CISS opinions on Canon ip4700

[The Hat]

drames

Older Canon printers work better with CISS systems and Epson printers work even better/best, dont know about HP. The CISS cartridge will only work properly with dye ink but not with pigment ink and if you decide to refill your cartridges yourself you can use pigment black ink in the large BK cartridge only. However Epson printers will work with pigment CISS units. Does that help?..

 

[drames]

sorry, I think its because I have a lot of friends in engineering that I like to know the details. I was just curious on the physical structure of the canon printers and cartridges, and a mechanical explanation on why they don't favour a CISS.

but thanks for all the advice - I notice in your signature you have a lot of canons and no epsons --> since epsons can have CISSs with pigments, are the quality of canons that much better than epson that they are worth the extra effort of manually refilling ink?

I'm just curious how canon compares with epson, i don't think there are any other real printer companies who are serious about photo quality except maybe HP. Brother is more for office, lexmark is cheap, samsung is kind of new in the game, canon and epson seem to be the only two competitors that specialize in image printing.

I've also heard a lot of people who talk on and on about their epson printers - but the newer models sorta seem flimsy to me, like the worforce and the artisians - then again all companies are making flimsier products out of cheap plastics.

Generally, which company has more reliable printers with higher photo quality? Canon or Epson?

 

[The Hat]

drames

I used a number of Epson printer in the early day and refilling them was real messy but enjoyable task. Then one day my Son got me a Canon for Christmas and hey filling was real e a s y but still messy and the rest was history (got hooked on Canon).
I only have used CISS on Canon printers and found they are awaked to setup properly but well worth it when you get it right.
In a nutshell Epson leave them for dead in the CISS dept..

My next printer will be A2 + and intend to get an Epson because its reported to be much better with photos..

Generally, which company has more reliable printers with higher photo quality? Canon or Epson?

The answer to your question is .... A draw

 

[drames]

I only have used CISS on Canon printers and found they are awaked to setup properly but well worth it when you get it right.

Does that include the whole pigment problem? Is there a way (albeit difficult) to set up the canon CISS so that "when you get it right" the black pigmented ink works well too?

I mean if I spend some money on a CISS just trying it out, and it becomes a big mess like you said it potentially could be, could I just uninstall it from the printer and go back to refilling cartridges without any consequences? Ie: will the printer head get screwed up?

Btw - thanks for the awesomeness of your quick and detailed replies, I didn't expect this much of a response,

thanks so much!!!

 

[The Hat]

drames

Answer no. If you use pigment ink in the CISS units sold on the market for Canon they will foul up sooner rather than later i.e. like over a weekend.

Getting it right means it works flawlessly without problems every time you want to print some documents with no messing around just hit print and its up and running with little or no delay without endless cleaning cycles holding you up.

There is no visual difference in your documents just because youre not using pigment ink. If you mess up with an CISS unit you can always clean up and dust yourself down and put back in your oem cartridges there is no reason why everything shouldnt work again properly, dont print if there is no ink comming out + the remaining inks can still be used in your cartridges.

If you want to refill your oem cartridges you get the same savings as you do using CISS so long as you have got good quality bulk ink for your make of printer. There are a host of very good ink suppliers on this forum, I wont mention names in case I leave one out (lynch mob) + it depends what part of this little globe your on ..

 

[msmart]

drames, I was like you when I first got my iP4500 and wanted to use a CISS since I had used it successfully on my Epson R200. But after posting and reading on this forum, I ended up going the refill route. I'm not sorry I did, it's been very easy once you do it the first time. I'm still on my first batch of ink and still using the original OEM carts (without purging yet). I use the "top" method to refill.

There are lots of good threads on the subject but here is one where I list the ink and resetter I use:

http://www.nifty-stuff.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=4332

and another:

http://www.nifty-stuff.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=4150