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  #1  
Old 01-10-2012, 07:42 AM
Mr. Hawley Mr. Hawley is offline
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Review and Recomendation - Inkproducts.Com

Back in August I got a great deal on a Canon iX6520 and then asked for some aftermarket ink or CIS recommendations in this thread so that I could try to avoid the fiasco that Bagpiper had to suffer. Other members made good points about the downside of a CIS system and I was directed towards Inkproducts.com (NOT to be confused with InkReloaded.com/Ultragamut.com, the nightmare company)

Not too long thereafter I submitted an order for the "Deluxe Refill Kit for the Canon...". Now that I have been using this kit for a little bit I feel like I can post a reasonable review.

-------------------BEGIN REVIEW-------------------------------
Ordering:
I'll admit that I was a bit put-off by the website, it's like an overly colorful pre-school advertisement or something from Sesame Street. However I was able to find the specific products I needed fairly quickly and had no trouble placing my order. Confirmation of my order was somewhat delayed and that also gave me a few nervous moments.

Receiving:
The order arrived very quickly and was extremely well packed. There were no leaks or damage and the all-important chip reset device was sub-packed in it's own padded box.

The kit included
  • 5 bottles of ink
  • 5 clear replacement ink tanks (one for each color in the printer)
  • 5 "refilling caps" to keep the tanks from leaking while refilling
  • 5 Re-Usable 12cc syringes
  • 1 Chip Reset device
  • Printed instructions

WARNING, the refill syringes have real needles, do not let kids get these and use caution with them!

Install:
Due to manuvers by Canon, one of the first things you have to do is perform the delicate operation of removing the chips from the Canon ink tanks and install them on the refill tanks. The web page did a good job of informing you about this BEFORE you ordered so I was not surprised at this step. The printed instructions are VERY clear about how to do this and paper modelers will have both the tools (X-acto knife) and the skill level to do this bit of surgery. The general public might have an issue but this is a challenge generated by Canon, not Inkproducts. The instructions about resetting the chips are a touch vague but it's such a simple operation it is easily figured out.

The next step is the actual filling of the replacement tanks.
AGAIN I WARN YOU, THE SYRINGES ARE REAL NEEDLES, KEEP AWAY FROM KIDS!

The instructions show someone filling barehanded on a table top. DON'T do this!

I do a LOT of delicate operations and have built fine scale models for years and I assert that there is NO WAY to avoid drips. I wore nytril gloves, worked over an old cookie sheet and had a bunch of paper towels handy. I also worked slowly and carefully. As a result the few drips I did have caused zero problems. Again the text of the instructions is very clear about how to avoid drips on your floor/carpet/counter.

Use:
Once everything was installed I closed the printer and....had an unrecognizable cartridge.

It happened to be the first one I put together so I suspect I didn't run the first "chip reset" correctly. I pulled the cartridge and ran it through the chip reset device and re-installed. Now all was good and as far as the printer was concerned I had installed new factory carts.

I then ran a few large prints to make sure I was using the new ink, and then printed 4 8.5x11" glossy paper photo prints and was VERY impressed by the quality of the output. I hung a couple of prints on a sunny spot nearby to test color-fastness and fading. I'll report back on them after a few months.

The kit is supposed to have enough replacement ink for 10-11 refills. I will track this and report back.

Conclusion:
I have been running this kit for just over 4 months now and have had ZERO issues with clogging or malfunctions. The colors seem to be very fade resistant and the overall quality of this kit seems very high. Since the kit gives me approximately 11 refills for the price of one set of OEM cartridges, and future refills will be even less expensive, I am very pleased at the savings.

If you have the manual dexterity to do the "chip surgery" and if you have the patience to follow the refill instructions I think you would be very happy to have this high quality ink refill kit.
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  #2  
Old 01-10-2012, 08:18 AM
rmks2000 rmks2000 is offline
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Thanks for the review. How was the color accuracy with printing models, as compared to the Canon inks?
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Old 01-10-2012, 08:28 AM
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SCEtoAUX SCEtoAUX is offline
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Yep, I bought a refill kit for a Canon Pixma MG5220 and have had no major problems so far. Ordering from inkproducts.com is easy and the supplies arrive quickly. I really like the chip reset device. I also ordered some long needles from them that have blunt tips instead of the sharp tips that came with the kit. Had one incident of the magenta cartridge not being recognized, but one more treatment with the resetter fixed that.

A goal I have is to do a refill without making a slight mess. I have a box of latex free vinyl gloves that are used so the hands and fingers are usually unstained but there always seems to be some drops of ink on the work surface. Since the refilling is done on a vinyl pad the clean up is easy, but a no-drip refill is still the goal. Lots of paper towels on hand too (thank goodness for $1 stores). I made an ink bottle holder to avoid accidently knocking over the ink bottles.
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Old 01-10-2012, 08:57 AM
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cgutzmer cgutzmer is offline
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Great! thanks for the review loved the CIS with my last printer that died and the wife wont let me get one for this printer :( didnt like the tubes/big ink tanks/printer not closing all the way... :(
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  #5  
Old 01-10-2012, 09:01 AM
Mr. Hawley Mr. Hawley is offline
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Quote:
How was the color accuracy with printing models, as compared to the Canon inks?
As far as I can tell it's spot-on. It's been said that this company actually produces the inks for at least one of the major suppliers but I have no way of verifying that.
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Old 10-03-2012, 07:55 PM
Mr. Hawley Mr. Hawley is offline
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Long term update!

I've been running this ink for just about a year now so I thought I would update the review and tell you how it has been working out.

I haven't been as busy with the paper models as I was, but other demands have caused me to still print a fair amount. At this point I just did refill #6, and when one cartridge demands to be filled I just pull them all and top 'em off. Right now the bottle for the most used color (Magenta) is just over half full so I am confident of getting at least 12 full refills on my Magenta cartridge as well as the Cyan which I use at a similar rate.

The "window test" of colorfastness for these inks as compared to Canon factory seems to be just about identical. Yellow seems to fade just a hair faster with long exposure to direct summer sunlight than the Canon factory ink.

One item of note is the smell. These inks have a particular, slightly "fingernail polish remover" smell when you are refilling or printing. It goes away very fast as the prints dry but as I am extremely chemical sensitive I do dislike that brief odor.

On the whole I'm still as pleased a year later as I was in the original review.
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