Ok, so I got a CIS installed (HP 7200, uses 02 cartridges). Print quality looks good so far.

The supply lines are getting filled with air again after the test prints. I primed the lines before installing and I do have the little plastic air vents sitting in place of the rubber stopper. Is there something I should be concerned about?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8TqA31SDbBI

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-68d3baTEZA

Solved it myself, *probably*. I had to re-prime and this time add ink to the cartridges. With it all hooked up, blowing air into the reservoir works *if* you turn the cartridge upside down. With the ink level above the feed line, hopefully that will prevent too much air getting into the thing.

I am a little apprehensive about offering my unprofessional 2¢ about a system I don't have... I've had a couple cases where my CIS carts had run low on ink, so it starts not printing the colors. The system I have has tools for drawing the ink through the lines into the carts so they are reasonably full. I find I have to do this every once in a while (not all that often, but certainly more than never). It sounds like that's effectively what you've done, so I hope it resolves your issue!

Well I thought I had things working, but I just did some hard printing today and now I've got a lot of air in all the lines. I'm just not sure what to do about it.

Update: I observed a heavy print session and saw that after the print job was done, the printer went through a cleaning/alignment/maintenance cycle and I saw ink appear to be drawn through the lines (no air, looking good) and then reverse flow once the cycle was done returning air to the lines.

I'm not sure what this means. Could it be that everything is working as it should, drawing ink into the cartridges when needed and that there's simply a certain amount of air from the cartridge that gets into the line after awhile?

Any thoughts on that? (again, it's a C7280 from HP).

Are you noticing any issues with print quality? Or are you just concerned about the air in the lines? Have you contacted the CIS vendor and asked them?

Just the air. I'd assumed it was supposed to be filled the whole way (my mind was thinking in terms of fuel vapor lock in a car or airplane I guess). I'll contact them if there's any further trouble. Just wanted to check the collective knowledge here in case someone would have an "Oh yeah that means you're not floxing the bombulator right" moment.

I'll be honest, I don't think I get much air in my system, and when I do, it's usually because the ink carts have gone a bit dry and I need to pull ink through them. But that's really rare. I've put in several calls to the vendor I bought my CIS through, and they've always been as helpful as they can be over the phone to teach me all the ways I was misusing the system... For the record, everything that's ever gone wrong with my CIS has been user error...

Well like I said, I'm suddenly a fair bit less worried since a) I've tried 2-3 times to keep the ink continuous through the line and gotten mostly air every time and b) saw the lines fill completely with ink in the correct direction during a post-print cleaning cycle. There could be something I'm missing like proper cartridge pressure, but it looks like air pressure at both ends is as designed. I'll risk it for now and get a laser printer if it doesn't work. $40 spent was still cheaper than one set of HP refills.

Where'd you get your CIS, by the way? I'm about to start looking for one for my HP 6500.

Ebay. But the company itself is superpremiumelectronics.com (believe it or not it looks like a mom-and-pop rather than a scam).

I got the website from the box it came in. All they supplied was a single sheet that looks printed from notepad.exe.

The CIS seems to work ok though.

I bought mine via inkproducts.com - when I look at their website, I laugh every time - it's awful. But, I think they (and I really think by "they" I mean "he") are based in Florida. I've had two service calls with them, and I got reasonably prompt call-backs with very helpful suggestions for how to use the system correctly. I had one issue with a shipment of ink (one of the bottles had leaked a bit) and they went and sent me a fresh set of ink. So, while you can't extrapolate too much from one data point, I'm pretty happy with them.

Thanks. I know you'd mentioned in the past somewhere in the forums where you'd gotten your CIS. This saves me from digging for that info, too, before I pull the trigger on ordering mine.

Looking at the system for my HP, the one on that website is exactly the same.

Do either of you find that with your CISS the WWG stuff prints with the colors off? I just got mine today from www.inkproducts.com and it installed easily. When I do a printhead cleaning, it produces results that look identical to what HP cartridges produced. When I print on HP photo paper, though, the colors look off. They're more red and yellow than with the HP cartridges.

Yeah, the test pattern looks just fine. Getting off colors when printing to Matte Brochure Paper, too.

Here's a comparison from Lair of the Dragon God:

Original HP cartridges:


New CISS:

I just put in my CIS today from and had air. I had no clue to what I was doing so i used the syringe (no needle) on the little valve topper, directly into the tank, tried to use it on the carts themselves while installed....somehow, I managed (after leaking a HUGE amount inside the housing of my printer) to get the air issue fixed.

However............my prints are seriously blue tinted (not one that had air) and my system says I am running low now whereas before it was totally full on the LCD indicator. I have a Canon mx882.

Emailed the guy about the levels and the blue ink color. No reply as of yet but I did email him kind of late.

Original is on left, new CIS is on right. No changes made to any settings whatsoever. Only thing that has changed is the installation of the CIS.