Is all canon inks same?

[Technician]

@The Hat....just wondering, I believe the PG545 is a Pigment ink and it looks like cemkalaur has a new printer with original ink so he's on Pigment at the moment. If this sales guy has sold him Dye he'll end up mixing inks if he refills that cartridge and that could lead to problems.

 

[The Hat]

however i heard canon does not send full cartridges with printer. should i refill it now or wait until its nearly empty

When the cartridge is showing low ink, that would be the best time to refill, you’ll have more problems trying to get it to print properly if you wait till it's completely empty.

If this sales guy has sold him Dye he'll end up mixing inks if he refills that cartridge and that could lead to problems.

It won’t make any different to the printer, and the cartridge with preform just as well with pigment or dye ink, regardless of which ink he uses...

 

[stratman]

they said "all the canon inks are same you dont need that model number"

They are wrong. Even the Pigment Black ink has changed over the years in Canon printers.

Your MG3051 is a two cartridge printer. The PG-545 (and its larger XL version) contain Pigment Black ink. This is used for text to give sharper letters/numbers, deeper black, and water/highlighter smear resistance. You can refill with Dye-based ink but it will lose the characteristics I just described. It has been claimed on the forum that many an aftermarket "Pigment Black" ink contains no or very little actual pigment. Also, we tend to discourage use of "Universal" inks because they are usually of poor quality and give poorer results. You may be happy with the results. It is an individual thing.

One thing you never want to do is put Pigment Black in a Dye-basd Black ink cartridge. This may clog the nozzles of the print head and cause permanent malfunction.

There are numerous instructions on how to refill the PG-545 on the internet:

https://www.octopus-office.de/info/...k-refill-instructions-canon-pg-545-pg-545-xl/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S75fOiGGdCk

And for the larger PG-545XL -- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=avKVBGGqrKc

Note that you will need to override ink level monitoring. From then on you will need to gauge when to refill and definitely STOP printing as fast as possible if the cartridge runs dry or else burn out the print head. If that happens you will need to buy another cartridge (the print head is on the cartridge itself).

Your other cartridge is the CL-546 that has three separate colors - Cyan, Magenta and Yellow. There is a larger XL version as well. To make Black for images (not text) it mixes the three colors. Blacks may not look as good as the Pigment Black that is used only for text.

A video on refilling the CL-546 -- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AgDglqNkpBA

Good luck.

 

[Technician]

The problem is if you refill a Pigment ink cartridge with Dye ink you will essentially have a mix of the two, at least until such time as the last vestiges of Pigment disappear with subsequent top-ups which could well take a very long time. Therefore the ink that ends up on you print is basically a hybrid concoction...Pigadye
According to the chemist's that design inks for printing the two kinds of ink in question do not mix, and can (but not necessarily would ) damage your print head.
The forums & blogs are full of references to this subject, and the general opinion seems to be use one or the other but not in the same cartridge. The guys on here who are really knowledgeable appear to take a different view though.

 

[cemkalaur]

I dont have another choise he just got that dye ink so we will try and see. Actually i dont need excellent quality i just do some college homeworks and stuff if cartridge is okay with dye ink im okay with poor quality

 

[PeterBJ]

A good dye ink might work better in the black cartridge than an unsuitable or bad quality pigment ink, it can actually work very well. See this thread for tests of different inks for Canon combined sponge/print head cartridges.

 

[cemkalaur]

A good dye ink might work better in the black cartridge than an unsuitable or bad quality pigment ink, it can actually work very well. See this thread for tests of different inks for Canon combined sponge/print head cartridges.

Thank you so much. As soon as my ink runs out i will refill it and see if it works or not. i will definitely notificate you

 

[Technician]

I always liken using Dye in a printer that was designed to use Pigment, to owning a high performance sports car then running it on low grade fuel while telling yourself at the end of the day it doesn't really matter.
You "could" do it but why would you want to ? Black pigment is a printer enhancement, it increases the quality of your printout therefore your whole printing experience, so why not use what you could well have paid extra for anyway ? Odd....

 

[The Hat]

I always liken using Dye in a printer that was designed to use Pigment, to owning a high performance sports car then running it on low grade fuel while telling yourself at the end of the day it doesn't really matter.
You "could" do it but why would you want to ? Black pigment is a printer enhancement, it increases the quality of your printout therefore your whole printing experience, so why not use what you could well have paid extra for anyway ? Odd....

@Technician, you seem hell bent on knocking those that promote the use of dye ink in a pigment cartridge, if forum members want to, then its their own affair, and just as long as its not doing any damage to them or their printer than why keep on about it.

The forums & blogs are full of references to this subject, and the general opinion seems to be use one or the other but not in the same cartridge. The guys on here who are really knowledgeable appear to take a different view though.

WE only recommend the use of something on this forum as a suitable alternative that works as reasonably well as the original product, and the opinion of others elsewhere are just that opinions...

 

[Technician]

@The Hat...Well no offence intended and I sincerely hope none taken.

I did notice the use of the Royal "We" there and as always I speak for myself, again no offence in saying that.
I've used dye ink where Pigment should go and it did not work for me so in my opinion no, don't go there. Let's be absolutely clear though, that's JMO.
I take on board everything I read on this great forum, it goes in one ear and it stays there. Of course I still take in other opinions as well so that I can come to my own conclusions, where would we be if we could not do that.
Obviously any forum member can do whatever they like with their own equipment, although I always take the view they have already made up their own minds anyway and are looking for reassurance.