VP485 Label Printer - Ink Refills

[Cargill]

When you say "refilling inks" - do you mean attempting to refill the original VP485 cartridges, or a CISS system? I have heard people can successfully have original carts refilled (either by themselves, or via a cartridge shop) and they will basically work forever - so long as you make sure they do not run out - that will wreck your printheads. But the VP485 is quite temperamental, I'm finding.

 

[sgillesp]

I was going through over $1500 in ink and eventually contacted the Australian company and bought their CISS for about $400. It came with a software trick to fool the pc. This option worked great. but the ink reservoirs were a little small. So I purchased a CISS from CISinks (I think any of the ones for the HP 88 will work, they list 4 or five different units). I installed this unit on a second vp485 I have and it has been in operation for about a year (no software trick needed as discussed from a previous review). I now spend less than $100 per month in ink and we run a ton of very big labels.

 

[Cargill]

Hi sgillesp - can you provide the name of the Australian company where you purchased the CISS with the small reservoirs? Glad to hear you're having a good result, including from CISinks. Some VP485 users here in Australia are buying the ink carts directly from the US for less than half the Australian cost, but original ink is still very expensive per litre that way.

Glad to hear the printer is churning out labels more economically now.

 

[punkmedics]

sgillesp I just got a vp485 did you need to swap chips on the CISS from CISinks or just use it as is?

 

[Tpellizzer]

Cargill and sgillesp:are you still successfully using the ciss systems with the vp485? Which model from cuisines did you purchase? I see they have many to chose from. How did you handle the chip issue? The ciss system from cisinks is much cheaper than the unit from Australia. Des it work as well? I will be buying either a vp485 or primera lx900? Any ideas?

 

[Tpellizzer]

Forgot to ask:is the bulk ink the same quality as Oem?

 

[Tpellizzer]

Is it in the same color range?

 

[Bertony]

I GOT IT TO WORK!!

I have been struggling with this also, just trying to save some money on the ink cartridges, Vip is a little greedy with their profit margin, as well as I. So, today I bought an hp88 cartridge, obviously it doesn't work because of the chip, but after messing around with it for a bit. I realized the cartridge is in 2 pieces.......if you take the VIP cartridge and cut with a knife along the parting lines (near the bottom of the cartridge) where the label is you can snap the bottom half off (it doesn't have to break, the pieces just snap into each other) and just put it right back onto the hp88 cartridge, the chip and all. Works perfectly, and still 1/2 the cost. The chip is not related to colors from what I can tell, so keep the old cartridges, they will come on handy for this.

 

[Cargill]

Well done ... not as cheap as using a CISS, but certainly cheaper than using original VIP cartridges. Also you should be able to refill the HP cartridges, so long as you do so before the cart is empty - so the VIP chip in it doesn't register as empty. I think that's how it works.

 

[kim emanuel]

I have had the VP485 for a little more than a year and 1/2 and not both print heads need replacement ... any thoughts if this is normal time to replace?
Thanks
Kim