Carts repeatedly lost to mold (?). What to do?

[elenhil]

Hi there! I had the misfortune of switching out my trusty refillable carts for the equally trusty iP4200 back to Canon originals, and now two colours (yellow and, possibly, blue) repeatedly turn dark. Repeatedly because I replaced like three CLI-8Ys. In-printer clearing the colours works, that is, the head isn't clogged. But each new cart is a dead cart walking, so to speak. Granted, they aren't new. (Are there still new CLI-8s being produced? I don't know.) But, presumably, the infection (?) is coming up from the printer head itself, not the carts. Is there something I could do? Like, partially soak the problematic colours with something that will kill the infection without damaging the head?

 

[The Hat]

(?) is coming up from the printer head itself,

Try giving the purge unit a good clean and flood it with window cleaner to finish..

 

[elenhil]

Try giving the purge unit a good clean and flood it with window cleaner to finish..

Oh. I'm afraid I've never done that. Is 'purge unit' the thing that soaks up the ink from all the maintenance cleaning operations? So there's some disassembly required to clean it?