refills any good?

[measekite]

On Thu, 06 Jul 2006 23:16:56 -0700, Richard Steinfeld


snip

My case was a little worse than this, as it seems that

MIS' ink for
the Business Inkjet series is totally incompatible.

But you do not know really what ink you bought cause they will not tell you

My printheads are
rated for 10 sets of cartridges. I had only run 1 full OEM set through
it,

the refill ink clogged up the printer.

That is nice to know

Several forums I asked for
help from mentioned that there had been problems mentioned on MIS'
forum
Nice

(which is shut down as they only have one moderator who is on
vacation).

MIS tried to blame the printhead and said they'd never
heard of this problem before.

That is standard rhetoric

Another company I called said that they
had never even sold any of these kits, despite carrying the same
thing, due to the relative rarity of the printer. They also said not
to buy any ink from them, as they could not guarantee that it wouldn't
do the same thing (which begs the question: why sell it if they have
no faith in their product?)

I'm starting to suspect that Epson pigment based printers are the only
ones that are good candidates for refilling

Oh no. From what I read here none of the printers are good candidates
for using generic ink

(I'm printing newsletters
and forms and other things that don't require good ink and aren't
likely to be needed longer than the ink would fade).

 

[measekite]

Well if you manage to refill a couple of times you probably saved the cost
of a whole new printer so even if the head clogs after half a dozen refills
you're still ahead of the game. Agree though that it can be messy, results
are not as good, ink is less waterproof etc. Maybe I am using the wrong ink
though there must be some products that are as good as the original? How
difficult is it to make a good ink?

One of the problems as you are finding out is that you do not really
know what you are using. You also do not know if you are going to a
different relabeler that you never used if you will be getting the same
exact thing as you got from the previous relabeler since they do not
disclose what they are selling. That is one of the big problems in this
industry. Failure to Disclose.

The relabelers also use a ridiculuous word "compatible" that is very
loosely thrown around and all it means is that the ink squirts out of
the printhead.

 

[measekite]

I'd appreciate your identifying these products a little further in
your text. I'm not familiar with these things enough to just recognize
their model numbers without names. So, are the "Business Inkjets" HPs?
Who makes a C88? Is the issue that the Business Inkjet uses
differently-formulated inks than other HP printers?



Why not buy some cheap dye-based inks and try them just to see what
happens? I'm thinking of the "one-size-fits-all" kits sold at various
chain stores -- they're emblazoned "Universal," which is actually
their trade mark -- nobody else can use this word for their printer ink.

I think that would be great if you use that. Give us a report.

Believe it or not, I did this just for the hell of it. I'm pretty sure
that the "black" ink is actually dye (when diluted a lot, a purple
residue remains in the water). So far, it's working 100% in my HP
940C. I don't intend to continue using this ink into the future;

why not if it works so good. Mmm Mmm Good

 

[measekite]

Yes, my printer is a Business Inkjet 1100d, though there are many
models in the series that take the exact same ink cartridges. Some
older ones took all #10 carts, newer ones took #10 Black and #11
colors, and the latest model takes the #88s

The C88 is Epson's newest 4-color printer. Epson is the only company
that makes a consumer level printer with pigment colors.




A universal kit would be even more likely to be color unbalanced

But if the user is unbalanced and the ink is unbalanced than everything
will appear balanced.

 

[Richard Steinfeld]

Yes, my printer is a Business Inkjet 1100d, though there are many
models in the series that take the exact same ink cartridges. Some
older ones took all #10 carts, newer ones took #10 Black and #11
colors, and the latest model takes the #88s

The C88 is Epson's newest 4-color printer. Epson is the only company
that makes a consumer level printer with pigment colors.




A universal kit would be even more likely to be color unbalanced or
clog your printer than one that's specialized for specific inks, since
they 'work for all printers', and all three brands use completely
different ink technologies, how could it possibly be formulated to
work well? At the least, it will work, but look pretty bad.

The ink for my printer is pigment based but has a little blue when
diluted. Just because there's pigment in it doesn't mean that the
fluid it's suspended in isn't dyed as well.

Thanks for clarifying your info.
I knew about the different formulations before buying the Universal kit.
Interesting about the pigment plus dye; this makes sense.

I wanted to see how the manufacturer of a "universal" ink kit would try
to solve the problem of poor compatibility (I'm a curious person
although I'm not a chemist). I think that it's a given that the color
won't match OEM. One of the gambles for me was the assumption that the
manufacturer might pick one of the three most common printer brands to
center upon for a compatibility model. Universal is an American company
(in the LA area), so it would be reasonable to assume that they'd pick
HP for that model. In my mental mockup of their model, they'd probably
sacrifice a bit more for Canon and Epson.

But, interestingly, the Universal brand actually offers something that
the majors do not! They have a proprietary photo paper; their ink forms
a bond with their paper that's so permanent that they're selling their
wares to the US Navy for use aboard ships. They do, indeed, claim
permanence. Well, that's the story from one of their support people; I
found the person friendly and free with information and suggestions -- a
good experience.

The company name is/was "Kalvin" or "Kalvin's." It has been purchased by
an outfit in Florida. I'm not inclined to try their color inks; further,
my "real" InkTec ink just arrived.

Richard