My MAXIFY 5350 is on refill ink

[palombian]

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...

Glad this is settled, good service.

I did not have high expectations from the original carts, but since at Octopus(.de) the price of the carts with ARC's was the same as the chips alone, it didn't matter.
The autoreset chips were not very cheap but I did not want to take the risk buying them in China.
Glad I did since I had to return them.
Waiting for the first reset of new ones.

Ordered 500ml BK and 3x250ml CMY ink.​

I had not the slightest contamination or leak with my new Chinese carts, they perform as the refilled OEM's.

What do you mean by overfill ? More than the 70ml (BK) and 20ml (colours) as the OEM's, or more than the 80 and 40ml you should put in the refillables ?
As @mikling explained with too much air remaining, the negative pressure cannot be built soon enough.
I bet filling the old type of carts that much will make them behave better too (although the very small membrane allows little pressure variation, in particular in the 2500 size).

 

[steven.va]

Hi,

Recently I found a Maxify 5050 in the trash.
I could not resist taking it with me.

Page count is ~8000 pages.
No BK was seen. (1) head clean fixed the problem.
Will experiment a bit with the machine too see if it has other faults.
And let's learn a bit from it.

After reading this thread I orderded the new Chinese carts.
These ones / from this seller:
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/PGI...32830419763.html?spm=a2g0s.9042311.0.0.4I3dod

 

[palombian]

Hi,

Recently I found a Maxify 5050 in the trash.
I could not resist taking it with me.

Page count is ~8000 pages.
No BK was seen. (1) head clean fixed the problem.
Will experiment a bit with the machine too see if it has other faults.
And let's learn a bit from it.

After reading this thread I orderded the new Chinese carts.
These ones / from this seller:
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/PGI...32830419763.html?spm=a2g0s.9042311.0.0.4I3dod

Nice !
Good price for the carts with ARC's too.

Keep us informed, in particular the compatibility of the chips with your machine's firmware (you shall not update it, won't you ? ).

 

[Redbrickman]

My carts from the same supplier (Ali) continue to perform well. Still waiting for them to run out before doing the second refill

 

[The Hat]

My carts from the same supplier (Ali) continue to perform well. Still waiting for them to run out before doing the second refill

I’m using these same Chinese carts too, and there’re all working fine now, and I also went and ordered a set of individual ARC chips from Octopus at twice the price, I’m fecked if I know why I did that...

So, if these Arcs on the cartridges don’t preform as there’re suppose too, I at least have a back-up..

 

[steven.va]

Hi Guys,

Thanks for all the nice comments!
I checked the firmware: the MB5050 runs firmware version 2.010
v2.010 is the firmware version as I found the printer.

As per advice in this thread I have disabled automatic updates.

Just out of curiosity I have removed the side panels and made a few pictures.
The side panels are actually not too difficult to remove.

If you need to do it, here is the procedure:
- Remove two screws on the back of Maxify and one on top.
- Unlock two clips on top (they are in the two holes - next to the glass plate).
- Unlock two clips on the side of cartridge door: they are marked with a little arrow.
- Unlock two clips on bottom (easy to spot).

Some pictures below.

 

[Redbrickman]

Also don't use the Cloud function in the menu - I don't trust that function

You might find this video of interest too...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WD5h0-2HLhU

 

[The Hat]

I too pulled all the covers from my Maxify and had it buck naked, in order to fit a Printer Potty to it, but I was stopped in my track because the firmware can’t/won’t allow the waste ink to be reset.

I did have the camera ready, but it wasn’t needed, I just reassembled and turn it on for the first time, lesson learned...

 

[palombian]

Today the chip on the magenta cartridge showed empty. First with a '?', but after powering up the printer again with a red 'X'.

I could continue to print, only received a message to prepare a new ink tank and do nothing before I had one, since the printer would stop working with an empty cartridge reinstalled.
(contrary to other Canon printers, this one doesn't need to disable ink monitoring after the cartridge is empty by pushing the red button - at least not at this moment - indicating there is a separate ink flow monitoring)

According to the manual I had to open the front door.
The printhead stopped with the magenta on the exit position and I had to answer OK to remove the cartridge (by pushing the blue handle).
The cartridge was still half full and weighted 60g. So 22g of ink was spent with 1000 sheets printed (where 400 double-sided and 50 A4 photos). Seems the announced Canon figure of 1350p with 19ml is realistic.

When removing the top plug, air was aspired and the bag expanded. IMO a proof this type of refillable cartridge is more similar to the OEM's and can equalise pressures better than the old ones.
(the bag contained air - not as the bags in the PRO9500 and PRO-10 who only have ink in them and are flat when empty - as far as I observed the Maxify OEM's also have a mixture of ink and air)
I inserted the coloured plug in the lower hole (to seal the serpentine, no idea why but better follow the procedure), filled ink up to 82g again, replaced the upper plug and removed the lower.
(not as other Canon printers, I had plenty of time, the printhead was not retracted)

After reinserting the cartridge the printer made the usual noises and also indicated a cleaning cycle.
The magenta cartridge showed full again, so the autoreset worked.

In the mean time the yellow was empty.
Since I know it is still half full, I will wait until the other colours show empty to refill them all together.

As expected the ARC's are counting for a regular OEM refill, nevertheless I am convinced it is important to fill the cartridges as much as possible (40g colour and 80g BK), to allow building a correct negative pressure ASAP (as @mikling explained).
The additional ink is a safety margin allowing to wait to refill until all are empty.

I am very glad this refilling experience has been convincing until now.

Best wishes and happy printing to you all !

PS: the first photo (3th image) is the "new chinese cart" after the ARC showed empty

 

[steven.va]

Hi palombian,

Great post!
Very good they behave exactly like OEM cartridges.

I assume that you would like refilling two or more colours at the same time: this is to save on cleaning cycles? (waste pad). I am not sure anymore but I read that the Maxify
somwhere can detect that there is no ink flow anymore to the print head (protection)

Currently I am using what's left of the original Canon cartridges. Black is on the lowish
side. Colours are half full.

As far as ink is concerned: you are using the pigmented ink from Octopus?
https://www.octopus-office.de/shop/en/printer-ink/printer-ink-canon/canon-pgi-1500-pgi-2500/
I recall I read you did have some minor issue with the cyan ink from octopus?
Octopus also have inktek, but it's DYE ink ink for colors, only back is pigmentend.

I would be very curious if the Inktec Pigmented for HP also works for Maxify.
Like pharmacist here:
https://www.printerknowledge.com/threads/inktec-hp-8940-pigment-refill-ink.12127/

The HP pigmented ink does seem cheaper.
http://tintenkammer.de/InkTec-Nachfuelltinte-HP/HP-950-951-XL-32/


Greetings