Magenta 221 Flushing Filling

[mrelmo]

OK I have been refilling for many years and all of a sudden my magenta cartridges will not accept the ink, I have used the conditioning fluid as prescribed by the pharmacist to no avail, these are OEM cartridges that I purchased sometime ago on ebay they are canon 221 cartridges (virgin) most recently I put a new print head in thinking the magenta nozzles were burnt now when I refill I can see that the sponge is not accepting the ink (old ink maybe) in the past when I top filled the sponge would just suck up the ink and I would have to hold my thumb ocer the serpentine hole to prevent the sponge from over filling WHAT IS GOING ON, my next attempt is to fill the cartridge with the conditioning fluid and let it sit over night before refilling.

 

[PeterBJ]

I have also had problems with the PGI-520/CLI-521 cartridges, except for the chip and the label these cartridges are identical to the PGI-220/CLI-221 cartridges. These cartridges seem to be more fragile/temperamental than the older BCI-3e/6 and PGI-5/CLI-8 cartridges.

That the problem shows in magenta cartridges makes me think that the sponges could be clogged by fungus, magenta is the most affected colour, but this has also happened with other colours. But if a "virgin empty" cartridge refuses to absorb the refill ink, I think problems with the refill ink can be ruled out.

There are two sponges in a PGI-x20/CLI-x21 cartridge. The lower sponge is hydrophilic and the upper sponge is hydrofobic. See this post by ghwellsjr.

A simple burn test suggests that both the sponges are made from polypropylene, a material that is normally hydrophobic, so maybe the lower sponges are treated chemically to make them hydrophilic?

I have experienced a Magenta CLI-521 cartridge that suddenly would not deliver or accept ink. I think this was similar to your problem. Link here.

I also think that the sponges in the x20/x21 cartridges are more easily damaged by needles when doing a "German" refill, but if you use the top fill method exclusively, needle damage can be ruled out as a cause of the problems.

My experience with the x20/x21 cartridges is that they need a more frequent flushing than the older cartridges. Maybe flushing the cartridges when they have been refilled five times will be suitable, this works for me. After the flushing I treat the cartridges with pharmacist's conditioning fluid to restore the absorption properties. I think the cartridges work best if they are not bone dry, but slightly moist after the reconditioning.

A new OEM PGI-x20 cartridge weighs 35.3 g with the orange clip and vent sealing tape removed, and the CLI-x21 cartridges weigh 20.2-20.4 g. See this post. So weighing the refilled cartridges can be used as a health check for the sponges/quality control of the refill to determine if they need flushing. I flush the cartridges if a refilled pigment cartridge is more than 2 g underweight and a refilled dye cartridge is more than 1 g underweight.

I have also experienced magenta ink flow problems that were most likely caused by an air lock in the cartridge. This is most likely not the cause of your problems, but this thread has some good suggestions for the causes of ink flow problems. Link here.

 

[The Hat]

@mrelmo, try regenerating the problem cartridge with pharmacist solution, mix 5% propylene glycol, 20% isopropyl alcohol and 75% distilled water, you can get these products in your local drug store.

Put 5 ml of the mix into the reservoir of the effected cartridge but don’t fit the orange clip and leave the cartridge to stand for an hour or so.

Then use ghwellsjr wicking method for only half an hour to draw out most but not all of this mixture, and you can then proceed to refill this cartridge in your normal way.

http://www.printerknowledge.com/threads/draining-a-canon-cartridge.4760/

 

[ThrillaMozilla]

The top "sponge" is not hydrophobic, by the way. They both soaked up ink in GHWellsjr's experiments. Reportedly, one sponge just has a smaller pore size than the other. And Canon does deliver some cartridges with the upper sponge almost filled.

I wouldn't leave too much conditioning solution in the cartridge. You don't want to dilute the ink. I would just leave it overnight if necessary to wick out essentially all the liquid.

Air in a sponge can slow or even prevent absorption. Also, air locks between chambers happen occasionally. Try tapping the cartridges against a table with the ink chamber side up, to dislodge any air bubble. Then see if they start to absorb liquid.

Wait, you say you have multiple cartridges in that condition? Dried out, I guess. Can't rule out fungus either.

 

[mrelmo]

I have been out of town for a few days, I have been using the pharmacist solution, after filling with the solution I normally use a wet dry vac to suck the cartridge dry, so tomorrow I am going to fil a cartridge with the pharmacist solution and let it sit for 24 hours before refilling, I think how the sponge accepts the ink is all telling lately the sponge will not take the ink

 

[pearlhouse]

Maybe I'm missing something here so here goes nothing... I see no mention of first flushing the cart with water before using Phamacists solution. The sponge has to be clean of all the old possibly dried ink before u use the pharm. solution.

 

[The Hat]

@pearlhouse, you’re perfectly right, because we're assuming that @mrelmo would start with water first and then move to using pharmacist solution last..

 

[stratman]

@pearlhouse, you’re perfectly right, because we're assuming ...

From a dictionary somewhere...

Assume: To make an ass out of u and me.

Not that I've ever done this.

 

[mrelmo]

yep definitely flushed with warm water