German "Durchstich" refill method for the PGI-520/CLI-521 cartridges

[ghwellsjr]

I recommend sealing the German refill hole to prevent two potential problems:

First, leaving the hole unsealed allows the daily fluctuations in ambient air pressure to gradually dry out the water in the ink and make it more concentrated.

Second, leaving the hole unsealed can interrupt the normal air flow in the cartridge resulting in an ink flow problem. The air normally flows through the air vent above the sponge compartment down through the upper sponge to the groves that go half way up the wall separating the two compartments and into the hole at the bottom of that wall to replace the ink in the reservoir that is drawn out of the cartridge. Instead, as the print head attempts to suck more ink out of the cartridge, it just gets air.

You don't need a seal as good as the one you would need for refilling at the top of the cartridge, just a small piece of flexible tape will do.

 

[pharmacist]

Hobbicolors must be purchased directly from Hobbicolors (just search on ebay: hobbicolors UW-8). Your i9100 uses a six colour system (cyan, magenta, yellow, photoblack, photomagenta, photocyan). The IP6600D is the reference set you must choose for your i9100.

ghwellsjr favours sealing the hole, I personally never experienced problems with a open refill hole even after 2 months stand still of my Canon i9950. Def2k, a german guy, who has introduced this refill method on this forum, never seals the refill hole too like me. It just prints directly without any problems and no air being sucked into the sponge at all. However you can take some tape to close the refill hole if you wish.

 

[IanYY]

... (just search on youtube: hobbicolors UW-8) ....

I think you might mean search on ebay.com for "Hobbicolors".
Or search on ebay.co.uk, making sure you include international sellers.

Ian

 

[pharmacist]

Hi Ianyy,

yes slip of the pen, haha.... I will correct it.

 

[JoePineapples]

Hobbicolors are great I have used them for 2 years with no problems they ship to japan fine and they were well packed too

On my second refill with German method and it's fine

Joe

 

[paulcroft]

Pharmacist and others

Thanks for your replies. All advice taken on board.

Paul

 

[jimbo123]

Paul

welcome to the group

been refilling for 2 years now, german method, hobbicolors ink, still refilling my orig 4 CLI color dye carts

just passed my 100'th refill today

lot of good info and people willing to help here

J

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Printers: Canon Pixma MP830, IP4500(spare), MP830(2 spares)
Method: German Durchstich Method using Canon Cartridges
Ink: Hobbicolors, great guy to deal with
Misc: Squeeze bottles, needles, scabbards from Howard Electronics

 

[paulcroft]

Jimbo

That's a great recommendation. And yes, I'd got the impression, reading other posts, that this was definitely the place to come for good advice.

If you've used Hobbicolor inks all this time have you noticed any variation in colours? I will recalibrate my printer once I've purged all the original Canon inks and I'd be interested to know what sort of consistency to expect.

Paul

 

[jimbo123]

sorry, not much color printing here, so best to let others comment.

i take the simplistic approach, have never calibrated, purged carts or sealed the refill hole. now up to 100 refills.

i have graduated to using squeeze bottles, makes refilling and cleaning up even simpler.

for some pics and discussion re squeeze bottles see:
http://www.nifty-stuff.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=4450

J

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Printers: Canon Pixma MP830, IP4500(spare), MP830(2 spares)
Method: German Durchstich Method using Canon Cartridges
Ink: Hobbicolors, great guy to deal with
Misc: Squeeze bottles, needles, scabbards from Howard Electronics

 

[pharmacist]

Paulcroft,

the colours of the UW-8 inkset is so good, that I onced had a IX4000, which uses only 3 colours to print its photo's: cyan, magenta, and yellow. The pigmented PGI-5Bk is ommitted during photoprinting and I was actually astonished by the vivid and beautiful colours it gave on photo paper. Even better compared to my Canon i9950 printing the same image using original Canon BCI-6 inks, which happens to be an 8-colour printer. There was more saturation and detail with only 3 UW-8 inks than the 8 colours of the Canon i9950 using original ink. I am sure you will get very good and consistent colours with the Hobbicolors UW-8 inks if you purge the Canon cartridges first and refill them all at the same time with Hobbicolors UW-8 ink.