Note to self, do not mess with a good thing.

[mjaytee]

Hi there. I have lurked at this site for a long time. I have finally decided to share my ink story. I have a wonderful Canon Pixma MP780. I used OEM ink for about three cycles. But when my wife was drafted as her church's official photographer it began to get too expensive. So at first I went the refill route getting ink from misterinkjet.com. Everything worked fine but I got tired of my wife alerting me that a ink just ran out and I had to drop everything and go through the hassle of refilling the tank.

So I decided to go the compatible route with much reservation since I had bad luck with my previous Canon. But being part cheap and foolhardy I went ahead anyways. Ordered G&G Ink from Inkgrabber.com, the transition was absolutely flawless. The first batch of photos were not quite as good as the OEM but passable later batches were of the equal quality. But having the curiousity of a cat I could not leave well enough alone.

Searching through Ebay, I came across a dealer, Abacus, of compatible ink (OA 100 brand) that was selling the five ink set for about $3-4 less than Inkgrabber even with Inkgrabber's free shipping offers. The ratings were good so being cheap and foolhardy again I ventured into the unknown. The ink was shipped promptly, put them in, and the magenta leaked from the get go ruining the rest of the ink. I sent a email, got no response and promptly ordered from inkgrabber.com again. However, now the G&G ink is not working like it once did. I am now having to constantly clean the printhead to get it to print colors properly (Black 3e cartridge is perfectly fine). This was never a problem before. So now I will probably have to go back to OEM to get the printer back to its orgininal state.

So what is the moral to my story. Nothing really. I just needed to vent to help my inkjet sanity. Thank you.

 

[hpnetserver]

Mjaytee, if you still have a set of OEM cartridges you can put all of them in and verify if there is anything wrong with it now. Saving a set of OEM cartridges aside has been suggested here and that's when it becomes really handy in your situation. If you don't have a set of OEM cartridges then it's time to buy one. Meanwhile it's time to look for good quality refill kit for the printer. A lot of people have reported using Ink Specialist and Formulab inks with great success. These two are certainly good choices. I use Hobbicolors and have been extremely happy with two refill kits for my ip8500 so far. They have great cartridges using nylon screws to seal ink fill hole after refilling. I personally will avoid prefilled ink cartridges. You have no idea what ink you get in them. Companies that sell refill ink and kits are more trustworthy because their survival depends on the quality and repuatation of their products that bear their name.

Try a set of OEM cartridges on your printer. Post your result here again if you still see problems. There are many experts here who will be more than happy to help you out. Good luck.

 

[Manuchau]

Welcome to the Forum, mjaytee . hpnetserver's information is excellent. You probably will be fine if you use a set of original Canons, since your printer is fairly new, so I'm guessing that the print head is probably still OK.

Please post your results when you get everything working again, and the methods you have tried.

 

[panos]

mjaytee, I have two questions about the problematic ink:

When you shake the container,

1) Does the ink foam disperses quickly into liquid form ?

2) Does the ink stick to the container walls for long (more than 1 minute) ? Does it leave traces there ?

Welcome to the forum!

 

[mjaytee]

Well, I just went out and spent a king's ransom on OEM Canon cartridges. I am in the process of printing out some photos as I type. Now, everything is fine again. So, I guess it is back to OEM for a couple of cycles. Like I said in my first post when I first started using G&G ink from inkgrabber.com there were no problem for about 5 months. I did not have problems until installing OA 100 ink which then continued upon returning to G&G.

It is without a doubt that OEM cartridges are the best. But spending $60 for a complete set of ink can get expensive. And once you have had success with a $15 set of compatibles it can be hard justifying the extra $45.

I guess now I can relax for awhile after wasting countless amounts of paper doing cleaning and nozzle checks. Hopefully, the OEM cartridges will "fix" the printer well enough that I can go back to my G&G's. I might give those Hobbicolor's a shot.

To answer panos' questions, 1. Yes on cyan, No on magenta and 2. The ink does leave traces on the walls.

Thanks

 

[panos]

mjaytee, as a past user of lots of bad quality ink I have made this observation: When shaking the container and the foam is quickly dispersed without leaving traces on the container walls, it doesn't clog the printer.

When the opposite happens, the ink is not be very suitable for Canons or HPs. I don't know about Epsons.

I would like to know other opinions on the matter. Please keep in mind this is not about color quality but rather about reliability.