Canon Pro 100 - Refilling Strategy/Dilemma? Questions

[Dre]

Hello everyone,

Im currently an new owner of a Canon pro 100 and ive been loving every second so far. Im still running on OEM inks and plan to switch on over to third party inks from precsion colors inks.

I have a few carts that are going to run out faster then others obviously, and some are nearly fully. When ONE cart goes to the "LOW" warning do i put all of them out and swap them with the new spare full OEM carts i purchased, and modify ALL the SETUP carts including the practically full ones too? Will I cause any complications modifying all 8 carts even the full ones? I want to minimize the amount of ink being used and avoid as much purge cycles as possible.

I know Jose Rodriguez on youtube mentions that swapping the whole set out even when one goes low. Then you place your second set of OEM carts in and modify your setup ones at ease. This way you minimize the amount of purge cycles.

I aware of the yellow cart as well. And i plan on reusing it and flushing it with windex with ammonia D and wicking it dry and weighing it to 13.6 to 14 grams dry.

Please guide me if im wrong and any suggestion on what i should do in my scenario.

Im sure someone asked this in the site already previously but it was a bit unclear to me. So this would be awesome to get fresh feedback and knowledge.

 

[The Hat]

@Dre, It sounds like you got most things in hand, but don’t be to bother about swapping out all your cartridges at this stage, just do them one at a time for now and enjoy the OEM ink for a long as possible.

If you get to low on the first cart, just pop in a new or refilled one and carry on, only when you get down to your last 2 is it time to think about the other options you mentioned.

Just have a spare set ready to replace each cart as they go low, and you can refill each cart at a later stage, there’s no need to purge the ink out of any of the carts other than the yellow, as mentioned.

Don’t use the carts beyond low ink warning, because that makes your refills more reliable, but you can do so with the yellow one, run it till it’s declared empty, then it’s time to purge the cart for refilling, and I reckon you know the procedure for that already.

Yellow Gello in a print head is a real game changer for photographers, it doesn’t ruin the print head, but it does take time to work its way out and it will recover will no long-term ill effects, just don’t panic and destroy the head with external cleaning, patients is your friend...

Everybody seems to love Jóse..

 

[Dre]

@The Hat thank you so much for the speedy reply lol.

Okay so as soon as 1 OEM setup cart goes LOW, i will simply just remove that one and pop in a fresh OEM one and continue with the remaining 7 OEM setup carts until all 8 have fully been changed to the second OEM carts.

Then as 1 of carts from the second set of OEM carts goes LOW, ill now be replacing that cart with a modified setup cart with PC inks right? Again ill do this 1 at a time as each one of the second OEM carts goes low to get out as much from OEM ink possible right?

As i continue to swap out my second set of OEM carts out 1 at a time, ill will be running a mixed batch of OEM and PC inks together. Which i believe is totally fine from what i heard. Correct me if im misguided lol.

So its only when i have 2 remaining OEM carts left from the second set of OEM carts, i should consider doing the full 8 cart swap with PC ink carts correct?

I might be confusing to follow maybe idk, but i hope you can see the process im thinking of doing above. Any tips and suggestions is greatly appreciated.

...........................................................................

I think everyone loves Jose because he made such good videos on youtube which many people can understand and follow along. I like to believe most of us are visual learners and appreciate those videos he makes more then going on a site and looking for the answer.

Me personally i love this site because of guys like yourself @The Hat and @stratman and many others here have such awesome tips and knowledge and expriences with printers. Plus having speedy reply is a bonus to me.

So i value everyone here equally as much as jose because you guys know just as much more or less as him. He just does a great job with showing it through his video, which is awesome for our community as printers.

 

[stratman]

When you replace a cartridge there may be a maintenance ink purge. Therefore, replacing all cartridges when one cartridge is marked a "Low" will reduce the amount of maintenance ink purges over the life of your printer. Then you refill all the cartridges you pulled as needed, reset their chips, put the orange clips back on them (if you still have them), and store them in a sealed container till needed. It is generally recommended to reset the chips before refilling to reduce risk of dripping.

The reason you refill the cartridge when "Low" is that at this point the sponge side is still full of ink. Continuing to use the cartridge, as the forum wisdom goes, exposes the sponge to air causing ink to begin to dry and gunk up the sponge, which eventually decreases the amount of ink you can refill and, even worse, begins to cause ink flow problems ultimately leading to ink starvation and possible print head nozzle burn out. By keeping the sponge wet with ink and not exposed to drying air you may not have to flush the cartridge, at least for many more refills otherwise.

The reason you can use the OEM CLI-42 Yellow cartridge till marked "Empty" is because you are going to either throw it away or flush it with Windex with Ammonium D (Original formula) before refilling - the fix for gunked up, poor ink flowing sponge.

Except for the Yellow cartridge (Yello Gello), you can mix OEM ink with an aftermarket ink like Precision Color. There may be a change in the colors printed - a color shift - but that will go away after a few refills. You may not notice much at all or only a little bit. If this is not acceptable to you then flush the cartridge and then refill. Don't forget to reset the chip.

Concerning how to handle a brand new set of OEM cartridges like you have with your new printer... use them until marked Low and then pull them one by one as they are marked Low. Or, pull all of them when one is marked Low if you really want to be hardcore about waste ink purges. It really is up to you.

PS -- if you think you are going to loving your Pro 100 for a long time, consider getting a second spare printer or at least a spare new print head off eBay, Canon Sales or wherever you find a good price. You never know when you may need it and the prices will probably never be better.

Have fun!

 

[The Hat]

because you guys know just as much more or less as him. He just does a great job with showing it through his video

Guess where Jóse learned all his good tips from.... HERE on Nifty.....
Read it here first, then see it later by Jóse....

 

[stratman]

Guess where Jóse learned all his good tips from.... HERE on Nifty.....

He owes Rob royalties.

 

[The Hat]

He owes Rob royalties.

Ha bloody ha...He can go West...

 

[stratman]

He can go West...

Isn't he down South?

 

[websnail]

Just to interject a couple of points based on my own experience and therefore just my own opinion.

1. If colour stability is key (eg: You want to profile ASAP) then draining, flushing(?) and re-priming with your new ink is essential

2. If you can handle colour variance then waiting on individual cartridges to empty before refilling is something you'll only ever do to a max of 8 times before you can switch to the full-set-swap approach.
Caveat: As per @stratman 's point about the sponges; If you're taking a long time to empty each cartridge (read: 6+ months) or you're in a hot/dry climate then you might want to consider abbreviating the process and drain/flush groups of low carts sooner rather than later.

3. Don't forget you can use the CLI-8Y carts as alternatives (with a chip swap) to the CLI-42Y flush process.

4. I personally wouldn't recommend topping-up / mixing part filled cartridges as your colour will vary for a significant period of time and, if I'm honest, I get twitchy about two different formulations co-existing in the same container over time. I'd just avoid it as much as possible myself.

Oh and definitely agree with the "get a spare" suggestion... particularly for the printhead...

 

[rodbam]

I've mixed the Precision color inks with the Canon inks & haven't noticed any problems with the colour reproduction with the dye or pigment inks. Mind you I haven't studied an OEM photo & a mixed ink photo side by side as all I look at is does the print look really good, & they all did.