Right... before I launch into this I should note that the Pixma 4000 kit was never intended for the Canon MP750 but all my prodding and poking in the printer seemed to indicate that it was possible and it is...

Unfortunately this is not easy at all... so if you're not worried about mess you'll be fine but be prepared to swear a lot, curse your own stupidity and wish you'd never started before you get it working!


With all that said I'm going to post my review first and then afterwards I'll post a guide with a few pointers on how you can do it better (ie: learn from my mistakes!).


Review
Supplier: MIS Associates
URL: http://www.inksupply.com
CIS Model(s): CIS for Canon Pixma 4000
Printer: Canon Pixma MP750
Ink(s): Canon dyebase Equivalent
Purchased: November 2005


First impressions
At first it looks like you've got everything here and it's pretty much what I'd expect from MIS in terms of quality and sealed ink, etc..

The ink hadn't leaked so all good... Until you start reading the instructions..

First off there are some vital components here that you just NEED to be able to complete this properly.

1. Caps to the cartridges.. None were provided despite indications in the instructions that there should be some. Without these you are well and truly up the creek.
   
2. A correction to the instructions (you'll see what I mean shortly).

Installation:
In a nutshell this just sucked... It was only when I finished the process and made a complete mess that I realised there was a reason for the tiny white pins (or stoppers as I later worked out).

These white stoppers are there to plug up the ends of the tubes once you've filled your CIS cartridges but vitally the instructions neglect to tell you that you need to do this. Result: ink flows with gravity, etc.. and creates mess of ink everywhere.

This is a correctably issue and I'll grant you that IF I'd read the instructions in full and spent an hour digesting it I'd have worked out what was missing. Bottom line, I shouldn't have to.


However, in the great realm of things it's one issue that hopefully MIS will fix in due course.

Tube path and the clips
The Pixma 4000 obviously doesn't require the lid to be closed all the time and you can see directly into the printer so that would make installation a LOT easier. For the MP750 though, you have a restricted space and it will take a lot of patience to get this right.

First off you need to remove the clip from the perspex bridging bracket that MIS supplies, taking note of where the clip would normally sit and then try very hard to place it in the same position on the underside of the scanners lid. Couple of things that made this harder...
1. The amount of clearance there is between the lid lifting mechanism
2. The fact that if you put the clip too far back it will end up in the path of the printer/cart head unit and stop it from running freely.

It required nearly an hour to position it properly and even then you have to angle it slightly to ensure the tube runs up into the space above the grey clip that sits over the carts. It's the only place the tube will fit and run through properly.

It IS possible and I take full responsibility for the fact that my poor MP750 was not happy about it. It's just not natural

Once you've done that, you then need to adjust the tubing length fed through, to allow for the fact that the lid will be down (so shorter length required). The good news is that the rest of the tubing leading out to the bottle will then just run out the side.


What went wrong:
As I said, filling the CIS was just plain crazy... If that hadn't happened I would probably have found it relatively painless.



Actual usage
At present I'm going to hold off on this review because I need to reinstall it all again with the knowledge that I can do a better job... So, watch this space.


Purging/Replacing Ink
It can't be done. As MIS put it... if you screw up your ink to cart selection you're going to need a new cartridge or set of them. So CHECK before you allow it to suck ink.



Summary:
It was and is still a tough proposition... but it is possible... I am now going to re-do the CIS cartridge priming using some clips that I got from Ink Republic and see how much better it performs when you get it right.

All in all... Part of me thinks it could be worse and the fact that it IS possible to install a CIS in this beast is a good thing.


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Printers: (Canon) MP500/830, MX700, iP4000/4200/4300/4500/5200, iX4000(A3) (Epson) C84/86, D88, CX6600, R285/800/1900 (HP) K550, K850, K5400, L7680