AcuJet Cartridges and WiredBeans Higher Capacity Cartridges.

[Nifty]

There has been recent discussion on the WiredBeans / AcuJet cartridges (see here: http://www.nifty-stuff.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=28&p=8 )

It seems that a few of our contributing members have used, or will be using / trying these cartridges, so I thought I'd start a new thread.

I'll be receiving a few of these cartridges as well and will post my experiences here.

They state they have more capacity than standard carts:

Here is the seller's eBay page:
http://search.ebay.com/_W0QQfgtpZ1QQfrppZ50QQsassZwiredbeans

 

[tyamada]

Here is a link to Steves forums, some of the posters there have used the ink and are having problems with color casts, check it out.
http://www.stevesforums.com/forums/view_topic.php?id=45361&forum_id=57
http://www.stevesforums.com/forums/view_topic.php?id=40867&forum_id=57

 

[Grandad35]

Tyamada,

My interest in these carts is their ability to be easily refilled. When my set arrives, I'm going to drain them and refill them with my bulk ink before even putting them in the printer.

 

[Nifty]

I'm going to use my set with the ink they come with and run some tests. I'll then use them exclusively (unless the colors are WAY off) until then run dry and then I'll test them for refilling.

Grandad, I assume you'll use your vacuum technique mentioned here: http://www.nifty-stuff.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=124

Will you be dissecting any of these cartridges along with your excellent analysis?

 

[tyamada]

Grandad35

Thats all well and good but what are you going to do throw out the ink, seems like a waste of money to me.

Its probably for a good cause to see if you can put more ink in the cartridge than the Canon OEM.

I will be looking for results.

l

 

[Grandad35]

Tymada,

Since the ink in a set of carts only costs about $6 to replace, it's not a big loss. PM and PC are used at a much faster rate that the other colors and you can only actually use about 9-10 of the 14 CCs in even those carts, so you will only use about 1/3 of the ink in a set of new carts (unless you buy more of the PM & PC carts to balance out the usage), so it is really only wasting $2 of ink unless you are willing to mix carts from different ink suppliers.

I have .icc profiles for my printer/papers/inks, and I am able to print even B&W photos with no color casts. My family is now spoiled - even minor color casts bring loud complaints, so I don't mix ink suppliers. For $2 to 6 worth of ink, it's not worth the time and effort to profile a new ink.

Nifty-stuff,

If they work, I'll be buying more, so I guess that one could be sacrificed for the cause at that time. If they don't work, I'll have several to dissect.

Yes, I'll evacuate and refill them using vacuum. for the initial fill only.

 

[Mark]

Tyamada:

I've read and re-read the posts that you cited regarding the AcuJet cartridges and don't find any negative comment about them. Rather, (unless I've missed something) the references are about trying them as a possible remedy to certain problems. In fact the last word on the subject was (and I quote directly):

"I found that the Acu-Jet inks from http://www.master-ink.com, sold on ebay as AQX inks are the closest match to the Canon OEM's by far. Try them."

I have no interest in the success of their product other than I have steered some valued printing comrades from this forum to these tanks because of my personal experience.

Quick word to Nifty & Grandad: As I mentioned in another thread, the one irritating feature of the cartridges is that they leak more than others when the discharge port is opened. This is true even for the new cartridges - so you may want to be prepared for a small weep of ink when you open them.
Best regards to Everyone!

 

[Grandad35]

Mark,

I view a "little" weep as a good thing. It is critical to establish a fluid connection between the print head's ink pickup and the bottom of the cart's filter for proper operation. In fact, I always blow into the vent on a cart to get it to drip (hopefully onto a paper towel) immediately before installing it.

New carts seem to have have enough ink so that the filter is "wet" with ink to make this connection. However, if you install a partially used cart this isn't always the case, and it can take extra cleaning cycles to get the ink flowing.

Thanks for the warning.

 

[tyamada]

Mark

rduve in Steves Forums is using a Canon OEM cartridge to get the color balance he wants. He states he will be going back to Canon inks after his current large job because of the color difference. He also stated he had a green shift with the Acu-Jet inks but it wasn't as bad as the inkgrabber cartridges.

The only reason I brought up the color shifts is because in most of the forums people are using a hit or miss system of changing the print driver to get a good color balance and are still having problems.

I like Grandad35 have a Color Profile program and profile my ink/paper combinations if anything changes. I have been lucky and have not had problems when refilling inks in my Canon cartridges, even though I have ink from five different vendors.

I have inks from MIS, Atlas Copy, ACSI, Inkube and IMS. I have used all these inks refilling my cartridges with no noticable color shifts, I guess I have everything setup right.

I might even try the Acu-Jet inks myself.

 

[RC]

To Grandad:

AcuJet also sells blank cartridges, if you contact them by phone:

Robert