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Solaris Inks - weigh your 440 cartridges

R

RocketBanner

New Member
Solaris is shorting their inks, but don't take my word for it, weigh them yourself (see the procedure below)
I tried Solaris Inks a couple months ago. This is the 4th non-OEM ink I have tried. I have never had good results with 3rd party inks so I was a bit Leary, but when LiqueColor offered to sell them to me direct for $54 for a 440 cartridge I could not resist. I always weigh my inks from a new vendor to make sure I am not getting ripped off. My results are that every 440 cartridge of Solaris ink is short 50-80 milliliters.
Here's how to test for yourself without opening a cartridge. Weigh your cartridges full then load them and use till the tab pops, then use a syringe with an ink needle to remove the unusable ink remaining in the cartridge (usually 20-30 ml) Then weigh exactly 10cc of the ink to get the specific gravity of the ink, (it varies a little by color but is usually around .97, you can use this number as an average if you don't have a scale accurate enough to weigh in tenths of a gram) Now take the difference in weight of a full cartridge to that of a completely empty cartridge and divide that number by the specific gravity (or .97 if you like) You'll discover the cartridges are far short of the 440ml that is suppose to be in there.
I am back on OEM inks and have asked LiqueColor for a refund. I have been told that because I "tampered" with the ink cartridges I would not be given a refund. Tampered? pulling out the unusable ink from an empty cartridge destined for the garbage is tampering?? Oh Please.
I encourage people to please do this simple test and post your results here.
 
C

CanuckSigns

Active Member
sounds like you got what you paid for. Personally i'm too busy running a business to bother weighing empty ink carts to ensure I don't get "ripped off" of $1.50 worth of ink.
 
ChicagoGraphics

ChicagoGraphics

New Member
I never could understand if someone switches to a 3rd party ink why bother with the cartridges, why not just get a bulk system.
 
SightLine

SightLine

║▌║█║▌│║▌║▌█
Because the majority of bulk systems are problematic and ultimatley lead to problems..... Only the newest generation of bag type sealed bulk systems are truly problem free. Even aftermarket cartridges are still a pretty huge savings over most OEM cartridges.
 
J Hill Designs

J Hill Designs

New Member
yeah more like between $4 and $9 (as long as your 'tried and true' weighing method is in fact 'true') but yeah. still not at all worth it

are you sure you aren't taking into account the bag etc?
 
ddarlak

ddarlak

Go Bills!
Because the majority of bulk systems are problematic and ultimatley lead to problems.....
Click to expand...

really?

i used bulk in system on 4 different machines for over 10 years and had ZERO problems....
 
C

CanuckSigns

Active Member
RocketBanner said:
your arithmetic is way off
Click to expand...


Yes it was, still the point is valid, in the amount of time you spend weighing carts, calculating specific gravity of inks, and going back and forth with the supplier over $10 worth of ink, you could have made some signs and put more than $10 in your pocket.
 
R

RocketBanner

New Member
watsons signs said:
Yes it was, still the point is valid, in the amount of time you spend weighing carts, calculating specific gravity of inks, and going back and forth with the supplier over $10 worth of ink, you could have made some signs and put more than $10 in your pocket.
Click to expand...

I have no idea what your talking about, I don't weigh every cartridge, I weighed a sample of cartridges one time to check the integrity of a new vendor.
I will say this though, under normal operations Everytime I change a cartridge I will spend 30 seconds pulling $10 worth of ink out of it and injecting it into it's sister cartridge. For me that's about $200/week of ink I would otherwise throw out with the spent cartridge.

Put that in your pipe and smoke it.:clapping:
 
Mike Paul

Mike Paul

Super Active Member
The difference is probably the ink used for cleanings...
Do you weigh the drained ink container too?
 
R

RocketBanner

New Member
The inks being short was not the only problem I had with these inks for the 2 weeks I had them in my machine, but it was the most blatantly dishonest.
These inks are too viscous, you need to push them thru your machine constantly or your heads will clog. I always leave my machine turned on over the weekend so it will run periodic cleanings. Even with this the heads would have several dropouts when I would come in on Monday, this never happens with OEM inks. I had a problem with ink starvation and over spray with the black ink, way worse then with the OEMs. I blew a black print head 2 days after switching to Solaris inks. The head had 3.5 billion counts, too few for the head to quit.
Other than that they were great.
 
R

RocketBanner

New Member
Mike Paul said:
The difference is probably the ink used for cleanings...
Do you weigh the drained ink container too?
Click to expand...
huh? I am just trying to determine how much ink was in the cartridge when it was sealed up and shipped to me as a supposed cartridge containing 440ml of ink. How do you do that? well, again, You take the weight of the full cartridge, minus the weight of the empty cartridge and the difference is the weight of the ink that was in there when you put the new cartridge in your machine...who cares about the cleanings...irrelevant. I just want to know that I am getting the 440ml of ink I am paying for...and if you're buy Solaris you're not...that simple.
 
C

CanuckSigns

Active Member
RocketBanner said:
I have no idea what your talking about, I don't weigh every cartridge, I weighed a sample of cartridges one time to check the integrity of a new vendor.
I will say this though, under normal operations Everytime I change a cartridge I will spend 30 seconds pulling $10 worth of ink out of it and injecting it into it's sister cartridge. For me that's about $200/week of ink I would otherwise throw out with the spent cartridge.

Put that in your pipe and smoke it.:clapping:
Click to expand...

Nevermind, I just had a look at your website, at the prices you are selling banners to the general public for, I can see why every penny counts.
 
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