All in one Review: Canon MP287's accessory: ESYINK Ink Tank System.

[Samarth 619]

Really a great review!! Based on reading your review I had purchased the Canon MP287 with ESYINK Ink tank system through the Canon Service Center. However, I am right now facing an issue with the ink not completely going into the cartridges. Basically there is a vacuum between the cartridges and the ink in the pipes.

Would you know a way to resolve this issue?

By "cartridges", do you mean the modified cartridges inside the printer, or do you mean the ink tanks outside the printer?

About me, well, I'm facing a problem that sometimes, instead of the ink, air flows through the pipes.... In other words, instead of continuous ink, there's a medium sized air bracket that flows inside the tubes. Well, I don't know of a permanent solution so far.

Its shown, in the pic below:

*www.nifty-stuff.com/forum/uploads/3434_cimg6745_640x480.jpg

But what I do is... As long as there is ink going inside the cartridge inside the printer, (I mean, as long as the air bracket is far away from the cartridge inside), I continue using it...
And when the air bracket in the pipes is close to the cartridge inside (as seen in the pic above), I just initiate "Deep Cleaning" from the Canon My Printer Menu. That flows some ink and clears the air bracket in the pipes.
Then, the printer can be used again with all its colors.

Of course, I admit its a hassle, but the cost benefits are huge anyways, for the kind of system.

seems to be a good review! own the MP287 since 2011, but never spotted this thread. subscribed to it to go through it at leisure. good work @Samarth 619 !

Thanks dude... I think if you have an older printer, you should just go for it! The cost benefits will be huge & noticeable immediately.
Of course, there will be a certain reliability factor, but its anyways not too risky in my opinion.
And you won't think twice even before printing pics.


So far, around 2 or so years have passed and I'm still using it. And openly, including photo prints, huge documents, e books from internet, etc, etc.
And I've only purchased 1 bottle of cyan, yellow & magenta each and 2 of Black, total 5 bottles, and they're still not empty.

 

[shabbirc]

By "cartridges", do you mean the modified cartridges inside the printer, or do you mean the ink tanks outside the printer?

About me, well, I'm facing a problem that sometimes, instead of the ink, air flows through the pipes.... In other words, instead of continuous ink, there's a medium sized air bracket that flows inside the tubes. Well, I don't know of a permanent solution so far.

Its shown, in the pic below:

*www.nifty-stuff.com/forum/uploads/3434_cimg6745_640x480.jpg

But what I do is... As long as there is ink going inside the cartridge inside the printer, (I mean, as long as the air bracket is far away from the cartridge inside), I continue using it...
And when the air bracket in the pipes is close to the cartridge inside (as seen in the pic above), I just initiate "Deep Cleaning" from the Canon My Printer Menu. That flows some ink and clears the air bracket in the pipes.
Then, the printer can be used again with all its colors.

Of course, I admit its a hassle, but the cost benefits are huge anyways, for the kind of system.

Yes I was talking about the modified cartridges in the printer. Thanks for the detailed info Samarth .... I tried the same thing by doing deep cleaning and the issue got resolved. However, I am having only two modified cartridges (Black & Color) against six displayed in the pic for your printer.

The current issue is with the Cyan ink not being printed, though the ink can be seen going into the modified color cartridge. I clicked the maintenance button and selected "A" in the LED and printed a nozzle check pattern page that displayed no color for Cyan. The Canon Tech told me the head must have gone and they would have to clean it with I guess Isopropyl ... if this does not work, then the color cartridge would have to be replaced.

I would like your views on this if there is any other way to solve this issue?

 

[Samarth 619]

Yes I was talking about the modified cartridges in the printer. Thanks for the detailed info Samarth .... I tried the same thing by doing deep cleaning and the issue got resolved. However, I am having only two modified cartridges (Black & Color) against six displayed in the pic for your printer.

The current issue is with the Cyan ink not being printed, though the ink can be seen going into the modified color cartridge. I clicked the maintenance button and selected "A" in the LED and printed a nozzle check pattern page that displayed no color for Cyan. The Canon Tech told me the head must have gone and they would have to clean it with I guess Isopropyl ... if this does not work, then the color cartridge would have to be replaced.

