Durafirm

[Danl]

I've been refilling my inkjet printers for many years now (I'm using a Canon iP4300). I use it only for printing text on office paper, so my refills are all aimed exclusively at the large black tank, which is conventionally a PG-5BK. Of course, most inexpensive black refill ink is now Durafirm, but I've been unable to find out anything about it online. I've been very happy with the stuff, at least as purchased from Atlantic, Refillbay, etc. I've printed probably fifty reams of documents over the last few years, and almost all of it has been done with the same cartridge refilled with Durafirm! Your results may vary, but mine have been very good. I once cleaned the printhead, but other than that, have never had to do anything to the printer.

As best as I can tell, Durafirm is a dye-based ink that has smudge and lifetime properties that are comparable to older pigment-based inks. Although PG-5BK cartridges are nominally for pigment inks, the Durafirm ink works great in it, at least for me. The ink resellers never quite tell you that. Is that, in fact, true in general, or have I just been lucky? Is there any kind of technical report available on Durafirm?

 

[The Hat]

Danl
Technically you should have used pigment ink in that cartridge.
But if you are happy with the quality and performance then keep on using it.

I would not be worried about the origin of the ink at all as it has not done your printer any harm up to now,
but would advise just doing a nozzle check once a week just to keep the colours from clogging up.

It was good to hear your success story with the use of 3rd party inks no matter what they were.
Happy Printing..

 

[Danl]

Thanks. I'm not sure what "technically" means, though. Is there a technical reason why dye based ink shouldn't work in a PG-5BK cartridge? I'm not even aware of a bulk ink reseller that sells pigment-based black anymore.

There is no question that the cartridge manufacturers want you to pay extra for their pigment-based ink and, to the extent that it isn't available in bulk, buy new cartridges all the time, but that's a fiscal reason, and not a technical one. If there is a reason that PG cartridges need pigment based ink (aside from the fact that there is a big "PG" on the side), I'd really like to hear it. I gather that dye-based cartridges (e.g. CLI-8BK) should not be filled with pigment ink, as they will clog, but I've never seen any technical explanation about that.

I remember in the early days of ink refilling, the printer forums were full of people giving dreadful warnings about the use of "third party ink". There may have been some rationale for that then but, as far as I can tell, at least with Durafirm black, those warnings are no longer justified.

Is Durafirm actually produced by one company and distributed (in barrels, tanker cars??) to bulk-ink retailers, or is it a recipe that bulk-ink retailers use themselves to make up batch? In the former case, I would think that quality control would be much less of an issue. Also, are there different kinds of Durafirm ink for different printers? Different viscosity, carrier/solvent mix, etc? Again, the composition, properties, and origin of Durafirm are somewhat mysterious.

 

[The Hat]

Danl
Thanks. I'm not sure what "technically" means, though.
Is there a technical reason why dye based ink shouldn't work in a PG-5BK cartridge?
I'm not even aware of a bulk ink reseller that sells pigment-based black anymore.

What I meant by technically was simply that the PGI-5BK cartridge should have pigment in it not dye ink.
When you use pigment for your text the output quality is usually much better than with dye ink also the text is water and smudge proof.

Pigment is not much dearer than dye ink it is just that the cartridge is much bigger so it costs a little extra.
I dont know anything about Durafirm inks but it is clear that they dont sell pigment inks so cant help you with that one.

I would however be able to direct you to where you can get some good quality pigment / dye ink
for your printer if I knew where in the world you are based as you didnt put it in your profile..

 

[pharmacist]

One second: is this an attempt of subtile product placement/spam by wrapping the product as a question ??? The product seems to be good as hell and mentioned more than several times in the "question" and thereby forcing anyone to answer the "question one way or another and when the "question" is answered unsatisfactory to the topic starter -which is always unsatisfactory due to the nature of the way the question is put together- the question following on the first attempt of answering is mentioning the same company again.....several times again and so on and on...

 

[Danl]

One second: is this an attempt of subtile product placement/spam by wrapping the product as a question ??? The product seems to be good as hell and mentioned more than several times in the "question" and thereby forcing anyone to answer the "question one way or another and when the "question" is answered unsatisfactory to the topic starter -which is always unsatisfactory due to the nature of the way the question is put together- the question following on the first attempt of answering is mentioning the same company again.....several times again and so on and on...

Um, no. I don't work for any company having anything to do with printers or inks, nor do I have investments in any such companies. I print research documents at a university. But I respect your comment. I don't like it when people use forums to advertise ... if that's what your very long sentence means.

If you have some documented insights about third party ink, please let us hear about them. The interesting thing about this one is that lots of bulk ink dealers seem to sell it. It's not "Joe's Trustworthy Ink" sold by Joe, or "Bill's Great Ink" sold by Bill.

There were two question marks in my original post. They were questions of a technical and marketing nature, and were not subtle, I think. Two specific questions that I really wanted the answers to, and still do. My comments about Durafirm were simply to let people know, in case anyone was interested, that this one ink, that seems to be sold by lots of discount bulk ink sellers, is something that in my albeit limited experience, seems to work well in a cartridge for which you can't get original (e.g. pigment based) bulk ink. I'd welcome remarks from people who have had bad experiences with it. The information provided by online ink sellers about it is essentially zero/nada. As far as I know, none of the sellers even specify whether it is dye- or pigment-based. You call it a "product". Well, I'm not sure what it is. If it's an ink recipe that lots of ink sellers use to make themselves, then it is not, in itself, a "product" any more than a food recipe is a product.