My MAXIFY 5350 is on refill ink

[palombian]

Hi Palombian,

So, it might be a good idea to try the Chinese refillables again?
And just refill them when the chip declares empty.

I remember you had some leak issues with them in the past?
Did you also have leaks/contamination when filling them when the ARC chip declared them empty?

Currently have the refilled oem with arc chip installed.
But might be tempted to try the chinese color carts again, when needed.
I notice some slight color contamination, when the printer has sit idle for a while.
It does however clear up, without much trouble.

Has the chinese black cartridge given trouble in the past?
I imagine there would be no problems of cross contamination with just using the Chinese BK cartridge?

Greetings!

Hi @steven.va ,

Since my previous post (after refilling all carts) I am printing with the CMY carts showing a red cross, but I did not observe any negative influence (other than not knowing the ink level).
No cross contamination at all.
I've seen contamination with OEM carts only when they become empty.
I continue to printing, at a certain moment the BK chip will show empty also.
Maybe contamination is a good sign to refill, with the additional advantage the chips will reset.
I print a lot of color and the ink levels go down more or less together, so every 2 refills I will see the ink level.

I remember having mixed chinese refillables with refilled OEM carts, but with the same type of chips.
Could be the recommandation not to mix is about the chips.
Since I refill OEM's (with ARC chips independent of the status) I never had any error message.

Note: I did not test if this is also true when continuing with the OEM chips empty, but I guess the Maxify has no sophisticated detection rules built in.

I conclude that for both cartridge types a sufficiently high ink level (and the equality between the carts) is the most important factor.
With refillable carts I observed serious cross contamination (where the cart had to be flushed) when these conditions were not present.

I would suggest to new readers not to buy chinese refillables, just refill the OEM setup carts with the volumes for a full XL cart (the carts are internally the same).
You can make a refill tool yourself following @The Hat 's instructions.

https://www.printerknowledge.com/threads/canon-pro-10-with-rebate-299.13710/page-2#post-119252

I didn't go on with the idea of refilling carts while in place yet, but I think it should be done with squeeze bottles, applying a tube is already half way a CISS.

 

[Redbrickman]

I had a B504 error last week. The OEM carts (with ARCS) did not show any indication of low level or empty but I "reset" the printer with a set of empty OEM's. I then re-filled the OEM's/ARC carts and the printer worked fine again. I'm guessing the printer does see a cart with no ink and indicates by showing B504 which is normally a "cart not recognised" error.

 

[palombian]

I hesitated to buy a Maxify based on horror error message stories on amazon, but as you say with some reasoning it can be solved most of the time.
Only to dissuade refilling, most people do not make the effort.
Similar messages made the previous owner sell a PRO-10 with 100 pages to me at a quarter of the new price.

But it is not impossible Canon will take measures sooner or later.

 

[ColourKid]

Maybe contamination is a good sign to refill, with the additional advantage the chips will reset.

Wait, isn't this contamination something to avoid at all costs? I saw a picture in this thread of a yellow cartridge with orange ink in it. That means flushing all cartridges and refilling I think, doesn't it? Certainly it cannot be a indication mechanism for when to refill.

The whole contamination issue is very weird indeed. I understand it's a pressure issue. So ink actually travels from the printhead all the way back into another cartridge...

 

[ColourKid]

This is kind of an old post but a very useful summary of this huge thread: https://www.printerknowledge.com/threads/my-maxify-5350-is-on-refill-ink.11871/post-104893 Thanks Palombian!

I am considering one of the Maxify printers. I need a good all-in-one that can also do a few photos now and then. I assume most of this thread is for the Maxify MB5350. Does is also apply for all the other types that have the PGI-1500XL / PGI-2500XL cartridges? I guess so right?

I might go for the MB5450. The only difference with the MB5350 is that it's a tad faster and newer I believe.

- ink flow monitoring protects printhead

But there is a possibility to use the chip as well for ink level monitoring, right? I can just buy a set of ARC chips from China and replace them no the OEM carts and it will work?

- better than expected for photos

I know that dye-based is better on glossy, but how much is it better? Can I print photos on my glossy kind-of-cheap-but-not-terrible photo paper?

- no single sheet feeder (for an occasional envelope)

What do you mean by this?

- nozzle checks only from cassette 1 (do not print nice on envelopes)

BTW, why on earth would you print nozzle checks on envelopes???

- no resetter (use ARC or one-time chips - or read on)
- strict procedure to change cartridges (not a major problem, but read on)

Maybe I am missing something, but where do I read on???

- new firmwares blocking refill

This sounds bad, but I guess it's still going fine as I see no reports of this.


