My MAXIFY 5350 is on refill ink

[The Hat]

Got my Chinese carts in the post today, and I was contemplating filling them up and installing them this evening, but I decide to check out the best method to refill them on here, because I was about to pull the coloured plug and squirt in the ink.

I went back to @Redbrickman post #40 and sure enough I was doing it all wrong, this forum is great for information such as this, frankly I hadn’t got a clue and didn’t get any instructions, thankfully we have this great forum here for time in need...

https://www.printerknowledge.com/threads/my-maxify-5350-is-on-refill-ink.11871/page-4#post-103118

P.S. Octopus are sending me out something on Monday, I'll just have to wait and see...

 

[palombian]

Got my Chinese carts in the post today, and I was contemplating filling them up and installing them this evening, but I decide to check out the best method to refill them on here, because I was about to pull the coloured plug and squirt in the ink.

I went back to @Redbrickman post #40 and sure enough I was doing it all wrong, this forum is great for information such as this, frankly I hadn’t got a clue and didn’t get any instructions, thankfully we have this great forum here for time in need...

https://www.printerknowledge.com/threads/my-maxify-5350-is-on-refill-ink.11871/page-4#post-103118

P.S. Octopus are sending me out something on Monday, I'll just have to wait and see...

This link from @Redbrickman shows IMO correctly how to do it:

- leave the coloured plugs in the (lower) air hole (they seem to seal the serpentine while filling)
- fill ink in the upper hole and seal with a transparent plug - my supplier suggested 85% full, or 80ml black and 40ml color - this way the negative pressure will be built fast as @mikling explained.
- remove the plug from the air hole

I did not know about the coloured plugs in the air hole (and thought they erroneously indicated the ink fill hole, my apologies).
In my carts the coloured ones were in the upper hole but I rather believe @Redbrickman's version.
Happily enough my carts work without this step.
Will remember it next time.

In hindsight it is possible that the contamination problems with the old refillables were caused by unsufficient filling, Octopus instructed 40ml black and 20ml colour in the PGI-2500 compatible carts.

 

[Redbrickman]

I used 75 ml Black and 35Ml coloured on the first fill to be on the safe side. That fill is still working away here and yesterday the cyan and Magenta showed the first drop in levels on the monitor so I now knwon that the chips are doing something

 

[palombian]

Status of mine after 400p incl about 200 double side = 500p text with graphs, photos on A4 (but also nozzle checks).
Filled with 80ml black and 40ml colour.

No idea for how much the ARC's are designed, but since regular volumes are lower (70 and 19ml) they should show empty before my carts.

With approximately 1/5 used the black seems to last about the Canon estimates of 2500p/70ml.
And with 1/3 of the colours, if the ARC's count down for 19ml the announced 1300-1500 pages per cartridge are attainable.

Seems too good to be true, but in any case, with ink at 15% of the OEM price, the paper costs more.

Even with original Canon ink this printer is cheap to run.

 

[palombian]

Refilled at 750 sheets (not pages as printed on the nozzle check).
Status at 1750 sheets (where 550 double side and about 50 18x24 photo's).

 

[mikling]

Status of mine after 400p incl about 200 double side = 500p text with graphs, photos on A4 (but also nozzle checks).
Filled with 80ml black and 40ml colour.

No idea for how much the ARC's are designed, but since regular volumes are lower (70 and 19ml) they should show empty before my carts.

With approximately 1/5 used the black seems to last about the Canon estimates of 2500p/70ml.
And with 1/3 of the colours, if the ARC's count down for 19ml the announced 1300-1500 pages per cartridge are attainable.

Seems too good to be true, but in any case, with ink at 15% of the OEM price, the paper costs more.

Even with original Canon ink this printer is cheap to run.

View attachment 6335

These business class machines will be cheaper to run than lasers for sure. Now, keep one thing in mind. You are experienced at refilling. For the person just starting out, the refilling on these machines can be terrifying and there needs to be a learning curve. The regulars on this site have already ascended that learning curve and we sometimes forget about that. Now compare what could go wrong, the drips some have experienced, the requirement for pressure balancing etc. as compared to a lower end desktop and I'd prefer someone start out on the lesser machines to go up on that learning curve. When there were drips we did not panic but someone new at this seeing drips will freak out and all hell breaks loose.
Just want to keep everyone in check because many here are so seasoned about refilling we do things as second nature and we do not panic when something does not go right.
I see many potential refillers who like the saving but do not wish to climb the learning curve. Cannot happen. The age on instant communications and everything NOW comes down to the desired results NOW. I don't wish to take the time to learn and gain experience.

 

[The Hat]

I tend to agree, the young ones coming to refilling for the first time don’t want to learn anything other than instant button, instant on, and the older ones, think I’m much wiser than that, so I’ll try to improve and make it easier..

 

[palombian]

These business class machines will be cheaper to run than lasers for sure. Now, keep one thing in mind. You are experienced at refilling. For the person just starting out, the refilling on these machines can be terrifying and there needs to be a learning curve. The regulars on this site have already ascended that learning curve and we sometimes forget about that. Now compare what could go wrong, the drips some have experienced, the requirement for pressure balancing etc. as compared to a lower end desktop and I'd prefer someone start out on the lesser machines to go up on that learning curve. When there were drips we did not panic but someone new at this seeing drips will freak out and all hell breaks loose.
Just want to keep everyone in check because many here are so seasoned about refilling we do things as second nature and we do not panic when something does not go right.
I see many potential refillers who like the saving but do not wish to climb the learning curve. Cannot happen. The age on instant communications and everything NOW comes down to the desired results NOW. I don't wish to take the time to learn and gain experience.

That's why I started this thread, to learn from each other.
Thanks to the people contributing for their insights.

During the past 30 days the printer worked almost flawlessly.
Every other day or so the cyan nozzle check missed some or most of the lines. Instead of a cleaning cycle I do a few more nozzle checks and the ink is back.

After a while I stopped daily nozzle checks and started printing immediatily.
Not as most Canon printers, this one stays silent after power up.
Sometimes the first lines miss cyan, but the printer does some shaking and waggling on it's own (without displaying the cleaning message) and everything is OK for a few days again.
This suggests the printer detects missing ink and cleans only when necessary, not at every startup to be sure.
No idea why only the cyan has this problem, will see after refilling (it seems to occur less now).

Waiting now for the first empty cartridge ...

 

[The Hat]

I got my new Chinese carts with Arc’s on board and overfilled them a little bit, I was getting a few drops of black puddling in the out-tray at first, but now it has stopped, mine runs a ok but the odd time I still get magenta contamination in the yellow for the first few pages.

I sent my 2 sets of carts back that I’d purchased last April from Octopus, and they gave me a full refund including P&P, so they came good in the end, I then went and bought 4 individual ARC chips from them to keep as spare...

 

[stratman]

the young ones coming to refilling for the first time don’t want to learn anything other than instant button, instant on

Those darned whippersnappers!