Does flushing a cart naturally lead to a top fill refill method?

[Big_Al]

You don't need to have an extra hole in the reservoir to flush the sponge unit of your cartridges. Where did that idea come from? But if you have a hole in the side for German refilling, you will have a harder time getting the sponge clean. Why do you want to put any holes in your cartridges when you can flush and refill using the Freedom Refill Method?

It looks like my link doesn't go where I thought it should. The hard rubber ball would be used to seal the hole where the plastic ball was taken out of the cartridge. A question about the freedom refill method. Why is there 90 angle from the cartridge to the syringe?
Al

 

[ghwellsjr]

I did look through the Freedom thread. I may have missed a post or two but I didn't find a description of how a cart could be flushed as effectively using this method as compared to the video I posted in msg #3 of this thread.

You can use the exact same method to flush a cartridge that you linked to in post #3. All that happens when you put a hole in the top of the cartridge above the reservoir side is that some ink along with a lot of water goes in the reservoir and out the hole. But the sponge is flushed by ink and water going out the existing air vent hole. My point is that if you want to keep your cartridges pristine by not poking holes in them, you can flush using the method in the video and then refill using the Freedom Method.

By the way, which Freedom thread did you look through?

 

[tony22]

By the way, which Freedom thread did you look through?

This one.

http://www.nifty-stuff.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=6750

I must be dense. If I don't pull the ball out of the cart, then how does the flushing water "flush out" of the cartridge? Through the tiny little vent path? Wouldn't that take a lot longer?

 

[ghwellsjr]

There was a passing mention in post #25 of purging a cartridge using the Freedom Method apparatus but with the tape removed from the air vent. It's not really ideal because the apparatus was never meant to support pressure from the plunger. But you can repeatedly refill and empty a cartridge with water using the apparatus (with the tape secured over the air vent), but this takes a long time.

If you look carefully at the cartridge flushing video, you will see that the bottom of the sponge gets immediately clean as water goes from the outlet port through the bottom of the sponge, into the reservoir and out the refill hole, but the top of the sponge does not experience any of this water flow. Instead, it is depending on the water flowing through the entire sponge and out the air vent hole. It's very hard to see the water coming out the air vent hole in the video but it is apparent in a few places, especially towards the end. And if you don't have a refill hole in the reservoir, this process will happen a lot quicker because all the water will flow through all the sponge instead of most of it flowing through just the bottom half.

 

[tony22]

If you look carefully at the cartridge flushing video, you will see that the bottom of the sponge gets immediately clean as water goes from the outlet port through the bottom of the sponge, into the reservoir and out the refill hole, but the top of the sponge does not experience any of this water flow. Instead, it is depending on the water flowing through the entire sponge and out the air vent hole. It's very hard to see the water coming out the air vent hole in the video but it is apparent in a few places, especially towards the end. And if you don't have a refill hole in the reservoir, this process will happen a lot quicker because all the water will flow through all the sponge instead of most of it flowing through just the bottom half.

So you're thinking if I try this pressurized pump method, but without the ball pulled from the cart, it should still work - maybe even a bit better for the sponge (if a bit slower)?

 

[ghwellsjr]

I said "a lot quicker" not "a bit slower". But you will still have a little residual ink in the reservoir although, chances are, some water will find its way in there and you can slosh it around to clean up the reservoir and then you have to let it drain out. The Freedom method provides an easy way to quickly drain the ink from your sponge, reservoir and air vent pathway.

 

[fotofreek]

I still do top filling, and purging is really fast. After initially purging with hot tap water through the ink outlet ( with the simple tool described by Grandad in his original thread) I turn the cart around and run the hot tap water through the air vent for a few seconds. then reverse and finish by running the water through the outlet again for less than a minute. To get the sponge area clean I hold my finger over the ink fill hole at the top of the reservoir, and this forces more water out the air vent All of this takes about 2-3 minutes, start to finsh.

 

[tony22]

I'll have to look up that original thread where Grandad described this.

I just figured any method of purging that didn't have the stopper ball pulled out would take more time to do.

 

[fotofreek]

I'll have to look up that original thread where Grandad described this.

Here is my post with the picture of the device I made for a few dollars worth of hardware store items. http://www.nifty-stuff.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=311&p=3 . the entire thread is on the following link - http://www.nifty-stuff.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=311&p=1