Ink - BCI 6 and 3eBK - best source for bulk inks - no clog

[ghwellsjr]

If you are going to mothball a printer OR if you are going to ship a printer, you need to remove the cartridges and flush the ink out the print head. On a Canon printer that uses chipless cartridges (BCI-6), this is very easy, just do a bunch of nozzle checks until nothing prints. I'm not sure how to do it with the later models because, as far as I know, they won't print anything unless all the cartridges are install. Maybe you could put a piece of plastic wrap, like Saran Wrap, between the print head and the cartridges so that no ink can be delivered and yet the printer thinks the cartridges are properly installed.

Putting a lot of Windex on the purge pad and closing and reopening the cover should be enough to clean out the purge units.

 

[optimizer]

I didn't know if you'd need to seal the bottom of the head, or do it with some moistened pad, or something like that.
I can't remember how the print head arrived when I purchased the printer new (the i960) - if it had a seal I removed etc.

I only deal with the older printers. I'm planning to stay away from any chip carts.

Thanks

 

[ghwellsjr]

Thanks for reminding me: after you do the nozzle checks to clean as much ink out of the inside of the print head, when you remove the print head from the printer, you'll probably find that the print head has got a lot of residual ink all over the bottom of it. Put some Windex on a paper towel and blot the bottom of the print head until it is clean. Be careful not to turn the print head over until you're done with this process. You don't want residual ink to flow around to the electronics.

And you're right, the print head comes new with an orange clip that protects the nozzles. There is also some kind of liquid that comes inside it but who knows what that is? I think the most important issue is to not have any liquid around that could get where it is not supposed to be. I would just wrap the print head in paper towels, mainly for mechanical protection but also to absorb any stray liquids, and then put the whole assembly in a zip lock bag. You might also put a note in the bag that identifies which printer it came out of and the condition of the print head, like if it had any clogged nozzles.

 

[leo8088]

Ghwellsjr, do you mean cleaning cycles, not nozzle checks, to clean out of the ink inside the print heads? If you use nozzle checks to clean out the ink it may take lots of nozzle checks. Besides, isn't it somewhat a risk of burning out the nozzles when the ink is cleaned out yet it is printing the nozzle check? One cleaning cycle is absolutely enough to clean out all remaining ink in the print head (cartridges removed of course). If the printer use chipped cartridges the cartridges have to be plugged in still so the cartridges need to be completely empty.

Whenever I remove my print head I never find ink on the print head surface. The print head (the shiny chip actually) is always dry and clean. I believe it is supposed to be like that. I don't understand what you meant a lot of residual ink all over the bottom of the print head. I may be misunderstanding what you are talking about here.

I think the oily stuff in a new print head is some kind of mineral oil that will not dry up for a very long time. It is for keeping the nozzles sealed and isolated from invasions of moisture or anything that could cause damages to the nozzles. Long term storage of a print head is very difficult. I lost an almost new print head after storing it for 6 months. I probably did not store it properly.

 

[optimizer]

Another good reason for not buying a "chip" cart printer.
Getting the all the ink out "gently" (not forced out) with windex is probably the key, along with the paper towels and Ziplock.

 

[ghwellsjr]

Leo8088, I did mean nozzle checks, but if your printer is hooked up to a computer, a cleaning cycle would be a better way to go. Usually when I do this, it's with printers that I'm working on that are not connected to any computer. There is no danger of doing nozzle checks even with no ink present as the nozzles are fired just a few times. The nozzle check, by definition, is designed to be safe when there is no ink flow.

The reason that I just do nozzle checks is that my usual way of getting a standalone printer to do a cleaning cycle is to put in an empty (that is the reservoir is empty) cartridge, close and open the lid, and then put in a full cartridge and doing that would simply deposit more ink into the print head. Maybe the best thing to do is put in the empty, close and open the lid, put in a full, close and reopen the lid, remove the full and then do a nozzle check. That's a good idea, thanks for asking about this.

Last night, I was helping a friend with his MP780. When I removed the print head after doing a bunch of nozzle checks, the print head had a lot of residual ink all over the bottom of it. He had been doing a lot of cleanings to get one of the colors to work. It is completely clogged. So it may be that when things are going well, the print head is clean but when it is not working correctly, it can accumulate the residual ink. Also, the wiper blades were totally covered with gunky ink which probably contributed to the messy print head. I showed him how to use Windex on the purge pads and the wiper blades using Q-tips (cotton swabs).

 

[QE2]

Hello,
An update and a question (2):
inkjetcartridge.com no longer sells the 3eBK pigment ink. They shipped me the regular black 8050b instead.
I called and they said the 3e is no longer manufactured.
questions:
1) can you use the regular black ink instead of the 3e pigment black?
2) what's the next best pigment black ink out there? I already have the syringes that I can refill for injection if necessary...
Thanks and regards to all!

 

[turbguy]

Hobbicolors Black Pigment ink works for me!

 

[ghwellsjr]

Hello,
An update and a question (2):
inkjetcartridge.com no longer sells the 3eBK pigment ink. They shipped me the regular black 8050b instead.
I called and they said the 3e is no longer manufactured.
questions:
1) can you use the regular black ink instead of the 3e pigment black?
2) what's the next best pigment black ink out there? I already have the syringes that I can refill for injection if necessary...
Thanks and regards to all!

I'm sure glad you found this out. About a month ago, I ordered a box of ten BCI-3eBk bottles and ten PGI-5Bk bottles from inkjetcartridge.com because I wanted to run some comparison tests to see if the newer pigment black ink would clog the purge system just like the older one did. I haven't started testing but it sure would have been confusing to me to be testing black dye ink when I thought I had black pigment ink. When I placed the order, it didn't arrive in its normal time frame and I eventually called and was told that it would be shipped overnight that day. When it didn't arrive after several more days, I called again and was told that they had to wait for a shipment from Korea. It then arrived shortly thereafter. Now I understand why. They discovered the old pigment black ink was no longer available and substituted the dye black ink instead without telling me.

So, to answer your questions:
1) No, the regular black is dye ink. You don't want to use it in the wide cartridge. If you want to use Inkteck, you could substitute the PGI-5Bk ink instead but until I can test whether it has the same problem as the older pigment, I wouldn't trust it.
2) As turbguy suggested, you could use Hobbicolors, I have tried their ink and it works fine as far as not smearing when the printed text gets wet or when a highlighter is used on it. Another popular pigment black ink is Image Specialists sold by Precision Colors (user mikling here on the forum) in Canada and by user Websnail in the UK. I have not tested either of these inks for their clogging vulnerability but they have a lot of users and no one has attributed the clogging problem to any ink other than Inktec pigment.

 

[pharmacist]

If you are in the EU: try the KMP Pigment ink for the BCI-3eBK/PGI-5/PGI-520/220 cartridges. It flows very well and does not clog the purging unit nor the nozzles very easily. This is ink is very well priced and completely water/highlighter proof.

At Druckerchannel.de a lot of people are complaining about the Intec pigment ink clogging the printhead and the purge unit. This can be solved by either mixing the ink with 20-25 % dye ink or using KMP pigment ink instead.

Hobbicolors, Image Specialists, OCP and Inktec (dye only) and KMP pigment ink are the beste refill inks now available on the market for refilling. I am now testing the IRK-4 nano pigment inks in my Epson Pro 3800 printer and the results till now, seem to be very good.