, if you go with a cheaper make you (apparently) run the risk of clogging, mess and possibly even knackering your printer. I would also guess that if you're buying it from Hong Kong, the after-sales service may leave a lot to be desired. Sorry if that's not what you wanted to hear, but I'm only relating some of the horror stories I have read. I suppose you could argue that people who have had bad experiences are more likely to go online to vent their spleen than those who are perfectly happy with their purchase, but you might want to try Googling (there, I said it!!!) for yourself for some of the forums dedicated to photographic/inkjet matters and see what people have to say.

Here's just one example: http://www.stevesforums.com/forums/v...31&forum_id=57

Tony_photoplus · 02-23-2007

Thanks for the advise tamlin. Its a crap printer anyway, so nothing lost nothing gained if it lasts a year the inks system would have paid for itself. I did go through all the comments about the seller before buying though. It did state in the blurb the problems you talk about and that they should not be a problem with this system. Fingers crossed.

Tony_photoplus

Tony_photoplus · 02-23-2007

I should have put this in as well. I had used this softeware before with the last Epson I had and it worked fine. Now that I have the CIS it should work even better. I think works on all Epson printers..
It states the following......

SSC Service Utility allow You to do many amazing things with Your Epson printer
:

1) Work directly with CSIC in Epson Stylus printers cartridges (this allow You
to reset CSIC counters or disable CSIC).
2) Freeze internal ink counters.
3) Reset internal ink counters even with empty cartridges.
4) Separate cleaning of color and black heads, powerful cleaning mode.
5) Hot swapping of cartridges supported.
6) Resetting of protection counter (even then it is already full).
7) Near 30 different Epson printers supported

This allow many people with high printing demands to save some money (program
works with both black and color cartridges).

Up to day this software works under Windows 95/98/ME with both the LPT and USB
printers,
and under Windows 2000/XP only with USB printers.

http://www.winsite.com/bin/Info?15000000036575

Tony_photoplus

**tamlin** · 04-15-2007

Sorry to dig up an old thread, but I was just wondering about the outcome of this. Tony: did you get the CIS? Does it work OK?

BLAD3 · 04-28-2007

i currently use a cis kit , and i have done for around 2 years now.

cost of running one of these is amazingly cheap.the downside is if yor printer does brake down and you phone the manufacture they will not repair it if they find out that you have used one of these kits.

but i know when it happned to me with my epson, they located the closest computer repair shop to me ( must have a contract with epson) took it in and they rapired it for me for free

other than that it's a great buy saves alot of money.

**tamlin** · 04-28-2007

Quote:

Originally Posted by BLAD3

i currently use a cis kit , and i have done for around 2 years now.

cost of running one of these is amazingly cheap.the downside is if yor printer does brake down and you phone the manufacture they will not repair it if they find out that you have used one of these kits.

but i know when it happned to me with my epson, they located the closest computer repair shop to me ( must have a contract with epson) took it in and they rapired it for me for free

other than that it's a great buy saves alot of money.

What make of CIS do you use? Do you know exactly what went wrong with your printer - was it linked to the CIS, or something else? I'm still undecided about getting one of these.

BLAD3 · 04-29-2007

i dont know the brand name of my kit as it doesn't saying anything about the manufacture on the box,if you like i can take a pic of the box.

the error was (service required parts in your printer are near the end of their service life) i took it to my local reapir shop,they replaced the sponges and reset the counts after that all was working fine.

not had a problem since, and that was around 9 months ago

had the printer for about 15 months now.

**tamlin** · 04-29-2007

Thanks for the reply BLAD3: it sounds like your printer problem wasn't directly related to your CIS, so that reassures me a bit. 9 months seems quite a short time for parts to be "near the end of their service life", but then I guess it all depends on how much printing you do.

Tony_photoplus · 04-29-2007

I have to be honest here as I have not told you how I got on with mine. The CIS I put on to the printer a week after I had written the above. It wasn't very well explained how to install the thing. My method put the machine out of action. So after a replacement and recently run out of ink and trying to work out the best way to install and not make the mistake again I couldn't work it out without getting a saw to the top and making room for the tubes. I emailed the seller, and he sent me the correct method to install it. There was no way I would have thought of doing it the way he described, but it worked.

Now its printing fine after some blotchy moments. Worth it in the end, now have cheap printing.

Tony_photoplus