My MAXIFY 5350 is on refill ink

[palombian]

@palombian, they look mighty impressive compared to my carts which are just a clear box with two holes in the side compares to yours, the OEM colour carts weight in at 64.5 gm and the black is 103.4 gm, if that’s any help.

I got my refillables from Octopus and they are working without a bother, I checked the cyan ink level the other day and when I printed a nozzle check soon afterwards the cyan was completely missing, next day it was back, air probably got in when I remover the cart.

If your still having trouble with these new carts then get some compatibles from 123ink.nl...

Is that the weight of PGI-2500XL or 1500XL ?

Chances are the carts and ink of compatibles is worse than what I have now.

Octopus suggests in some of their instructions refilling OEM's should be the better solution.
Or is it to sell their refill syringes at € 14,99 ( I made them from ballpoint ink tubes) ?

I will see how the OEM's behave when the ink levels in the carts diverge. I will have to run them with ARC's, unless I weigh them from time to time.

Otherwise a reliable transparent refillable (with disabled ink monitoring) would be the best solution.

 

[The Hat]

@palombian, my carts are OEM PGl-2600 but they don’t say XL on the label, they just have set-up wrote on them.

The 123ink branded compatibles are actually very good and so is their inks, I use them in my grandsons Maxify and surprisingly he likes them too, and he’s a 21-year-old know it all Gobshite...

 

[Redbrickman]

Some more annoyances with the ARC's and the Maxify.

Tonight I find a small pool of black on the shelf immediately behind the printhead, that is the little shelf with all the ribs just in front of the rollers. This has had ink leaked onto it when I first started with the ARC's. No problems printing but it concerns me since the loss of ink like that is not good long term for the ink absorber.

If you shine a light into the printer when the heads are parked and look on that little shelf immediately to the left of the print head you will see that it has a semi-reflective strip where the heads stop sometimes to the left of the normal parking place. That is where the ink pools up and it is on the part of the strip which is widest (where the black cart would stop).

So I am thinking about this some more and have a theory. When printing I finds the carts on a long run create a vacuum (at least the black does on my machine and result in ink starvation, the solution being to open the filler plug and vent the tank). So I'm thinking when the pressure stabilises and then the temperature in the room goes up a little then may be they get pressurised and ink gets forced out.

It's a theory but if these leaks continue I will go back to the OEM and try to add the ARC chips to them.

In the pic you can see the strip and the mess that the leaks have made since I started.

 

[palombian]

Some more annoyances with the ARC's and the Maxify.

Tonight I find a small pool of black on the shelf immediately behind the printhead, that is the little shelf with all the ribs just in front of the rollers. This has had ink leaked onto it when I first started with the ARC's. No problems printing but it concerns me since the loss of ink like that is not good long term for the ink absorber.

If you shine a light into the printer when the heads are parked and look on that little shelf immediately to the left of the print head you will see that it has a semi-reflective strip where the heads stop sometimes to the left of the normal parking place. That is where the ink pools up and it is on the part of the strip which is widest (where the black cart would stop).

So I am thinking about this some more and have a theory. When printing I finds the carts on a long run create a vacuum (at least the black does on my machine and result in ink starvation, the solution being to open the filler plug and vent the tank). So I'm thinking when the pressure stabilises and then the temperature in the room goes up a little then may be they get pressurised and ink gets forced out.

It's a theory but if these leaks continue I will go back to the OEM and try to add the ARC chips to them.

In the pic you can see the strip and the mess that the leaks have made since I started.

IMO this is not a "mess" yet.
I see also some cyan on the grey cylinder (roll ?) more to the center, probably from removing the cart with ink in it (although the refillables have the advantage of a spring loaded valve).

If you do not have problems printing I would stop changing carts and evaluate over a longer period.

FYI until now my refilled OEM's behave well, I didn't observe mixed colours in the morning (the most important test now is standing still ).

We'll find out how these things work !

