Canon Pixma 4500 refill or buy 3rd party cartridge?

[retfeg]

I just purchased a new Canon Pixma iP4500.
Prior to it, I have used iP5000 and i960.

In the last few years I have been using 3rd party cartridges from ABACUS with rather good results.

My new printer comes with cartridges that have chips on them.

I checked with ABACUS and they do sell carts without a chip for about $2.60 if you buy them in bulk. They say that they come with instruction on how to reattach original chips onto their cartridges.

My understanding is that to do that, I would have to glue them to the replacement cartridges every time I replace one.

Which brings me to a question.

1. How many times can I reattach these Canon chips before they become unusable?

2. Should I go another route and just start refilling the Canon cartridges instead of buying 3rd party and reattaching chips?

3. Which method will give me better results, cheaper ink, and most importantly, damage my printer the least?

4. Any recommendations for the best places to get my ink or cartridges from? Or should I just stick with Abacus?


Any suggestions would be highly appreciated.

 

[ghwellsjr]

Welcome to the forum, retfeg, and thanks for providing a lot of information in your questions.

First off, I have a question: why did you give up on your non-chipped printers, the iP5000 and the i960? I am still using non-chipped Canon printers just because I don't want to have to deal with the issues the chipped printers have. So you have to understand that my answers are based on my experience with non-chipped printers.

I would never use third party cartridges, simply because I have had bad experiences with them, namely leaking and flow problems. I have concluded that the flow problems are caused by the single piece of foam in most if not all third party cartridges. Canon started off with a single large piece of foam and then switched to a two-foam design in which the two pieces are made of different materials, the bottom one designed to pass ink and the top one designed to pass air. You can do a search to learn the details if you want.

Using only Canon cartridges means buying new ones from them or refilling their cartridges, so for me that means refilling. I have had bad experiences with the more usual method of refilling which is to remove a plug in the tank part to refill it and then resealing the plug. All it takes is for one tiny leak to happen in the plug which will result in all the ink leaking out, making a mess inside your printer and probably contaminating your other cartridges.

There are two methods of refilling that don't involve compromising the integrity of the tank portion of the cartridge. The one I use is vacuum refilling. I have never done this on a chipped cartridge and although it would work to refill it, it would leave the chip soaked in ink. I don't know how successful cleaning and drying the chip would be. Also, vacuum filling is really only feasible if you are doing at least ten cartridges of the same color at a time, at least the way I do it.

But the other way is the German method. I have never done this myself but lots of other people are very happy with it and it really seems like the way to go for people who are refilling just for themselves and especially if they have a chipped cartridge printer.

I use Inktec ink because it has been shown to have the best fade resistance of all the third party inks tested. Since I refill 75 cartridges at a time, I buy ink by the liter, but Inktec also provides ink in small syringes that you can attach a needle to and doesn't require any additional pouring of ink from and back to a bottle. This syringe has the added advantage that the ink left in a large bottle when it gets near empty will not become more concentrated from evaporation. I would even leave the needle on the syringe and plug it after each use.

What I would do if I bought a chipped Canon printer is continue to buy Canon cartridges for a year until the warranty expired, then I would start refilling with the German method using the small Inktec syringes.

I realize I haven't anwered your questions directly but I have given you the bottom line in my opinion.

 

[retfeg]

Thank you so much for such a detailed explanation!

I have switched to iP4500 because my iP5000 died after 5 years of use.
I think, using 3rd party carts had a lot to do with it...

I have read up on some of the methods you suggested and feel that the German way would work the best for me.

When it comes to choosing ink, I would gladly buy Inktec inc. I am in Toronto, and don't really know where to find it here.
I did come across a dealer near me who sells Precision Colors inks.

http://home.eol.ca/~mikling/Inks.html

Is it a good idea to use this ink?

Do you know of a dealer in Toronto I can get Inktec from?

Does Inktec come in bulk? The US site I was looking at only sells it in kits.

http://www.inkjetcartridge.com/bki58bcbundle.html

Thanks.

 

[Smile]

You should try to write them email and ask about bulk ink.
http://www.inktec.com/english/distributor/where_detail.asp?product_flag=OA

 

[fotofreek]

I use Image Specialist inks from Precision Colors in my i960 and ip5000 printers. Very good inks. I used to buy IS inks from MIS, but Precision Colors pricing is better and their service is excellent. AND they are in Canada. MIS inks for the Canon printers are presumed to be IS inks but they can not identify them as IS inks on their site as they also sell other brands of inks.

 

[websnail]

I have switched to iP4500 because my iP5000 died after 5 years of use.
I think, using 3rd party carts had a lot to do with it...

Just a though but an inkjet printer that has lasted for 5 years has done well... They really aren't designed to last much longer than a couple of years because the companies want you to buy the next best thing...

I wouldn't be placing this failure on the doorsteps of 3rd party inks, I'd put it down to component aging in my considered opinion... Just a thought as I said

 

[ghwellsjr]

I'm curious when you say it died--what actually happened? Does it not power up? Does it go through the motions of printing but not printing correctly? Is it a printhead problem? Does it give an error message? And what about your i960?

 

[Trigger 37]

retfeg,... The link you posted in your 2nd note, http://home.eol.ca/~mikling/Inks.html is actually sold by Mike who owns and runs PrecisionColors.com I think his ink, which is really Image Specialist ink, is the best and I don't think you can beat his prices, expecially if you are in Canada. Shipping to the US is always more expensive.

Stay away from moving good chips to junk ink carts. Just buy good ink and refill yourself. This will also help to teach you how to take better care of your printer so it will last 10 years next time.

 

[retfeg]

Thanks very much everybody for good suggestion. I have decided I will be refilling with ink from Precision Colors using the German method.
Any suggestion for a first time user with the Germanmethod of refilling?

 

[jru]

Hi retfeg,

I have been using the german method without problems. See the 2 links at the footer of this post for great resources showing it in great detail. I follow beatlenut's suggestion to use a push pin to make the hole. It makes just the right size hole. Push it in all the way then, as you pull it out, rotate in 360 degrees so as to make the entrance of the hole a bit bigger. Needle length of 50 cm or longer will work.
Rotate needle as you go in.
It's really quite easy.
Best of luck.