Can i use epson black ink to refill black ink cartridge for canon printer?

[curiousmind]

I ran out of black ink refill for my canon printer pixma ip2770 and there's no way i can buy because the stores are closed because of lockdown, but my friend has an epson black ink 664 , is it safe to use this epson black ink and will not damage my canon printer?

 

[PeterBJ]

Don't do it.

Epson and Canon printheads are very different and so are the inks.

Canon printheads are thermal meaning that heaters create steam bubbles that eject ink drops. To avoid burning out the heaters the ink must have good cooling properties and be thermally stable to avoid build-up on the heaters.

Epson printheads are piezoelectric, The ink is ejected via an electro mechanical pumping action, that generates little heat, so the ink need not be thermally stable, Epson ink also has other different properties and will not flow reliably in a Canon printhead so you will get ink starvation and risk burning out the heaters with Epson ink in a Canon printhead/cartridge.

 

[curiousmind]

Thank you for that information

 

[The Hat]

is it safe to use this epson black ink

You could mix your other colours together and use that to make a temporary black, it would at least save the head from damage..

 

[curiousmind]

I will try to do that... thank you

 

[soysauce]

Sometime viscosity and surface tension can provide a clue as to whether inks are similar enough to be compatible or not. In my measurements Epson 664 Black has a viscosity of about 2.5 cp and a surface tension of about 29 dynes/cm. It looks as if the Canon Pixma ip2770 takes PG-810 ink? I haven't measured that, and I don't know if Canon uses the same ink in most of their cartridges or not. Does anyone here know?
I have measured the properties of Canon PG-245 black ink which is the same ink as PG-243. That Canon ink has a viscosity of about 1.5 cp which is considerably less viscous than Epson 664. Because of that viscosity difference the Epson 664 ink might not work in a Canon PG-245 cartridge but I have not tried it. The surface tension of PG-245 is about 29 dynes/cm, same as the Epson 664 ink, so surface tension should not be a problem.
Then there's chemical compatibility, which could be a problem too. It's possible that different chemicals used in the Epson and Canon inks would cause solids to precipitate when mixed, for example. If someone knows whether Canon uses the same ink in PG-245 and PG-810, and if they are the same, I could mix drops of each together and look for compatibility problems.
I'd be careful about mixing colored inks to make a black ink, because some inks are, or at least were formulated to precipitate when mixed, to prevent "bleeding". That may be more of an HP thing, but I thought I'd bring it up.
Also regarding mixing to make composite black, this sounds wrong but I seem to recall from this forum and my own experience that for composite black, Epson printers, and maybe others, use only cyan and magenta. I think I've watched composite black being printed on an Epson with the cyan is printed first, followed by the magenta, which I thought was interesting.

 

[The Hat]

@soysauce, You couldn’t be more wrong with both of your findings, as was stated earlier by @PeterBJ in #post 2, you cannot use Epson ink in a Canon printer (Never), otherwise you going to be looking for a new print head..

As for the mixing of Canon dye inks together, they are completely compatible with each other, otherwise I wouldn’t have recommend @curiousmind to do so, and yes all three colours are needed..

 

[soysauce]

Ouch! Are my viscosity and surface tension measurements wrong too? Would appreciate the correct values. I certainly do not know as much as some.

 

[The Hat]

@soysauce, viscosity and surface tension have nothing to do with it, the liquid makeup of both inks are not compatible see @PeterBJ post for a better explanation as to why, it's like matching Chalk and Cheese…

 

[soysauce]

Happening to have both chalk and cheese available, I went ahead and tried Epson 664 BK ink for refilling a Canon PG-245 cartridge. To my surprise, it's still looking fine after 100 pages of ISO test suite 24712, 150 pages of plain text, and a second refill. Here's the nozzle check after all that printing.

I shared the complete results at Canon PGI-245 with Epson 664 BK ink.
I hope someone else will try to replicate these results so we know more about whether this was just a fluke or not.