After years of success, the German Refill Method didn't work!

[Nifty]

After years of wonderfully easy success of using the "German Refill Method" for my BCi-6 carts I ran into some frustrating problems.

Today I pulled out two carts, yellow & magenta, and began the process as I always do. As soon as I started to inject ink into the yellow cart I noticed ink pooling and then exiting the ink outlet port. I thought, "Hmm... that's weird. Maybe I'm pushing too fast or have the needle in the wrong position."

Even after multiple attempts, configurations, changes, etc. I was still having the same problem. In fact, it started to get worse as ink started exiting the air vent maze in addition to the ink out of the exit port. It seemed like ink was going everywhere except into the reservoir!

I kept trying everything I could think of... position of the needle against the ink level prism, backed off a 1/16 of an inch, tipping the cart various ways, etc. Nothing worked.

So, I gave up on that yellow cart and figured it was just some weird issue.

Next I went to magenta. Different cart, different ink, etc. Guess what, the EXACT same problem!?!?!

I finally got some ink into the cart (about 1/2 probably came out of the port and maze in the process) and after cleaning things up I put the cart in, cleaning cycle, and now the magenta is streaking.

Any ideas what's going on? What would cause these problems to come up all of a sudden after so long not having a single problem?


EDIT: Updated post with video:
http://www.nifty-stuff.com/forum/viewtopic.php?pid=55957#p55957

 

[mrelmo]

on your bci carts you can see the sponge correct? do they look like they have a lot of ink in the sponge, if they do place the exit port over cup and blow through the maze vent this will vacate any ink in the sponge, then try to refill once again, maybe after refilling the carts so many times the sponges were not getting empty and you have a lot of ink in the sponge as soon as you inject ink into the reservior the air is forcing the ink that is in the sponge out the exit port and maze vent, i hope it is as easy as that good luck

 

[Nifty]

Interesting points! The sponge does seem to be completely saturated in these two carts, so maybe that's the problem. I wonder how that happens and what I should do in the future to avoid that from happening.

Perhaps it is time to completely flush these carts, let them dry, and do a full refill. I just now refilled a virgin empty magenta cart using the German method and didn't have a single problem with the refill.

Unfortunately the magenta streaking didn't go away, so I'm in the process right now of pulling the head and cleaning it.

 

[stratman]

Perhaps it is time to completely flush these carts

Yes.

Would this be a good time to again discuss "sticky" posts or updating the FAQs?

 

[rodbam]

Gday Rob
I suppose when we refill the German way air is expressed out of the sponge side outlets so if your sponges were fully saturated then ink would be expelled with the air. I normally wait until my printer tells me the cart is empty before I refill & I can see the top half of the sponge is a lot dryer than the bottom.
It's strange that you have just started having this problem after a few years of no problems so something else must be happening.

 

[jimbo123]

rob

had this happen to me once or twice, saturated sponge was most likely the culprit.

i used the "reverse german method" to resolve. i inserted needle so it was midway in the sponge side and then sucked out ink from the sponge side. can be done by pulling back on a syringe or creating negative pressure in a squeeze bottle and then releasing. that way you can reuse the ink by just pushing the needle into the reservoir side and fill as you'd normally do.

been using the german method for 4+ years have refilled over 275 ink carts.

in fact the 4 CLI8 ink carts in my MP830 are the original ink carts that came with my original MP830 4 years ago, have refilled each of them 35 times and they are still going fine. i do not seal the refill hole, so far no leaks, except if you overfill.... even have my daughter refilling and a another buddy, all very happy.

first used syringes, now using squeeze bottles, so much faster and easier.

J

------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Printers: Canon MP830, IP4500, MX700, MX860, MX870, MP980
Method: German Durchstich Method
Ink: Hobbicolors ink, PMT-BK, UW8
Misc: Squeeze bottles - so much easier than syringes

 

[Nifty]

Thanks guys! It will take a lot more than this to detour me from this method. I had infinitely more problems with the old drill-n-fill methods, so even if this reared up every 20 refills, I'd still stick with this method.

Now I just gotta fix this streaking issue...

 

[panos]

I normally wait until my printer tells me the cart is empty before I refill & I can see the top half of the sponge is a lot dryer than the bottom.

i inserted needle so it was midway in the sponge side and then sucked out ink from the sponge side.

Same experience here. Point #4 on my list.

 

[The Hat]

Now I just gotta fix this streaking issue...

I am with stratman Its time to purge your two cartridges and start again..
Rob streaking is a real big problem these days especially at sporting events..

 

[Nifty]

Well, I think I fixed my clogged nozzle problem and so hopefully after a few purges of these old carts I'll be back in action!


Thanks guys!!