I would like your views on this if there is any other way to solve this issue?

Firstly, Sorry for confusing you. I took this image from the internet, just to explain the "air in tube" phenomenon. Its not my own image, and yes, my printer also has 2 internal cartridges, one Black and one color with 3 tubes going in it.

As for your issue, let me clarify that even if ink is going inside the cartridge, you may require upto 6-8 "Deep Cleaning" and a printout after each clean to check whether its resolved or not.
Sometimes, the ink just gets clogged with paper debris or gets dried up on the print head.

Feel free to use the same paper again and again for test print, as you will know when the Cyan starts printing, till then the cyan area remains empty.... and the rest of colors do get overwritten, which is not harmful anyways.
Yes, 6-8 Deep cleans might seem a lot. But I've had similar times as yours, when the ink seemed to go inside the cartridge but the print wasn't showing it...
Sometimes, only 2-3 deep cleaning repeats were enough, but at one time 6-8 cleans were required.


Although your symptoms match the ones for damaged print head, I still think that your issue is not related to print head as in that case, it should show a problem with all colors and there are symptoms like white lines running across the printouts.
If a good amount of Deep Cleaning does not solve the problem, then you can go ahead with what the canon service person advised.

 

[Samarth 619]

Finally spotted the biggest shortcoming of my ESYINK ink tank system:- Low Quality inks....!

I just noticed that some of my pics have the same shine as new, but others are gradually fading into yellow-orange like pic.
Firstly, I thought maybe due to photo paper quality but that was not the case, because all were Kodak paper of equal quality.
Now, I remember, the pics with great quality were printed when Canon's original ink was there in modified cartridges, but as that depleted, the ESYINK came into play, which is normally a good ink on quality, but it fades a whole lot faster.

So, guys, my suggestion is that you get yourselves high quality Canon Inks as their printers G2000 and G3000 have become official (Epson inks have different tone from Canon)..
or best would be, go for original ink tank printers itself, like Epson L220 or Canon G2000.

 

[ROCKY77777]

VERY NICE POST . detail information . where in rajasthan are you from because i am from rajasthan too .
also , is it really costly because i have visited amazon.in and read the reviews . many have rated them horrible . the cartrige goes down after few 50-70 color prints . thats terrible right ?

 

[Samarth 619]

VERY NICE POST . detail information . where in rajasthan are you from because i am from rajasthan too .
also , is it really costly because i have visited amazon.in and read the reviews . many have rated them horrible . the cartrige goes down after few 50-70 color prints . thats terrible right ?

I think you must have seen reviews for MP287 only, not the one with ink tank installed (unofficially, not company fitted).

MP287: 3990.
With ink tank: 6500.
But these are old prices... The printer is discontinued now.
I have the ink tank installed, and so my ink didn't deplete... Ink tank is working perfectly fine even after 3 years.... I only had to get one additional set of ink, that's it.
But the thing is, the rest of the printer from Canon wasn't built to give so many printouts that I've taken over 3-4 years... so the paper feed is now giving trouble. Will call mechanic today for repair.

 

[Samarth 619]

UPDATE: Called the mechanic and he gave me an offer of a brand new MP287 for Rs. 2500 in buyback. I said yes. So, the paper feed issue is solved as its a new printer now.
Ink tank working excellent as usual. The overall printer is doing good obviously.

 

[kunnusingh]

I have a same Printer and Ink tank is really bad, You must need to put tank in top area or 2 foot above of printer else it will stop printing so later I remove ink tank and prefer to use "refill" option.

Its easy to refill and since my requirement is not big like 100 page per day or even 5 page per day so refill will be much better for normal usage.

I purchased a refurbished Cartridge which cost less and use old original empty color cartridge because of I don't need color copy and cost of color cartridge is high and it does not give even more than 20 color printout.

Once color empty from your cartridge then inktank color will not give correct color printout and you will feel that color tank is useless.