CISS, anyone use it?

[Kayos]

Constant Ink Supply Systems in case you were wondering.

When my trusty old printer died a while ago I needed to print some documents out, so I bought a cheap Canon one that was on offer, then I was asked to do some prints for a friend so rather than send them off I tried the printer and I was stunned at the quality, easily as good as the old printer that cost 10 times the price new!

However the problem is ink, genuine cartridges are £60 for the big ones, and compatible ones usually have the nastiest ink going, and some of the saving is lost if I have to redo the icc profile every time I change one, so I've been looking at ciss.
Not the cheap and nasty ones on ebay with the same cheap ink as the copy cartridges, and a need to chop bits off the printer, but a decent UK made system, with high quality UK made archival ink that doesn't mean modding the printer.
The one I'm looking at is £120 with ink, then £60ish for more ink, however it's equivalent to 49 cartridges so a serious saving even on cheap cartridges.
Anyone use one? And how do you find the reliability? My printer has a removable print head so can be be cleaned or replaced as needed, I just don't want to end up with ink everywhere or running out to buy a new printer when I'm in the middle of some prints

 

[mike os]

I have used one on a printer that a genuine set of cartridges was best part of £300.... worked fine.

 

[Kayos]

I have used one on a printer that a genuine set of cartridges was best part of £300.... worked fine.

Always a good first reply

Supposidly manufacturers are wising up and making it harder to do, hence the generic kits fitting mine once you've butchered the case with a hot knife, probably so they can sell their own printers with bigger tanks at a huge price.

The printer that died was an oldish Epson A3 beast, with 9 cartridges! (3 colours, light shade of 3 colours, black and grey pigment and black ink for docs) but it came with mostly full bottles of pigment and clear instructions on re-filling, so I never priced a set up

The new one is 5 carts, 3 colours, black and black for document printing and I honestly cant tell the difference to the Epson, ok I use good paper and have ICC profiles but it shows how technology moves on very quickly

 

[mike os]

Yeah... my hp pro9800 now needs new heads... costs more than the printer when new...as it is 10 years old I suppose I should not complain too much

What's good in a3 or a2 with pigment inks these days?

 

[Kayos]

Im not sure on the large format stuff as anything over A4 gets sent to ProAm imaging in Bradford, so can pick it up and inspect before paying.
The couple of pros I know who do all their own printing swear by Epson, that's how I acquired the old one, someone upgraded to a new all singing and dancing machine and I got first refusal on the old one