CISS ink system Canon IP4500, MP610, IP4300, MX850, CIS

What is a CISS and how does it work?
The CISS (Continuous Ink Supply System) can provide significant cost saving to home inkjet printing. Quite simply it provides a continuous supply of ink to the printer. The system is complete with its' own cartridges and pre-filled ink reservoirs. Our custom cartridge draws the required amount of ink from the reservoirs as required.  If you use the 100mls of ink in the reservoirs, you simply refill it over and over again using refill ink ($11 per 100mls on ebay. Check out my other items!)

 How long it take to install the unit?
It will take around 30 minutes to install and print out the first page. Comprehensive Instructions are provided in the box. Please feel free to view our install instructions prior to purchase so you can be fully aware of the install process IP4300 install manual. Separate installation manuals are provided for the MP600, MP610, MP810 and MX850 which will be provided with your purchase. These particular units do require the use of the genuine Canon cartridge chips to function. 

How much will I save by using a CISS?
That depends how much you print. Obviously, the more you print the more you will be saving. Consider it this way, in our smallest set of replacement inks (100ml of each colour), there is approximately 10 times more ink than a single set of cartridges. Our current set price is $49 which works out at 87cents per cartridge, so you save $27 each and every cartridge.  According to PC Authority Magazine (May 2006 issue page 60) the IP5200 costs you $4.33 to print an A4 photograph not including paper.  Our CISS unit will cost you less than 40c based on initial cost of pre-filled inking system and 14c when based on the cost of our refill ink, a saving of over 90% and 96% respectively. On current pricing OEM Canon cartridges are $27.98 each where our CISS equates to 87cents.

One set of cartridges for your printer is all you will ever need from now on. allows countless refills. You save up to 90% on your ink cost!*Equivalent to at least 50 standard cartridges.  Canon cartridges have approximately 10mls of usable ink inside (physically they contain upto 13mls), although the cartridge is not actually empty when the chip sends the signal to the printer. Canon cartridges are around $27.98 each.  Our CISS is pre-filled with 100mls of each coloured ink (Rihac Platinum Premium Ink), so in dollar terms that is approximately $1399.00 worth of cartridges if bought seperately.

How do your inks compare to Canon?
We use premium grade model specific UV dye inks manufactured from USA, Germany and Japan. These inks are manufactured under contract for us according to our requirements and specifications. These ARE NOT GENERIC INKS.  The print quality, gamut (spectrum) and warmth of our inks are just as good as using inkjet cartridges. We use equipment such as a spectrophotometer to ensure the profile is exacting to Canon OEM cartridge profiles.  Our ink is micro filtered to 0.1~2 um to ensure stable and fluent printing and prevent head blockages (print heads in Canon printers are approximately 9um).  Our premium platinum series inks have high end UV absorber components which prolong ink life and durability. This means that printed pictures do not fade at the same rate as standard generic inks.  Using top grade raw materials ensures a wide colour gamut and vivid output.  We have invested a great deal of development and money to ensure our quality of CISS units and Inks are as high as possible whilst remaining affordable.  This is our sole business and we specialize in CISS units and inks.  We do not stock low quality cheap CISS units or inks.  We have trialled them while developing our unit and we have found that they are just not reliable.  Please feel free to see our feedback and you will see that all our customers are genuinely happy with our units and after sales service. 

Pigment or Dye inks - What's the difference ?
A question we often get asked is why we do not use pigment ink in our 5PGBK cartridge.  The explanation is complex but the simplelest way to describe it is that true pigment inks are like sand in water.  They are fine whilst shaken but are prone to settlement.  This causes colour shifting and colour variation in prints.  The biggest issue we found was that true pigment inks (which are non water based) will eventually dry up in the tubing causing bloackages. True pigment inks are not used for photo printing as they do not stick to gloss papers.  The genuine Canon 5PGBK cartridge is a hybrid pigment ink and is used only for text printing.  The 8BK dye ink cartridge takes over when printing photographs.  Another aspect is that pigment inks have a viscosity of three times Dye inks.  Considering settlement and the viscosity our experience is that ture pigment inks are not suited to this printer, nor are they be used by the average user.  Pigment inks like solvent style inks are used for commercial style printing (banners, posters etc) and not photographs.  Pigment inks form a bubble when they hit the paper, this reflects light in differing directions giving a duller finish and can cause an issue known as bronzing in black area.  Dye inks or hybrid inks(used by Canon, ourselves and Epson) lay flat and reflect light evenly giving a bright vivid finsh as you would expect for photographic printing.  We do stock specialist inks like Pigment and Sublimation but do not recommend them in any CISS unit.  We distribute both true pigment inks (non water based) and water based pigment inks (suitable for use in electronic or thermal home injet printers) Should you require further information regarding ink types feel free to contact us via Ebay or  CLICK HERE FOR FURTHER INFORMATION (External link to information written by the CEO of Lyson Inks USA)

