Canon CLI-8 Sponged Carts. Understanding Their Operation & Properties

[hpnetserver]

Mikling, the number of people who use only OEM cartridges but still get clogging problems is not near zero. I would agree with you if you say it is less than the number from those who use 3rd party cartridges. The actual number from those who use only OEM cartridges is muvh higher than you think in fact. I once was in a get together party in a friend's house. The family wanted to throw away a nice looking Canon inkjet printer massively clogged. The friend had used it for less than a year. Did not even bother to claim warranty. Used only OEM cartridges. You won't believe it. But the friend claimed been there, done that and the inkjet technology doesn't work. So he is throwing out the printer and all remaining supplies, including spare print heads. For a user like that OEM ink cartridges make no difference at all.

For experienced, knowledgeable users it can be a completely different story. I have been using 3rd party ink and ink cartridges for more than 2 years purchased on eBay from Hobbicolors. The only problem I ever had was refilling way too much ink into the sponge that caused leaking. But that happened once and after reading the refill instruction I have been able to reduce the problem to nearly zero. I had to rethread a few cartridges because the screws have become somewhat loose. But that's not an issue related to the quality of the 3rd party cartridges. I have never needed any purging as of today after more than 2 years for any of my 3rd party BCI-6 cartridges from Hobbicolors.

I see that you are an ink seller. Please don't bash 3rd party cartridges the way you did. It's misleading. Your words were almost like the infamous Measkite's on the newsgroup. MIS Associates, Alotofthings, Hobbicolors, and many many others all sell 3rd party cartridges and most of them do work. And most of them do work equally good as OEM cartridges when refilled.

Canonfodder, I apologize for implying pressure being positive. I have about a dozen pressure gauges, all have scales of zero to some positive numbers only. None has negative scale. Not everyone who reads this forum is an engineer. The fact of how a Canon cartridge works is not very well understood by most people. When you talk about the superiority of Canon OEM design it's better to talk about why it is. I look forward to reading your followup talking about why.

 

[mikling]

If you were to read through the forum as to the number of users who have experienced ink flow problems with a third party cartridge and then switched to an OEM to find the problem dissappear, then I wonder what caused the problem.

My experience with the PrintRite might mirror your observation with your friend's experience...not statistically significant. Yes, technically correct until you dig into it.

Now here's a good reason for me to be suspicious about a Printrite I obtained.

Guess which one is not the right color? If yours was correct, then it just shows the variability of the inks in the compatibles I got. When they make these serious batches are put out.

 

[websnail]

Your words were almost like the infamous Measkite's on the newsgroup. MIS Associates, Alotofthings, Hobbicolors, and many many others all sell 3rd party cartridges and most of them do work. And most of them do work equally good as OEM cartridges when refilled.

Erm... Just to inteject... That last crack was uncalled for... I can think of a whole lot of cuss's I'd use before stooping to that level of name calling.

Not all 3rd party carts are bad, nor are all of them good as one printhead I had found to its cost... Even the inks I've had from Image Specialist resellers haven't been 100% with 1 definite bad batch so nothing is perfect..

 

[hpnetserver]

Websnail, no hard feelings please. I won't conclude that all 3rd party inks are bad because you had a bad experience with one shot of Image Specialists ink. Nor should we conclude that all 3rd party cartridges are bad because Mikling has a problem with his PrintRite ink. Honestly a blind bashing of all 3rd party product reminds me the name of measkite. Make no mistake, there are many bad quality 3rd products out there not just for inkjet printers. 3rd party auto parts is easily one huge can of worms. Discussion of 3rd party ink supply is a major part of this forum. This forum will not be valuable if we simply say all 3rd party cartridges are inferior, not worth the money to spend for. If we all believed OEM is the only game why are we here?

 

[Tin Ho]

A good discussion should include discussions of the good and the bad. There may be or may not be a definite conclusion coming out of the discussion. Nevertheless it still helps to not making a wrong conclusion. It's not wise to generalize something when it's really just an opinion. But one's opinion may be based on one's experience which can still be an important contribution to the discussion.

This thread is about OEM CLI8 cartridges. The discussion has only got started. Let's try to resume the topic. My question is has anyone noticed anything different in the printer's performace (speed, quality, etc.) when all cartridges are refilled and all being registered as refilled? I have seen somewhere saying the printer becomes slower in printing text. Is there such a thing at all? Has anyone noticed any impact far down the road into using refilled cartridges in ip4300? Is it a good iead to switch to a few used carts that were not yet registered empty to cheat the printer?