ip5000 Printhead

[The Hat]

Most important - you do not want ink above the sponge or blocking the air vent.
This may cause leaking or blocked ink flow.

Thats a good enough reason not to over fill a cartridge all right especially when it concerns Newbies.
But until then the best advice is still only fill to full (or 3mm) from the top so as to avoid these two possibilities..

 

[l_d_allan]

There is no reason to stop at 75% filled in the spongeless side.

Mostly agree, except I'd observe that a limit of 75% full could be problematic.

Some scenarios:

* After flush/purging/drying, the foam/sponge side could resist ink wicking (ink phobic) if was dried too much. A state of barely damp/dry seems ideal. With dry foam/sponges, then after a refill, you may have quite a bit less than 13ml of ink in the CLI-8 (or 9 ml in the 221/226).

* My observation is that modern Canon printers after the BCI-6 generation monitor ink levels strictly by ink drop counting + maintenance cycles. The Low and Empty warnings are calculated rather than visually checked.

* After a reset, the printer assumes the cart is reasonably full with perhaps at least 10ml of 13ml capacity available. I would think it has to be conservative. I believe it will merrily print along even if you only start with 5 to 7ml of ink from less than stellar refilling technique.

* You might very well have the last 5 to 10+ prints made with dry nozzles for that color. Sniff anything? I do NOT love the smell of print-heads in the morning.

* I use traditional top-filling with the reservoir side tilted down so the "vent hole complex" above the sponge/foam side is unlikely to get ink in it. Typically with a cart that reported Empy, the first pass of the ink refill is almost immediately wicked/migrated to the sponge/foam side. 10 to 20 seconds?

* You can almost hear a "giant sucking sound" as the ink in the reservoir may be wicked to nothing left. I infer that the sponge/foam side may hold as much or more than the reservoir side. At this point, the sponge/foam side has a higher level of ink than the reservoir side (which is often empty).

* Then a second pass of the ink refill, and maybe a third to get the reservoir side almost full.

* If the sponge/foam is in poor condition, it may take a while for ink to wick/migrate from the reservoir to the sponge/foam side. You could have the reservoir looking like it was 75% full, put it in the print-head carrier, and close it up. Shortly later, ink would gradually wick/migrate to the sponge/foam side.

* If you then took the cart out and looked at it, the reservoir side might have a lot less ink that you thought it should have. Again, you could have 5 to 10+ prints made with no ink. Sniff? Note that sponge/foam in poor condition further detracts from ink flow.

* Not so bad if the sponge/foam is water saturated from flush/purging and resists wick/migration. Then you end up with diluted ink, but at least the cart probably has 10+ mil of diluted ink.

* BTW, one of the reasons I've stayed with calibrated syringes with milliliter markings rather than squeeze bottles is that I can check just how much ink I put in the cart. If it isn't 10 to 11+ ml, I'm concerned about my technique and/or the condition of the cart.

* I'd suggest that people using squeeze bottle use a syringe with milliliter markings every once in a while as a check on their technique. If a cart that reported Low isn't requiring 8 to 9+ ml to appear full .... hmmmm? If that cart was used to the point of reporting Empty, maybe 10 to 11+ ml should be an expectation. Otherwise it could be Empty well before it reports Low.

My 2 ... sorry for the long post.

 

[mccoady]

The only reason I decided to aim for 75% full was because of Martin's tutorial on his OctoInkjet website but I actually ended up filling the cartridges closer to 80-85% (in the future I may try pushing it to 90-95%).

 

[stratman]

The only reason I decided to aim for 75% full was because of Martin's tutorial on his OctoInkjet website but I actually ended up filling the cartridges closer to 80-85% (in the future I may try pushing it to 90-95%).

OK. Just remember this concerns ONLY the spongeless side!

 

[The Hat]

When refilling the OEM cartridge the sponge tends to absorb more ink that it does when new.
So by only filling the reservoir to 75% there is in fact more ink in the refilled cartridge than there is in a newly purchased one.

The only benefits that can be gained from filling the cartridge more that 75% is that it takes
longer to empty but this only applies to a non chipped cartridge like the CLI-6s..

 

[ghwellsjr]

...a non chipped cartridge like the CLI-6s..

That would be a BCI-6.

 

[The Hat]

Obviously I dont know my BCIs from my CLIs.
Thanks George, I stand corrected..