Anyway, the only disadvantage I see that matter to me is the borderless printing which it lacks. I might also go for the PIXMA TS9550 instead, which has A3 printing as a nice bonus.

 

[palombian]

Wait, isn't this contamination something to avoid at all costs? I saw a picture in this thread of a yellow cartridge with orange ink in it. That means flushing all cartridges and refilling I think, doesn't it? Certainly it cannot be a indication mechanism for when to refill.

The whole contamination issue is very weird indeed. I understand it's a pressure issue. So ink actually travels from the printhead all the way back into another cartridge...

Indeed, this ink mixing happened overnight.
The only solution was to print a lot after refilling and replacing the carts, as @mikling confirmed.

Since I refill OEM carts I never observed this again. The - very long and intensive - priming seems to take care of the pressure issue.
Probably this is by design. Between the weight of full and empty OEM cartridges I found 5g extra above the declared volume for 2500XL colour and 10g for the BK.
As for all printers, the conclusion is you better refill all carts together so you only loose this ink once - and more important do not fill the waste container.
Nobody yet reported this - non replaceable container - becoming full, this is a problem for later (as is the service program to reset the counter).

So placing autoreset chips on OEM carts is the best solution.
I tried to follow the official procedure - when a cart shows empty, open the front door and replace the cart/or refill the same and replace resetting the chip to full - but for some stupid reasons I got out of sync.
This is not a problem since the Maxify accepts printing with chips showing empty forever.
Every 1000 pages or so one of the colour carts starts missing lines, I refill all 4 and go on.
The printhead seems to be more resistant too, on a consumer dye printer it would already been burned since long.

PS: although you do not have to respect the ink levels indicated by the chip, the reason you need ARC's is quite simple:
The Maxify (as all other printers) does not accept reinserting an empty cartridge.
But with ARC's either the chip showed empty and will reset after reinsertion either it wasn't showing empty yet (and will be the next refill).

 

[palombian]

This is kind of an old post but a very useful summary of this huge thread: https://www.printerknowledge.com/threads/my-maxify-5350-is-on-refill-ink.11871/post-104893 Thanks Palombian!

I am considering one of the Maxify printers. I need a good all-in-one that can also do a few photos now and then. I assume most of this thread is for the Maxify MB5350. Does is also apply for all the other types that have the PGI-1500XL / PGI-2500XL cartridges? I guess so right?

I might go for the MB5450. The only difference with the MB5350 is that it's a tad faster and newer I believe.


But there is a possibility to use the chip as well for ink level monitoring, right? I can just buy a set of ARC chips from China and replace them no the OEM carts and it will work?


I know that dye-based is better on glossy, but how much is it better? Can I print photos on my glossy kind-of-cheap-but-not-terrible photo paper?


What do you mean by this?


BTW, why on earth would you print nozzle checks on envelopes???


Maybe I am missing something, but where do I read on???


This sounds bad, but I guess it's still going fine as I see no reports of this.


Anyway, the only disadvantage I see that matter to me is the borderless printing which it lacks. I might also go for the PIXMA TS9550 instead, which has A3 printing as a nice bonus.

As you understood, some were early doubts.
Think most is answered in my previous post.
I suppose the Chinese ARC's will be compatible with the recent models.
Photos will be very fine on your paper, gloss depends on your 3th party ink (but very good with mine, although I don't print photos on glossy paper with the Maxify).

 

[ColourKid]

Alright, thanks! I will probably buy the Maxify then.

One more thing: I find it strange that the Maxify is listed as 600 horizontal dpi. Surely a pigment-based printer should be sharper compared to any dye-based printer (which usually have 1200 dpi or higher). I mean, text on pigment printers always looks so sharp compared to dye. Or is that because pigments penetrates deeper into the paper fibres, remaining in place, whereas dye just spreads out through the paper fibres? I guess I just answered my own question... oh well.

In any case even 600dpi is enough, also for photos. Additional advantage is that with all-colour pigment you can also print full colour graphics on normal paper and it should come out sharper than with dye, shouldn't it?

One additional concern: say I print on glossy paper with the pigment ink. I guess it should be given some time to dry? Or doesn't the ink wipe off in any case? I mean, the reason that semi-photo printers have an additional photo black cartridge is that the pigment black cannot be used for glossy paper right? (I'm confused!)

 

[palombian]

The Maxify prints are indeed a lot coarser.
It is not designed for glossy paper (not for photos at all) although the BK ink from octopus-office.de I am using has no problems with it.

 

[ColourKid]

Such difficult trade-offs!

But the Maxify should be the king on normal paper, right? Pigment just is so much sharper when I look at my MX870's pigment black text, compared to colour graphics on normal paper.