Opinions needed on refillable carts.

[PeterBJ]

I have printers using the BCI-3e/6, PGI-5/CLI-8, PGI-520/CLI-521 and HP364 cartridges, and some inks are used more than others, so to make ordering the correct inks easier, I made this table:

Note that with exception of the pigment black the PGI-x25/CLI-x26 is identical to the PGI-5/CLI-8 ink set and the difference from the PGI-x20/CLI-x21 inkset is only the cyan. If you have also ordered inks for the Pixma 5200 you could try refilling your CLI-521 cartridge with the cyan WJ2032. It won't harm the printer, the colour balance might be better or worse.

Did you try the other paper settings, another setting than the recommended might work better with your combination of printer, ink and paper.

AFAIK the shelf life of the IS inks is stated as two years, but I think it might be like with food: the best before date only applies to the unopened package stored properly. I think the worst risk with too old ink is print head clogging, but colour balance might also be affected. Evaporation of water and other solvents might make the ink more concentrated and oxidation of dyes might cause them to fade. I guess the best place to store inks is a cellar at 8C/46F.

@websnail please, your comments on best storage and shelf life of ink.

 

[websnail]

If you have also ordered inks for the Pixma 5200 you could try refilling your CLI-521 cartridge with the cyan WJ2032. I won't harm the printer, the colour balance might be better or worse.

Just to confirm both inks are compatible so you can try out both and see which you prefer as they will undoubtedly respond in different ways with different media.

AFAIK the shelf life of the IS inks is stated as two years, but I think it might be like with food: the best before date only applies to the unopened package stored properly. I think the worst risk with too old ink is print head clogging, but colour balance might also be affected. Evaporation of water and other solvents might make the ink more concentrated and oxidation of dyes might cause them to fade. I guess the best place to store inks is a cellar at 8C/46F.

The standard advice is 18 months to 2 years but we've customers who are still using inks that are now coming up on their 3rd/4th birthday. I should qualify the point that up until 2 1/2 years ago the ink I received was in smaller amounts and often rebottled down from larger volumes so I didn't have specific batch or manufacture dates. Now we receive our inks with all the relevant batch references and dates so I suspect we're getting fresher supplies and circumspectly the inks should last the 2 years.

As for potential problems, it's really the common sense factors of heat, light and air. Keeping inks in a dark, cool space and in a sealed container will reduce the issues of algae growth or other aging processes within the ink. You can go too cold though so avoid freezing anything too. Oh and just to clarify that the SquEasyFill kits are air tight when sealed with the needle cover/scabbard in case anyone was wondering.

 

[PeterBJ]

Thank you for the info. I think my oldest inks are around two years old, and they have caused no problems yet.

Just out of curiosity I will try flushing and refilling a CLI-521 C cartridge with the WJ2032 ink to see what difference that makes with the MP540 and report my results.

 

[Photofan1986]

Ok, I just tried that, replacing the cli-521 cyan ink with the cli-8 ink, and the results are not good. The W2032 is darker, and resulting pictures have a very pronounced blue colour cast, and at the same time the green colour cast remains. What would be interesting in my case, is to try replacing the cli-521 magenta with something slightly darker. Any idea if there is a Canon kit with darker magenta, @ websnail ?

 

[The Hat]

I have always found it better to change the colours together and keep them as a set; the Magenta, Cyan and Yellow are usually blended as a single unit to get the best overall colours, so changing one of them usually throws the whole colour spectrum into disarray, requiring the need to profile..

 

[PeterBJ]

Hi Photofan1986

I have just finished some test prints with cyan for CLI-8 C in a CLI-521 C cartridge on the MP540. This makes no big difference. The prints are a slight bit colder in tone, but you only notice if you compare the prints side by side. I have tested with both the Printer Evaluation Image and your uploaded photo.

I have recommended the setting Photo Paper Plus Glossy II and Quality = Automatic. If you chose the same paper and Quality = high, the saturation is better and the print is really good in my opinion. My Pixma 5200 is better, but the cost of this printer-only was more than twice that of the multi-function MP540.

I also have a Pixma 3600 that is the same printer as used in the MP540, I will also try printing your photo using that printer, with both types of cyan.

I would like to upload scans of my test prints, but I have not been able to get a good scan of the prints clearly showing what I see when looking at the prints. I have these scanners capable of working with Windows 8.1 64 bit: MP540, Epson V33 and HP Scanjets 4070 and 3500. None of these show a true picture of a test print, but I will try some tweaking of scanner settings, as I would like to be able to reproduce a greyscale problem I have with a Pixma 6600D, for use in a new thread.

 

[PeterBJ]

I tried printing your uploaded photo on a Pixma 3600 and was very surprised as the print came out with a magenta cast. I checked the magenta cartridge, and it was a CLI-526 with a CLI-521 chip attached. I had used this cartridge to test the German refill method for the opaque cartridges. I don't remember if I purged the cartridge before refill, and I might inadvertently have used the wrong magenta WJ6053 for BCI-6 M instead of the correct WJ6121 for CLI-521 M.

After I changed the magenta cartridge and did a nozzle cleaning colours were back to normal, looking similar to the results obtained with the MP540.

So maybe the WJ6053 is the stronger magenta you search? If this magenta is too strong you could dilute it with photo magenta for BCI-6, the WJ6061. But be prepared to do a lot of experimenting.

Have you purged your cyan cartridge before refill, maybe old ink in the sponges make the cyan too concentrated? Just a thought, but maybe it could be the explanation?

 

[Photofan1986]

Thanks for your patience and experimenting.
It is becoming really strange. Yes, my cart was freshly purged, so there was no pollution from another ink. I will try to scan the pictures tomorrow to show the differences, but as you said, it's far from easy.
Interesting observation about the magenta colour. I might give it a try.
Mmmh, I am beginning to wonder if there isn't something wrong with my cli-521 magenta ink, as I don't remember having colour accuracy issues when I started refilling my MP540. This is my second bottle, and I wonder if the problem did not begin when I started refilling with this kit.
Tomorrow, I think I will try refilling my cli-8 carts. I didn't want to rush, because there is still more than half OEM ink in the original untouched carts, but I have a spare set waiting for refill. And I'm beginning to be very curious about the colour I will get from this kit on the IP5200.

 

[Photofan1986]

I have always found it better to change the colours together and keep them as a set; the Magenta, Cyan and Yellow are usually blended as a single unit to get the best overall colours, so changing one of them usually throws the whole colour spectrum into disarray, requiring the need to profile..

This might indeed be a part of the problem. Refilling the cli-521 cart with cli-8 ink, I realized that while the ink colours was very close in the bottles, the difference once printed is quite significant.

 

[PeterBJ]

Mmmh, I am beginning to wonder if there isn't something wrong with my cli-521 magenta ink, as I don't remember having colour accuracy issues when I started refilling my MP540. This is my second bottle, and I wonder if the problem did not begin when I started refilling with this kit.

This makes me think that your inks are getting too old, if the problems worsened over time and the extended nozzle check is still perfect. Is this second bottle of magenta ink the proper type?

As mentioned by The Hat the inks are a system, so replacing only one ink might cause other colour casts.