My MAXIFY 5350 is on refill ink

[The Hat]

I am still using my 5-year-old I.S. ink that I got for my Pro 9500 in the Maxify, I once used KMP pigment got for my Pixma dye printers, PGl-520, PGl-5 and BCl-3e, but it failed miserably in the 9500..

KMP pigment is a great ink and pricy too, but it’s not formulated for use in the Pro pigment ink printers..
P.S. I still have my original OEM PGl-2500 carts with the plastic wrapper on.. I’d be Fecked if I know why I’m hanging on to them..

 

[palombian]

I use ink for 525-PGBK (from octopus-office.de and the -now closed-Prodinks) in my PRO-9500 MBK cart for B/W printing without problems.

For the Maxify, in hindsight the best and cheapest way is to fit an ARC (about €10 for a set at Aliexpress) on the OEM setup carts when one is empty.
Refill (about 22ml colour and 80g black).
Replace in the printer according to the manual and print until (the chip shows) empty.
Open the door, the printer presents the cart, you have all the time to refill again.
No tricks needed.

Before refilling, I seal the upper hole (pierced by a needle when inserted) with alu tape.
Afterwards I do the same with the ink outlet. Otherwise the cart can leak when transported and will do when inserted in the printer.

 

[Artur5]

I see the ARICI ink is sold € 13 per liter, maybe for that price you can't expect much.

Arici's web is a real maze to browse. They have also two websites with slightly different prices and products. Perhaps you looked at their dye ink for Maxify or pigmented black PGI-5 for Pixmas. I've used this one for years without complaints on my IP3000/4000/4500.
Instead, their pigmented ink for PGI-2500 cartridges costs 42,84 per liter. Therefore my grudge. If cheap ink does fine, how come ink three times more expensive gives me trouble ?.
Grumpy old man rant over.

How do you like Octopus own brand for Maxify ?.
If it weren't for shipping issues with UPS in my area, I'd bought from them instead of Arici. Now I discovered Printout24-de on Ebay. They sell Inktec not only in 1 lit. bottles as Octopus but in 100, 250 and 500ml as well, which is very convenient. As I print very little in color with the MB5150, 1 liter of C, M o Y would outlive me.
Regards.
Artur

 

[The Hat]

I found that ink suppliers who sell ink as "Pigment ink" and it works perfectly fine, but in fact it’s not pigment ink at all, the usual proof can be found on their own website when they sell other pigment ink at a substantially higher price, simply because that ink is genuine pigment.

Regarding the Maxify printer, if you find an ink that works for both you and the printer then regardless of all others, keep on using it, because the Maxify will work in it’s own comfort zone in definitely without any intervention from anyone, it behaves just like a mono laser printer..

 

[palombian]

I am very satisfied with the octopus.de own brand ink for the Maxify.
Could not distinguish color difference with OEM (I print a lot of office documents with graphs, photo's etc in color).
Bought at first 4x100ml to test and afterwards 500 BK and 250 color.
I am about half way of the latter after 10.000 sides printed (total 400ml BK + 3x200 color = 1 liter = 0,1ml or less than 1ct/page).

Since the Maxify has a very coarse nozzle pattern I suppose it gobbles nearly any ink.

 

[Artur5]

At first glance that makes sense, but after my initial clogging troubles I’m not sure anymore. Maxifys seem to be very different from other Canon printers

Besides, the resolution given by Canon in the general specs are delusive. The first number is related to the precision of the carriage, not to the droplet size. A printer of 4800x1200 dpi can move the carriage with a precision of 4800 dpi but the vertical resolution (1200) gives away the real droplet size.
For instance, the IP3000 is rated at 4800 x 1200dpi but see what the service manual says:
BK: 320 nozzles in 2 vertical lines (600 dpi), 30 pl (pigment-based black)
Color: 256 nozzles in 2 vertical lines per color x 5 (1,200 dpi),
5.5 pl (cyan, magenta, yellow) / 2.5 pl (cyan, magenta)

Maxify resolution is a modest 600x1200dpi. Meaning that the precision of the carriage is only 1/600 of inch but droplet size is the same than dye color carts of Pixmas (1200) and better than Pixmas pigmented black ( 600 dpi ).
Therefore I wouldn’t think that they’re more resilient to clogs than other Canon printers if we look only at the droplet size. Now, perhaps Maxifys printheads are more sophisticated than regular home printers. It has been said in this thread that they have internal inkflow control. That would make a big difference helping to avoid electrical failures.

 

[palombian]

You are right, @Artur5 , probably the Maxify prints less drops to enhance speed.
Until now I never printed 10.000p on a Canon printer without manual cleaning.
Since it is targeted for small offices, this is not acceptable in a work environment, so (finally) they let the printer do it's own maintenance. I seldom see cleaning action messages though.

 

[palombian]

I changed the cartridges recently.
One after the other by opening the door as Canon prescribes when the (autoreset) chips showed the empty red cross.
I had some ink contamination (due to big differences in ink level) even with refilled OEM carts, but much less as with Chinese refillable carts, and only after reloading and never when almost empty.

Indeed, there is no way to set the internal pressure when refilling since there is no valve in the OEM's.
So, when after replacing magenta the cyan and red nozzle checks also are magenta, I print a number of full pages cyan and yellow until cleared (do this at once, do not leave the printer overnight since the "offending" ink will bleed into the other carts and spoil the ink).
This way the ink goes on the paper and not in the waste container (by doing cleaning cycles).
As @mikling observed already: print enough immediatily after changing carts.

Refilling still is a bit of a hassle, but afterwards you print again 1500p without worries.

I am at 9500p now, with 3000 double sided, almost all color, that makes 12.500 sides.
The printer has cost me € 150, and another 150 for refillable carts (not needed in hindsight) and ink.
Even when my ink stock should be empty at 15k sides (wich is not), my cost is now € 0.02 per page (plus 0.01 for high quality A4 paper).

Chances are the printer can at least double the number of pages, so the cost per page still can decrease.
Without the startup experiments (others can avoid) it could be € 0.01, not more than the paper you print on.

 

[stratman]

For the Maxify, in hindsight the best and cheapest way is to fit an ARC (about €10 for a set at Aliexpress) on the OEM setup carts when one is empty.

I had some ink contamination (due to big differences in ink level) even with refilled OEM carts, but much less as with Chinese refillable carts,

My Octopus carts were always leaking, but since I got a set from AliExpress, no more issues....

Interesting differences in experiences. I wonder if palombian and The Hat were using the same Chinese cartridges or whether their different experiences were due to different cartridge models.

Before refilling, I seal the upper hole (pierced by a needle when inserted) with alu tape.
Afterwards I do the same with the ink outlet. Otherwise the cart can leak when transported and will do when inserted in the printer.

Good info if using OEM cartridges.

1. Why seal the upper hole with alu tape before piercing it with the refill needle?
2. Any concern that bits of alu tape being pushed into the cartridge and compromising function?

 

[palombian]

The "new Chinese cartridges" are definitily better than the old plain plastic boxes, but the flexible bag of the OEM's adapts IMO best to the changing ink volume.

My idea behind sealing the upper hole was to avoid air leaking and be able to maintain a negative pressure in the cart after refilling.
But since this is lost when removing the nozzle from the ink outlet it doesn't make much sense.

I suppose the upper hole is used to let air into the cartridge (it does not exist in 3th party refillables).
Altough there seems to be a membrane also.
This lower ink outlet has to be sealed anyway, if not you have a big splash of ink when inserting a refilled cart.

A cartridge dissection is not a bad idea.