Capacities for the new Canon PGI-550/CLI-551 cartridges

[PeterBJ]

Knowing that Dutch has some similarities with both Danish and German, I was able to turn a Google translation from Dutch to English into something understandable. I guess that this is a fairly accurate translation:

1. Remove the label at the top of the cartridge. Below is a fill hole, sealed with a small plastic ball. Remove the ball using the supplied tool.
2. Attach the original clip to the ink outlet before refilling the cartridge. This ensures the cartridge will not leak during the refill process.
3. Hold the cartridge at an angle of 45 with ink outlet pointing upwards, so that the reservoir is pointing downwards.
4. Fill the cartridge with the correct ink through the filling hole until ink appears at the fill hole.
5. Allow the cartridge to rest diagonally. The ink will slowly be pulled into the sponge. Fill the tank again.
6. Close the fill hole with the supplied rubber ball and the cartridge is ready.

This is a variation of the top fill method, but I don't get the idea of holding the cartridge at a 45 angle. I think this will only allow very little ink to be filled into the cartridge? See the little figure in the .pdf named "Hoek van 45"

 

[mikling]

The tilt is likely used to prevent over filling of the sponge. It is a neat trick but it also prevents you from filling the reservoir as well. Whether it is the std or XL , the fact that the sealing ball hole is so close to the wall, will allow you to do this and not sacrifice too much capacity in the reservoir when this is used.

The con to this is that if you fill in too much ink, and it overflows, it will head to the chip quickly. Seeing that the chip is sealed with adhesive, this should not be a big problem. All in all, I think I like this refinement to the top fill actually.

 

[PeterBJ]

You are right. The ink reservoir in the cli-8 cartridge in the little figure "Hoek van 45" can of course be filled more than shown in the figure, maybe up to 90%. I was fooled by the drawing showing only a little ink in the reservoir. So I think it might be worth giving this method a try with top filling a CLI-x26 cartridge.

 

[mikling]

Without realizing it, I had been using this tilt arrangement and never really noted it actually. It is thus recommended on all top filling arrangements if the top fill hole is close to the separating wall.

 

[The Hat]

Without realizing it, I had been using this tilt arrangement and never really noted it actually. It is thus recommended on all top filling arrangements if the top fill hole is close to the separating wall.

Can you elaborate on that a bit more Mikling, its not quite getting through to me.

 

[mikling]

To fill the reservoir side to the max possible. If you tilt the cartridge so that the fill hole occupies the highest point of the reservoir, you will get a little bit more in. Sponge side up, reservoir side down. If you dont't seal the vent, with the tilt that is ok as well. The level of ink on the sponge side will not rise more than the fill point to enter the air vent maze as that will be higher than the fill hole. When the fill hole is sealed and the cartridge is level, the sponge side ink will level out and never be as high as the sponge.

Got it?

If not drawing is in order.

 

[mikling]

 

[mikling]

To accomplish this trick, it is best to use the existing ball hole or use a plug that is as near to the separating wall as possible.
I will embody this in my future instructions. Nice refinement actually.

 

[Tudor]

Nice drawing, mikling! I always tilt the cartridge and in 70% of the cases ink comes out of the refill hole and runs down the cartridge. Maybe because I use squeeze bottles and don't have enough control over it. But more ink is getting in than if i were to keep the cartridge straight, so I don't mind cleaning it up.
When tilting the cartridge the cli-8's ink chamber gets almost full, very little air is left inside. On a cli-521/526 you get more air left as the refill hole/tunnel is longer.

 

[ThrillaMozilla]

Mikling, I expect that with this procedure it will leak a few drops from the outlet port, and then stop. And the printer will then clean and burp itself, thereby removing any excess ink and providing a margin of safety. Correct?

And while I have you here, I was just wondering if you have observed whether OEM cartridges ever come with a bubble in the ink reservoir?