My MAXIFY 5350 is on refill ink

[palombian]

I have to double almost too, so I am at least on 25000 A4.
I rinsed the old printhead by injecting water in the ink inlet tubes. In particular the yellow took a long time.
Will see out of curiosity if this doesn't damage the printhead.

 

[stratman]

To sum up:

The Maxify uses all Pigment inks.

Both Palombian and Artur5 have issues with Yellow while using different aftermarket ink in OEM cartridges. Palombian used octopus-office.de ink that is 1 year old. Artur5 uses Inktec ink.

Palombian wondered if it could be a reaction with residual OEM Yellow - Yello Gello?

Is it possible the ink from different sellers has the same source and it is the aftermarket ink?

Palombian flushed the cartridge and now using Octoink ink without issue so far.

Artur5 considering a new OEM Yellow to see if that resolves banding on nozzle check. Palombian resolved Magenta issues by returning to OEM Magenta ink.

Is the problem due to

• Yello Gello type reaction between OEM and aftermarket inks? Is this with any aftermarket ink or are the inks from the same source but sold by different entities?
• Is it the aftermarket ink and independent of an OEM ink reaction, such as the pigment particles or other constituent parts of Yellow (and Magenta) that over time cause clogging?
• Will ther OEM cartridges need to be flushed after X number of refills to keep them problem free?

 

[palombian]

To sum up:

The Maxify uses all Pigment inks.

Both Palombian and Artur5 have issues with Yellow while using different aftermarket ink in OEM cartridges. Palombian used octopus-office.de ink that is 1 year old. Artur5 uses Inktec ink.

Palombian wondered if it could be a reaction with residual OEM Yellow - Yello Gello?

Is it possible the ink from different sellers has the same source and it is the aftermarket ink?

Palombian flushed the cartridge and now using Octoink ink without issue so far.

Artur5 considering a new OEM Yellow to see if that resolves banding on nozzle check. Palombian resolved Magenta issues by returning to OEM Magenta ink.

Is the problem due to

• Yello Gello type reaction between OEM and aftermarket inks? Is this with any aftermarket ink or are the inks from the same source but sold by different entities?
• Is it the aftermarket ink and independent of an OEM ink reaction, such as the pigment particles or other constituent parts of Yellow (and Magenta) that over time cause clogging?
• Will ther OEM cartridges need to be flushed after X number of refills to keep them problem free?

The octopus-office.de yellow ink was since long in the cartridges (I used 250ml without many issues), the Yello Gello would have occurred sooner.
The problem started much sooner with the cyan, but this could be solved by cleaning instructions.

Rinsing the printhead took a lot of time and there were deposits in the water.
Bathing as usual cannot remove all ink, active flushing with a syringe and a blunt needle in the ink inlet pipes is needed.

It is my impression the internal design of the printhead is more sensible for ink setting down than traditional Canon printheads.
I think thorough rinsing from time to time can solve this.
Do not forget I deliberately neglected the printhead to see how sturdy it would be.

The cartridges have a bag, not a sponge, although it is better to rinse too in particular when changing inks. Never saw deposits here.

I will reinstall the flushed head and see if it survived the treatment.

 

[Artur5]

Very nice sum up @stratman.

AFAIK in my case isn’t yellow-gello at all. After the OEM yellow cart was empty, before Inktec I tried briefly ink from another manufacturer and it was horrible. Black and cyan were clogged all the time. Magenta and yellow no as bad but far from perfect. I thought at first that maybe OEM and that ink didn’t mix well. I flushed several times the carts and refilled again with the troublesome ink. First nozzle check and prints OK. but that didn’t last long. Massive clogs again in a few days.
So, I gave up on that stuff and switched to Inktec. Previously I flushed the carts again to clean the previous residues. As there’s no sponge at all I believe that the risk of cross contamination was almost zero.

Inktec worked fine from the start. The yellow issue appeared maybe after a year or so and, as you can see, is more academic than real. No visual defects on prints, only nozzle checks. Besides a deep clean succeeds in eliminating totally the issue for a while, although it reappears in a few days. I suspect that there a few yellow nozzles partially blocked. If I were using the Maxify mainly for color prints, sure I’d try a new OEM yellow cart to see if it fixes this minor issue.
On the other part, I’m very reluctant to remove the printhead for external rinsing. Maybe it would do more harm than good. As we users know, these machines are quite different from sponge based Pixmas or Pro1/Pro9500/Pro10 pigment Canons.

 

[palombian]

The new nozzle checks are not much better.
I'll wait until tomorrow but won't loose more time with this printhead.
Top the old one, bottom the new with the same inks.

 

[stratman]

the Yello Gello would have occurred sooner.

I was summing up what you posted. You wondered if it were the Yello Gello or similar in your previous post. That post appears to be edited and no longer has this reference.

The course of a Yello Gello-like reaction does not have to follow the same time course of other Canon ink formulations. We cannot be sure until someone does an autopsy on malfunctioning cartridge and print head. Isn't that what Mikling did?

As I recall, Mikling discussed the print head being clogged by the Yello Gello and recommended dishwasher soap to clear. Mikling mentioned nozzle checks similar to yours could be a tenacious print head clog that requires possible weeks of flushing/soaking.

Even if it is not Yello Gello, a tenacious print head clog caused by the aftermarket ink may be at play. A new OEM cartridge that functions properly would point to a ink and/or cartridge failure. The solvent action of OEM ink cannot be discounted - Canon printers seem to me to have significantly fewer print head clog issues when fed OEM inks.

The problem started much sooner with the cyan, but this could be solved by cleaning instructions.

Weren't there past reports of a Yello Gello-like effect with Magenta on other printers, too?

Do not forget I deliberately neglected the printhead to see how sturdy it would be.

In other words... typical use for most.

 

[stratman]

I tried briefly ink from another manufacturer and it was horrible. Black and cyan were clogged all the time. Magenta and yellow no as bad but far from perfect. I thought at first that maybe OEM and that ink didn’t mix well. I flushed several times the carts and refilled again with the troublesome ink. First nozzle check and prints OK. but that didn’t last long. Massive clogs again in a few days.

This is my primary hypothesis - poor aftermarket inks that cannot duplicate OEM in more ways than one. You'd think with modern lab equipment like gas/liquid mass spectrophotometers that aftermarket ink producers could get the formula better.

Maybe the aftermarket Pigment inks need to be agitated every few days to keep the particles in suspension?

 

[Artur5]

Who knows ?. That might be a factor. Maxifys don't have an option in the driver for agitating the cartridges, possibly because OEM ink doesn't need it.

 

[The Hat]

OEM inks are expensive, and for a good reason, because you get very few issues using OEM inks, but 3rd party inks are still a better way to print for high volume work, and a print head for the Maxify is still really cheap.

P.S. for the record:- Yello Gello does not kill a print head, it merely disables some of the yellow nozzles until you can find an antidote....

 

[palombian]

I've sent a mail to octopus-office.de.
I accept the old printhead is end of life and the ink economies are more than sufficient to buy a new one, but that a 1 year old batch of yellow clogs a new printer worries me.
The number of reliable providers isn't growing...

Refilling is always trial and error, but after all these years I have emptied much more ink bottles with satisfaction than I had to throw away (several times magenta/red, 2 times yellow and 1 cyan).