Mutoh. Non genuine ink

[BigSi]

Hi there.

I am running an Mutoh VJ-1324

Two points-

1/ Should I do it at all. (Run NON genuine ink). Of course the only real reason is cost. I'm only a very small shop and outdoor signage is only really a small sign line. My Mutoh does not get a lot of use and it's a killer having the machine going threw its cycles using up ink that is worth it's weight in gold. The machine did not set me back a lot (the colourgate software cost more than twice the Mutoh) I tend to think it's worth the risk.

2/ Just recently I have put a FULL "non genuine" yellow in and keep getting the message "(Y) ink low. The seller of the ink has told me this is not a concern (but he would say that) I'm trying to judge is the ink actually getting threw. Is this a common problem with non genuine ink? maybe it's not reading the chip? I guess given enough time I'll see if the ink is getting threw.

Sorry if this all sounds a bit basic but I'm new to the signage game.

Your comments are appreciated.

thanks Simon

 

[Keith]

I understand your pain. Buying a full set of inks for my Canon w8400 costs me nearly $1200! I have tried refill/remanufactured/non-OEM ink in my Canon as well as a Xante Ilumina. In both cases, it was a pain in the ass. The Xante took a lot of fiddling with, uploading charge files and lots of tweaking. Currently, I also run a Riso Comcolor 7050 and use non-OEM inks. they work but it's a crap shoot whether or not the chips will be a problem or not. Now back to the wide format. Non-OEM inks saved me a ton of money. A whole set was less than $300. But color accuracy went out the window. I tried printing a greyscale image for my local college and it kept coming out with a red hue no matter what settings I tried. Flushed the ink out and replaced all the cartridges with OEM ink and the problem went away. That experiment cost me the printhead. It was ruined. Lots of lines in the print. Color was accurate! So I bought a new printhead and everything was fine.

Side note. Now I'm facing end-of-life with my 12 year old Canon. It was inevitable.Looking at getting an HP Latex 315 printer and cutter to replace it.

 

[BigSi]

Thanks Keith. Yea it's all a bit of a headache. I guess the answer is to try to get the genuine stuff as cheaply as possible. For a strange reason a lot of the main suppliers won't ship to this part of the world. (New Zealand) makes it very difficult to shop around on price. Not much competition when there is only two sellers of Mutoh ink in NZ.
By the way thanks for the help with "Morning Flight". Slowly getting my head around it. Good luck with the Latex HP. thanks Simon.
PS any supplies of genuine Mutoh ink reading this message me.