Canon and CISS - why everyone has issue with air?

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It's interesting to get some ideas revisited or even re-formulated but I'm afraid I'm with @The Hat and crew.

The issue isn't just sealing out the air. You also need to ensure that the sponge is in contact with the printheads ink receiver in a way that promotes ink flow. If any attempts to seal the printhead result in the sponge being a smidgen too far away from the inlet then ink won't flow. If the cartridge is pressed down too hard, the sponge is compressed and, yep, you guessed it... Ink won't flow.

Canon cartridges do work with air in and around the ink inlet and cartridge outlet and will allow for ink flow in a standard cartridge/printhead scenario.

What is critical is that CIS systems will NOT work when air has an ingress route at anywhere other than the reservoir end of the CIS chain. So, yes a sealant may work, but consider that your sealant solvent may "poison"* the sponge, printhead or ink in a way that promotes clogging so even that idea may be a non-starter.

Anyway, dialling back some, it's obvious that some CIS users get successful installations that work but what comes out time and again is that usually it's when the system has been primed properly, there are no imperfections on the cartridge outlet moulding and some $deity or other is smiling down on the lucky user. When stuff goes wrong it's rarely something that can be resolved without a fight...

Nobody is completely down on the idea and heck, if you can get it to work, then great but we're bogged down with experience that has developed an (un?)healthy level of cynicism now.

 

[The Hat]

@goohobot, Please continue by all means to find the holy grail, many have tried before you and have failed, they simply gave up before they lost their hair, if there was an easy solution to this problem then the CISS seller would most definitely promote that new way.

A CISS will work on a Canon printer just as long as it’s installed perfectly, maintained properly and kept in constant use, but even then there comes a point when the maintenance and down time just gets to much and you finally decide you’ve had enough and pull the whole darn thing out.

Sealing up the cartridges sounds like a whole new ball game, and there again you’ll be the first to find out if it is going to be successful or not, it just means even more maintenance to keep the thing going for a little while longer, and besides refilling is far less stressful..