 

[palombian]

During more than 2 weeks on refilled OEM's I had no problem at all with the printer.
This confirms Octopus Office's advice.
Their inks are IMO very good. I made a profile for Aldi paper and the prints are bright with a very good gamut for a 4 ink printer (see comparision with PRO9500 with precisioncolors ink).
As @mikling said, the dot pattern is more coarse, but this is not visible on viewing distance.

The auto reset chips reported the decline of the ink, and a few days ago the magenta showed a question mark (?), not a yellow ! as should be expected with a regular cartridge and chip.
I was waiting for an eventual red X and a message from the printer to change the cartridge, but nothing did happen.

I took the opportunity to fill the first "new chinese" cart with 40ml magenta ink as prescribed, removed the cart from the printer the forced way (pulling the power plug when printing a sheet), transplanted the ARC and inserted the chinese cart.
After powering on again the chip was not reset, it still showed a ?.

The next day the yellow was empty.
This time I powered the printer before reinserting the cart (I removed also the magenta), but even when inserting the carts on request of the printer the ARC's did not reset.

Until now I could not observe any cross-contamination from or to the "new chinese" carts.

The carts have incorporated a few features from the original Canon's.
In addition to the collapsable bag, there is a serpentine vent from the bag to the inner air chamber that is connected to the outside.
Indeed, by turning and manipulation the magenta cart, a small quantity of ink seeped in the air chamber, just as with the OEM's.
The ink bag is not completily air sealed as in the carts of the PRO9500 and PRO10.
The odd-shaped channel on the side of the chinese carts is also filled with ink. Since I overfilled the magenta the level stays higher than the ink in the bag (without consequences until now). I have no idea what it is for.
As the older type of refillables, the ink outlet has a valve, so there is no ink leakage when removed as with OEM carts.

The needle on top of the ink inlet in the printhead is probably only a way to punch an opening to the inner air chamber in the OEM cartridges (and not a way to regulate the air), if not they would leak before being used. Since the refillable carts have an air inlet that can eventually be closed with a plug there is no need for a connection on top of the ink outlet.

My first impression is that the new type refillable carts are a progress. Sorry to say but the old plastic boxes are not good.

I have no explanation yet why the ARC's do not reset, nor do I know wether the ? is an indication of a disabled ink monitoring (although I did not push the red button).
Until now I saw no more purge actions, so with 40ml in the carts I do not have to fear a low ink level soon.
Removing all carts every 1000p and topping them all up is a viable solution.

To be continued ...

 

[The Hat]

@palombian, Can you post the link to where you got your Chinese carts from please...
Santa might bring me a set...

 

[palombian]

@palombian, Can you post the link to where you got your Chinese carts from please...
Santa might bring me a set...

I bought mine on eBay with one-time chips (with the plan to transfer the ARC's from Octopus ), delivered free within a week:

http://www.benl.ebay.be/itm/For-CANON-MAXIFY-IB4050-MB5350-MB5050-Refillable-Ink-Cartridge-PGI-2500-2500XL/120903805808?ssPageName=STRK:MEBIDX:IT&_trksid=p2057872.m2749.l2649

@Redbrickman found ones who look the same with ARC's on Aliexpress:

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/PGI...MB5350-iB4050-inkjet-printer/32786016228.html

 

[palombian]

After explaining to octopus-office.de the chips on their carts did not reset, they told me I received one-time chips by mistake (BTW exactly the same as mounted on the new model carts I bought from China, see photo).

They sent me ARC chips, no complaints about their service.

When you compare the chips the difference is obvious (if you know):

The left chip 25CXR is a cyan ARC, the right one 2XCL a cyan one-time chip (3th position is the color).
The ARC has also a character A on each (gold) contact.

I have now 4 sets of cartridges and 5 sets of chips, time to search second hand Maxify's for my kids (I could have one for free but it wasn't worth the distance).

 

[The Hat]

It looks like I got the same one-time chips on my carts too, I reckon it’s time to talk to Octopus about their stupid mistake...

Thanks Palombian..

 

[Redbrickman]

Well spotted Palombian, I just noticed that on the photo on the Ali Express page you can also see the A symbol on the chips, so hopefully my new set of carts when they arrive on the slow boat will definitely be ARC chips.