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Rihac CISS Review

Installation
Installation can be summarised in one word, 'messy'. The instruction manual warns of possible 'excessive ink' when removing the cartridge caps. Unfortunately, the magenta unit decided to offload it's 'excessive' ink all over my hands. Paper was laid out in preparation, however the ink made its way straight through to the desk. I recommend preparing this system on a surface that can be cleaned easily or discarded. Gloves are also a good idea.

The first step was to clean any ink sitting underneath the orange cartridge caps. The CISS unit has a cylindrical roller that is used to stop ink flow within the silicon tubing - this was used to prevent any ink escaping the cartridges. This model came without Canon chips installed, so they had to be carefully transferred from genuine cartridges. Rihac recommend using a blade to remove the chips, but a strong fingernail does the job fine (and probably less risk of damage too). To stick the chips on the cartridges, a soldering iron is used to melt little plastic holders in place. Otherwise thin double-sided tape can be used instead.

Once the chips are installed, it's a matter of draining the air reservoirs which tend to fill during transport. This can also get messy, depending on how clumsy you are. Once that's all done, the silicon plugs are replaced with air filters, and the cartridges are installed into the printer. A bit of cable management with strategically placed double sided sticky pads marks the competition of installation.

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