Blocked squeezy bottle needle

[CakeHole]

I see, I also have an unopened bottle of Magenta 6121 Batch M6121-0000222 which I bought at the same time, so this must also be suspect now. It doesn't pay to buy spare ink in advance!! Not at the rate I use it.

That may be ok if the bottle is sealed still. Will probably be impossible to tell unless you try using it (maybe hold up to a bright light if you are sure the other bottle has became thicker and compare the two to see if there is any difference you can spot).

As to the scabbard/needle for the squeeze bottle, its possible for small gauge needles to become clogged. When i used to refill my Epson with regular syringes and needles i never bothered to really clean each needle and syringe in any detail because i had one for each colour and labelled them with marker pen. The most they got were a quick rinse under the cold water tap. They were kept air tight (IE plunger in the syringe fully down and air tight cap on the needle) however over time ink which is left in a syringe and particularly the needle (if you do not squirt water through it after filling) does dry out and clog. Its even worse for pigment inks apparently.

Now with my squeeze bottle kit from octoink i refill my carts, remove the needle from the bottle attach it to a spare empty squeeze bottle i have whic i fill with hot water (not so hot to melt the bottle obviously lol) and then i give that a couple of squeezes to rinse through any ink left in the needles (you will be shocked how much can remain in there) I then re-attach the needles to their appropriate colour bottle and replace the scabbard.

The reason i started to do this is not only due to prior experience with needles clogging but also because when filling the pigment black cart (PGI-5) i personally can tell whether using a squeeze bottle or a syringe you need to apply slightly more pressure before the ink squirts out of the needle, obviously the Pigment black is slightly thicker than the dye ink probably due to the err pigments in it. And if you are going to clean one to prevent blogs you may as well do them all while you are doing the job. I also make sure any syringes and needles get a fill of hot water and a plunge through now rather than a quick rinse under the tap.

Extra work, i know and technically should not need doing if everything is air tight, but extra work now prevents extra work and frustration later down the road

 

[PeterBJ]

I have also experienced a clogged 2" 22g blunt needle on a 100 ml squeezy bottle with IS 6120 photo magenta ink. There is 5-10 ml left in the bottle and when looking down the bottle you see some cotton like structures floating around, they are very similar to those posted by mikling in this post. Here is a photo made using a cheap inspection camera, shining a light from the bottom of the bottle:

And here is a bottle of yellow no name ink for HP. Note similar cotton like structures floating around in the bottle:

I think the best way of avoiding this growth in the ink is not to buy more ink than you could use in half a year, and store the ink in a cool, dry and dark place.

Food has a best before date, but that only applies to the unopened package stored properly. Canon OEM cartridges have no use by date, but the user manuals state that once installed a cartridge should be used within half a year. I think the same half year may apply to an opened bottle of refill ink.

 

[Emulator]

I was hoping @pharmacist might be able to suggest an additive we could use, say one drop added to a squeezy bottle upon opening, that would kill off any potential growth, without affecting the ink.

Very interesting pictures Peter.

 

[pharmacist]

Yes you can: 1 drop of formaldehyde (which also stabilize the color) or phenol should do the job.

 

[The Hat]

Try putting 1 ml of Alcohol in 100 ml bottle of dye ink, this may not cure the problem but it will come close and it won’t overly affect the ink in any way.

It is also very important not to get any ink drawn back into the refill bottle from the sponge area, where this Algae may be fermenting, especially when using the German refill method.

I use the top fill method and haven’t suffered from problems from algae growth and some of my inks are over six years old, I do however have to purge the odd cartridge from time to time due to some poor ink flow on rare occasions.

If I get an ink cartridge that does not have a proper ink flow I set it aside and purge it as soon as possible and I reuse the ink that I’ve saved from the reservoir before purging. (It's a cartridge problem not the ink)

Ink can be stored safely for years if kept sealed and stored in a cool environment and not contaminated by any foreign body’s accidently introduced into it, it is also important to sterilise your syringes, needle and empty bottles with Alcohol before opening any new bottle of ink.

Bac Teria doesn’t use Facebook but can show up just about everywhere else even where you least expect it too, and don’t exclude the Cyan and Yellow, every case can be different and so is every individual user..

 

[pharmacist]

For alcohol having a preservative action, the percentage should exceed 18%. Better is 20%. This is the reason why natural brewed wine never has a higher alcohol percentage of about 15-16 %, as the waste produced by the yeast (alcohol) in the end becomes so high the yeast cells are all killed by the alcohol. So 1% is negligible.

There is a safe alternative to formaldehyde and that is concentrated paraben solution (18% methylparaben + 2 % propylparaben dissolved in propylene glycol). 1 ml of this concentrated solution tot 100 ml solution is enough to preserve your ink. It is potable.

 

[Emulator]

I am not too sure whether the on post #24 means that something untoward might happen if we use it.

• Formaldehyde is a colorless, flammable, strong-smelling chemical that is used in building materials and to produce many household products.
• Formaldehyde sources in the home include pressed-wood products, cigarette smoke, and fuel-burning appliances.
• When exposed to formaldehyde, some individuals may experience various short-term effects.
• Formaldehyde has been classified as a known human carcinogen (cancer-causing substance) by the International Agency for Research on Cancer and as a probable human carcinogen by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
• Research studies of workers exposed to formaldehyde have suggested an association between formaldehyde exposure and several cancers, including nasopharyngeal cancer and leukemia.

So perhaps we will give it a miss!

Next question, where do we get Paraben, I googled and every response seemed to be suggesting Paraben free products, as though it was undesirable.

Another concern is that the estrogen-mimicking aspect of parabens may be a factor in the increasing prevalence of early puberty in girls.

It sounds more usable than Formaldehyde, but in the quantities we would use even Formaldehyde would probably be acceptable.

Or what about this?

http://www.seapets.co.uk/products/p..._source=amazon_gmc_pla&utm_medium=feedmanager

 

[The Hat]

For alcohol having a preservative action, the percentage should exceed 18%. Better is 20%. This is the reason why natural brewed wine never has a higher alcohol percentage of about 15-16 %, as the waste produced by the yeast (alcohol) in the end becomes so high the yeast cells are all killed by the alcohol. So 1% is negligible.

That is perfectly true however there is some alcohol already in the ink so adding that little bit more can only help improve the situation as I already said..

 

[stratman]

Yes you can: 1 drop of formaldehyde (which also stabilize the color) or phenol should do the job.

What is so funny about potentially toxic chemicals?

 

[berttheghost]

What is so funny about potentially toxic chemicals?

Perhaps he finds it ironic that at one moment we're looking for a better poison to kill off those nasty bugs but at the next moment we're complaining about how poisonous they are?