Canon Pixma Pro 100s - "yellow jello" issue

[Roberto Smith]

I have been using a Canon Pixma Pro 100s for a couple of years now to print custom posters, stickers etc that I sell as a serious hobby. I switched from the OEM inks almost straight away to using inks from a company called OctoInk (I'm in the UK). I didn't clean out the ink cartridges first, I just started using the replacement inks with the still-ink-soaked sponges of the original Canon cartridges. Over the last 2 years everything seems to have gone well.

About a week ago I bought a back-up printer, another Canon Pixma Pro 100s. It currently still has the original OEM cartridges from Canon, about 1/2 full as the previous owner didn't use it much. I was going to use the same method and just wait until the Canon inks report empty, make holes in the top and top-up using the third party inks.

I have recently being told about the potential "yellow jello" effect that mixing the original OEM inks with third party inks can have. This is a phenomenon where the inks aren't compatible and cause the mixed inks to partially solidly and form clumps, having potentially disastrous result on the print head (i.e. knackering it completely and requiring you to buy a new one).

However...as I wasn't aware of this problem when I bought my first printed, I just topped up all the original cartridges with the third party ink without cleaning them first. I never noticed any issues at all with this...so is this a real problem??? If so how likely is it, and what should I do? Do I need to clean the print head as well as the cartridge? The cartridge clean is maybe not so bad, but the whole printhead in considerably harder as I'd have to soak it in cleaning fluid, wash it through, rinse it, dry etc. Not an impossible take but a potentially lengthy one!

Advice appreciated.

 

[The Hat]

Advice appreciated.

As you have been operating your printer without any issues for quite some time, that should tell you that you have nothing to worry about, secondly the Yello Gello issue has now since pasted.

It use to happen with the older inks when the Pro 100 first came out, but the suppliers changed their inks for a better formula that now doesn’t react to the OEM yellow anymore..

If it does ever happen to you, it doesn’t damage the print head, it just clogs it up in places and you can’t get a good nozzle print out, but with a little bit of cleaning and using only OEM yellow the issue clears up by itself.

Now that you got a second Pro 100, remember not to let the cartridges be declared empty, because if you do, you will have problems later with ink starvation, and the only way to solve that problem would be to completely flush the carts with water and dry them out, to reuse..

 

[Roberto Smith]

Okay great thanks for the reply and the advice!

 

[websnail]

Erm.... Just to note... The yellow jello issue isn't so much dead as most folk have learned to avoid it.

Personally I would recommend either switching out your CLI-42Y cartridges with CLI-8Y's complete with a chip swap (so the printer reads the correct 42Y chip) and be 100% certain it's not going to become an issue or get properly flushed 42Y cartridges so again you don't have to worry.

The reason I say this is because our version 1 inks weren't affected by the yellow jello issue in the main BUT we noticed that we were getting outliers where people would start to get clogging happening anywhere from 6 months to 2 years later. The best guess we could make as to cause was that users were washing their kit with tap water and then using them without drying them thoroughly and this was enough to cause the jello issue to start forming.

I know someone did a video about all of this recently which had a string of suggestions that were based solely around ink compatibility but for the reasons stated above I would still recommend you go with the surrogate or thoroughly cleaned approach to avoid it potentially biting you in the butt later.

 

[SkedAddled]

If you have any remaining concerns about the Yello JeLL-O,
simply flush the yellow cartridge(s) with Windex or whatever similar
is available where you are. It seems that some small amount of ammonia
is the secret to properly-flushed yellow cartridges to beat the issue.

I've flushed all of mine in the same way, possibly wasting time and Windex.

Someone suggested flushing the cartridge then simply filling it with Windex
for a period of time, which makes more sense than constant flushing, and
it worked well for them. Rinse, dry, then refill.
It seems to work well.