How do I get refill ink? 
We are currently offering Premium Grade UV inks at $49.50 per 5 x 100mls refill kit on Ebay.  Our Canon compatible replacement ink can also be purchased from selected computer stores.  Our unit is prefilled with premium grade platinum inks, be sure to purchase your refill inks from a reliable source as the quality and colour gamut of your ink is very important.  Poor Ink quality leads to damaged print heads.  Cheap inks (in our experience inks from Asia) tend to use chemical carrier fluids which damage your printer and use an excessive alcohol base.  Generally these inks are also not filtered correctly which causes physical blockages to your print heads which can lead to overheating and permanent print head damage particularly with Canon printers which operate using a thermal style print head. If insufficient liquids pass through the print head it cannot cool down which leads to burning out of print heads.

Are all ink systems the same? 
Absolutely not.  There is a great deal of difference between CISS units available in the market today.  Some are simply imported copies of reasonable CISS units using low grade inks and components.  These tend to be unrelaible and require high maintenance as well as not being conducive to long term use .  In our testing we found that units (again, particularly those imported from Asia) had a tendency to contain ink that has a high alcohol base. This leads to tube blockages, quick fading prints and can cause physical damage to the print heads.

Particularly in recent times there has been an influx of cheap import CISS units arriving in the market misleadingly advertising the term 'German ink' or 'German ink technology'. These inks are in fact not made in Germany and are actually manufactured in China or Korea. The term is loosley used as one of the comapnies which makes dye colours (5% of finished inkjet inks) is a subsidry company of the German company called Bayer. None of the products in these inks are imported from Germany and are certainly not manufactured by Bayer or any other German ink manufacturer. OCP the German ink manufacturer have even taken the step of issuing a press release stating they do not provide ink for any CIS manufacturer

   We have developed our cartridges to ensure ink flow is even and consistent.  Cartridge design is one of our priorities particularly with Canon printers. Unless the cartridges contain adequate chambering the cartridges cannot maintain enough ink pressure to ensure ink flow maintains when the reservoirs are low on ink, leading to the starvation of ink to the print head. We also use a very high gauge silicone tubing rather than traditional PVC tubing, which restricts ink flow in colder weather.  PVC tubing results in poorer quality imaging particularly in colder weather and is prone to cracking over time, partly due to Ozone hardening of the tubing making it brittle.   We started business as an improter and distributor of cheap CISS units. After encountering significant issues we tested every CISS unit we could find worldwide. We then took all the good ideas and our own R&D and developed our own unit. For example we use a reservoir from Asia, ink from the US & Japan, ARC chips from the USA etc etc. Our units have become incredibly popular over the last twelve months and we now export our units worldwide. Our re-seller network has expanded and our units are available in selected computer stores and dealers throughout Australia.

It has also come to our attention from our customers that a few sellers are listing very misleading information about their systems as well as openly distributing our instruction manuals purporting them to be their own . Our R&D team spend considerable time ensuring the CISS systems you purchase from Rihac have been fully tested and re-tested through our development program. We prepare instruction manuals to ensure trouble free fitting and problem solving based on exact printer models. We encourage competition however we are finding more and more sellers simply duplicating our information which does not relate to their respective products as well as listing information which is factually incorrect. If you happen to be sent copies of our manual or believe information you have received is misleading or fraudulent we encourage you to contact both Ebay and Rihac to prevent this type of activity.