Discussion STS inks. Anyone have experience with them?

What do they bring to the table that's making you consider jumping off an ink set that you have confidence in? How much is that confidence/peace of mind worth? I don't have experience with either of them, I'm just curious what the motivation is.

Good Luck

 

I would like to know that too, Same day delivery?

 

Don't do it! It plugged all the heads on our HP 360 latex and turned to goo in our Mimaki JFX200! Cost us thousands!

 

My understanding of 3rd party ink is if you find a brand that you are happy with and doesn't cause issues, stick with it! So many horror stories on here from people trying to save a few pennies.

If the new vendor is only pricematching, I wouldn't be willing to jump from a product you are happy with to an unknown.

 

I'd listen to Doc Zoom, he has first hand experience.

 

If it ain't broke, don't fix it.

Why would you wanna take all those chances ?? Let them earn your trust by giving you the good prices on media and let the ink part go for the moment.

 

We're ink guys ourselves so take what I say with a grain of salt. We have only dealt with their UV inks, which are crap. Low quality and high-potential to damage printheads. But maybe their eco-solvent inks are better *shrug*

 

No it didn't! These aftermarket inks are closely compatible.

 

Some OEM's have trouble with their own ink. If u can save $$...do it!

 

If they were that close, wouldn't they be infringing on patents and patent rights ??

 

With chemicals anyone can reverse engineer just about anything. Not sure about patents.

 

Not with pigmented ink. There is more to it. Not all third party ink is the same.

 

I ran their Aqueous inks in 2 Epson SureColor p8000’s. Chips weren’t recognized half the time, and both printers lost the LK channel in the heads. I’d look at alternatives. We have run JTECK for 6+ years.

 

There are a few ink manufacturers out there.
I’ve been repairing printers For my customers for 20 years.
The few customers who have used 3rd party inks have had problems with STS.
Last year one of my customers used STS ink for their Seiko M64 printer I sold them 5 years ago since they could no longer buy the correct inks from Grimco.
Over 3 months he thought he saved $600 but after the leaks from the pump hosing occurred due to the STS ink, the parts replacements cost him $1800.
You should always use the manufacturer’s inks unless it’s on an HP where you are regularly replacing heads yourself anyway.

 

We Have run Bordeaux since 2011 with good results other than black overspray. Tried OEM again and then gave STS a shot on our Roland with DX4’s hoping for no overspray. StS had same overspray issue. Other than that STS ink worked fine with a little extra maintenance but we went back to Bordeaux. My suggestion would be to stick with Bordeaux if it’s working good. It is okay to spread the vendor love out to a few places.