i865 printhead clogged every other day

[Metallo]

Hi all,

I've been refelling this printer for 10 years with great satisfaction.
Till last year, I bought inks in Italy, then I moved to Canada and I began to buy my inks from MIS.

I slowly began to switch them, I mean, once I finished the 'Italian' ink I would refill with MIS ones.
I know... this is not good practice at all, I am supposed to change all my carts and start from scratch, right?

Well, the printer was printing fine but once I completely switched to MIS on all carts, I have to do a cleaning cycle every other day. In In fact, it appears that randomly one of the colors or blacks do not print, I do a cleaning cycle and then everything prints fine for two/three days, then another color does not print and so on.

If I look at the ink flow on top of my carts (Colorbat, never an issue before) it looks good.
Last time I changed my carts it was in 2006, consider I do about 4 refills a year.

Do you think this might be due to the carts that need to be changed or the inks?
I tend to believe the ink is the problem, but let's read the experts' opinion on the forum.

Thank you
Alex

 

[The Hat]

Alex there is a lot going on here all at once which is not easy to diagnose at all.

Firstly I would stop printing everything at once before you burnout your print head and only do run nozzles checks till you have this problem sorted out once and for all.

I’ll start with what's going wrong first, yes you should have purged (Washed) your carts before adding the new ink in because not all inks are compatible with each other, like OEM & 3rd party mix = yes and 3rd party & 3rd party mix = no as you are now finding out.

Doing too many head cleans to often is to be avoided whenever possible, it’s not good for your printer, it fills up your waste pads and it wastes a lot of ink.

When you have a problem with your cartridges (Ink Flow) head cleans will never fix that problem for you and they are simply a total waste, only changing the problem cartridge with solve that issue for.

We only recommend the use of OEM cartridges for continued use because they can withstand the constant refilling better than all the other aftermarket cartridges can, but I must say you have been getting some good ware out of your current Colorbat carts !

Now there are two things you can do, either get new OEM cartridges or purge the compatible ones you have now, that is a must, you can’t continue using your current set of carts in the condition that there in now.

I would recommend you get a complete set of empty OEM’s from Precisioncolor and use them instead you can get either BLI-6 or CLI-8 carts it makes no different they are both compatible to your printer.

I am not too familiar with MIS inks so can’t say whether they cause the problem or not, they were clearly not compatible with your previous inks that’s for sure, so it's pointless trying to blame either of them.

http://www.precisioncolors.com/

 

[Grandad35]

You can't discount the possibility that the clogs are in the print head channels, even if the probability is low. I have encountered several cases where the PM channel became severely restricted and gave the same symptoms as a clogged cart.

Start by assuming that the carts are the problem, and only work on the print head after you have exhausted that approach.

 

[The Hat]

Start by assuming that the carts are the problem, and only work on the print head after you have exhausted that approach.

+

 

[Tigerman]

i think after you buy oem cartridges, as you said you have refilling for long time why you not also buy refillable cartridge from MIS and through out what you have now??
can you tell us what your printer model? hp or canon
best printing..

 

[Metallo]

Firstly I would stop printing everything at once before you burnout your print head and only do run nozzles checks till you have this problem sorted out once and for all.

That's why I am concerned, although I only did the lite one a few times.
Actually, I washed the pads last year, after 9 years and they should be in pretty good shape

I would recommend you get a complete set of empty OEM’s from Precisioncolor and use them instead you can get either BLI-6 or CLI-8 carts it makes no different they are both compatible to your printer.

I do not need to, I've plenty of Colorbat empty carts in stock and I would never change them, they last at least 5 years given that this will be the second time I change them.

Definitely, I'll go for the carts first and see if this fixes the issue, if not, I know I will have to try different inks.
Inksupply.com (MIS) was very reputable, so let's see.

I will let you know how things progress.

Thank you!
Alex

 

[PeterBJ]

Canon OEM cartridges have dual sponges made from a fibrous material. For the dye ink cartridges the sponges can easily be cleaned to completely white. The pigment black cartridges can be flushed to a uniform medium grey, not completely white.

Canon's dual sponge design with a fibrous material is patented, so the compatible cartridges, both single use and refillable, instead use a single sponge made from a foam material. These sponges can be next to impossible to clean, and often are clogged, so it is next to impossible to force water through the sponge. I have also experienced sponges in compatible cartridges shrink after cleaning and drying, rendering the cartridge totally unusable. I never intended to reuse the compatible cartridges; I did the test to find out why only Canon cartridges are recommended for refill, and I think I found an answer.

Due to age "Virgin empty" Canon OEM BCI-3e/CLI-6 might be impossible to find, but the newer generation CLI-8 dye ink cartridges can be used instead of the BCI-6. For some reason the PGI-5 PGBK cannot replace the BCI-3e PGBK cartridge, It doesn't fit into the printer. So my recommendation is to find some virgin empty CLI-8 cartridges and buy one or two new Canon OEM BCI-3e.

If you don't want to spend the money for another set of cartridges, then I recommend using a new and unused set of the Colorbat cartridges, (probably these?) instead of trying to clean the old ones.

I searched the web and found no info about the manufacturer of the MIS inks. Instead I would recommend the use of IS or Image Specialists inks that are sold by Precisioncolors. Link to an inkset for your printer here. These name brand quality inks are even a bit less expensive than the unknown inks found here.

I found a few links to posts mentioning that the MIS inks possibly were IS inks, but this was unconfirmed, and the posts were close to 10 years old. The supplier of the MIS inks may well have changed over the years.

 

[Grandad35]

Due to age "Virgin empty" Canon OEM BCI-3e/CLI-6 might be impossible to find, but the newer generation CLI-8 dye ink cartridges can be used instead of the BCI-6. For some reason the PGI-5 PGBK cannot replace the BCI-3e PGBK cartridge, It doesn't fit into the printer. So my recommendation is to find some virgin empty CLI-8 cartridges and buy one or two new Canon OEM BCI-3e.

A year or two ago I bought 500 used carts (loose in a box) on e-bay that purged nicely. Be aware that these carts appear to be rejects from a refill operation and some will have broken release arms on the back (throw them away) and cross-contamination (no problem if you are going to purge).

Here is one of many current listings with empty BCI-6/8 and BCI-3e carts.

 

[PeterBJ]

@Metallo , I found out that an OEM PGI-5 PGBK cartridge can easily be trimmed to fit in place of a BCI-3e PGBK cartridge. See this.