German refill went kaput

[rodbam]

I see thanks Mike. Well I've flushed out the leaking cartridges & let them wick over night & for about 3 hours today. I then tried the German method just to make it sure it was the saturated with ink sponges that was the problem & they both filled up quite nicely so it must have been the fully saturated sponges causing the problem. From now on I will only top up cartridges with some ink left in them by the top fill method. I think the sponges must have still been a bit damp because the ink really sucked up to the top of the sponges far too quickly & I had to be careful as that happened but I kept my finger pressed over the maze vents so I could get enough ink in. I've just printed out about 10 A4s & everything seems to be fine. This has been a good learning curve that's for sure.

 

[barfl2]

Pharmicist Thanks for your comments on the HP364 carts. I knew you could not use the German method on the standard ones and originally used the Intec kits but you are advised only to put in 3ml so that does not last very long. When I had some XL carts I had mixed results with the German method particularly with the pigment black. For some reason could not get the needle right through. Today I cut the top of a standard Cyan cart and there is a cut-out in the TOP of the partion between the ink chamber and the sponge side. As you say no ink is in there. Sponge is 2 part aka Canon the labryinth is somewhat different like a coil spring.When you cut the label off there is a hole directly into the sponge area. I suppose you could drip ink in there ?. Unfortunately I do not have any of the XL ones to take apart to where the ink feed is. Shame about no restter yet there are a lot of HP Printers out there.

Milking perhaps the Pigment cart I just refilled but did'nt show on a nozzle ckeck had a lock-out. Anyway going back to an original solved the problem and my MP760 is fine again.

barfl2

 

[ThrillaMozilla]

Today I cut the top of a standard Cyan cart and there is a cut-out in the TOP of the partion between the ink chamber and the sponge side.

Yes, that's not the XL cartridge. The one you cut up holds a few smudges of ink in a sponge. The XL cartridge has the cut-out at the BOTTOM, so ink can run from the empty chamber to the sponge.

the labryinth is somewhat different like a coil spring. When you cut the label off there is a hole directly into the sponge area. I suppose you could drip ink in there ?

Yes, I posted a picture somewhere. I'm sure you could put ink there, but you already have the InkTec system. I would weigh the cartridges, though, to see how much you need to add. 3 mL doesn't go very far, but the sponge just won't hold a whole lot more. I'll bet the original cartridge didn't last long either, did it? Buy a set of XL cartridges and don't cut them up.

 

[barfl2]

ThrillaMozilla Thanks for confirming there is a hole directly into sponge area with the XL carts. I struggled with the German method but you could presumably drill a hole and topfill into ink chamber and then plug in the usual way ?. I also tried refillable aftermarket carts but spongeless. In the end I got fed up with all the warnings, continually head cleaning. was very noisy as well. So I sold it and my Canon MP760 is older technology but suits me better. But if my Daughter wants her HP carts re-filled I shall have to look at it again. You were right about very low page yield with those basic carts. should'nt be allowed in my opinion its a rip-off

barfl2

 

[websnail]

What happened? Well I have two guesses and I might be wrong so read as speculation only. When I vacuumed just the ink out; could the vacuuming process have created foam within the sponge? With the CLI-221 I could not tell. Or, when I started to remove all the ink, did the air from the vacuum passing through the sponge begin to dry the remaining traces of ink out, making the ink appear to be thick and goopy? Thus the refill would not feed ink nicely..just like an old dried out cartridge.

I don't know whether either of the above or both or something else caused it, but when I flushed with water to remove all the ink, I was back to good printing again. I guess I would surmise that the more ink you remove from the sponge the better the result will be. Sometimes shortcuts are not good. Lesson learnt.

Just to add my own observations on this as it seems to bear out what you experienced from a slightly different angle.

I've found that if you release the pressure on a SquEasyFill bottle when the needle is in the sponge then you can create the same kind of effect. At a guess it sucks the ink out of the sponge via the exit port and creates a sort of foam barrier in that area, of the sort we used to see in Epson cartridges before many of them went spongeless. The solution in Epsons was to draw the ink out of the exit port but that's a lot harder in Canons as there's not really a tool for it at present. So for Canons, best to suck out the ink as much as possible before flushing the cartridge and then refill again as Mikling described.

 

[ThrillaMozilla]

Sorry for the delay in answering. I've been gone.

...you could presumably drill a hole and topfill into ink chamber and then plug in the usual way ?

No, you have to make some other internal changes as well. There is probably an opening at the top of the wall between the chambers, that must be plugged. You would probably also have to create a series of vertical grooves that must be done just right. This is much too hard. Better just to buy a set of XL cartridges and refill them, I think. You can also refill the non-XL cartridges, of course, if you like to refill fairly frequently. Yes, a big rip-off.

I also tried refillable aftermarket carts but spongeless.

Certain disaster. The sponge is REQUIRED for that printer, to keep ink from leaking out. Too late, I guess.

 

[nanosec]

How embarrassing, I've just noticed I'm an inkjet master, you wouldn't think so with my post above & my hands covered in magenta & cyan ink a

LOL

 

[ThrillaMozilla]

Yeah, likewise. I've done some refilling, but I haven't used the refilled cartridges. I'm still waiting for the OEM cartridges to empty.