Opinions needed on refillable carts.

[Photofan1986]

Hi to the community! First of all I want to thank you awesome people for providing your precious help to newbies like me, and sharing your knowledge.

I know that generally, the best solution for refill is using the original Canon carts, as they are the best quality, and guarantee a perfect ink flow. But I was just wondering, has anyone experience with a product like this one: http://www.befr.ebay.be/itm/Refilla...ng_PrinterInkCatridges_JN&hash=item564245a95c

I also have another question. I just bought a huge set of empty oem cli-521 carts, to use in my MP540. But recently, the printer went south (purge unit seem to be clogged or dead, not really wanting to investigate).
So I am considering a used IP5200 I saw on the web (for about 50€, seems right?). But this printer uses cli-8 carts. However, I have used the cli-521 carts with success in an old IP-3000 (cli-6). I know the old printer had no chip on the carts, but if I replace the chip on the cli-521, do you think I can get it in a ip-5200?
I am asking because I have 39 oem ink tanks for my old unusable MP540.

Many thanks in advance!

 

[PeterBJ]

Generally refillable carts are not recommended for Canon printers. They often give problems with ink flow, and a reliable supply of ink is needed for cooling the nozzle heaters in a Canon print head, else they risk burning out. It is like operating an electric kettle or water heater without water.

Tudor and The Hat have successfully converted 521 or 525 cartridge series printers to use PGI-5/CLI-8 cartridges, but the opposite might not be possible. Inspired by their description of the conversion, I once tried to install a CLI-521 cartridge in a PGI-5/CLI-8 printer, for comparison, and it was very difficult to remove the cartridge without damaging anything, so beware of cartridge dimensions and design.

50 € for a Pixma 5200 is a bargain, if the printer is in A1 OK condition. A new printhead will be more expensive, and new absorbers are nowhere to be found, so you will need to clean the old absorbers sometime in the future, a very messy job but possible.

I don't know the refillable cartridges linked to, but if you remove the fill hole sealing balls from Canon OEM PGI-5/CLI-8 cartridges and replace them with suitable silicone plugs, you have a similar set of refillable cartridges of a much higher quality and perfectly suited for top filling.

 

[The Hat]

First off these compatible cartridges may work just as well as the OEM cartridges, BUT as @PeterBJ pointed out you never know till you try them out and if they don’t, you can end up with even more problems to deal with, who can say.

The one thing I did noticed was they were not exactly cheap, a complete set of empty OEM cartridges are actually cheaper and much better value, plus you get better quality chips on them too.

Using the CLI-521 carts in place of CLI-8’s would not be a good idea just on the very size of the cart itself, you’d be forever replacing them because of their very size, I converted my iP4700 over from CLI-521 carts to CLI-8 for that same reason, (Bigger carts less refilling)..

 

[barfl2]

I do not know what the cartridge head clearance is like on the Pixma 5200 but those rubber blanking plugs might well foul. The clearance on my MP 620 is very tight have to use low profile plugs. Nearly all the refillables seem to use pretty chunky plugs

 

[Tudor]

The plugs are buried inside the cartridge. You can see it better on the 521bk

 

[PeterBJ]

There will be no problems with clearance and standard silicone plugs on the Pixma 5200. I have one, and although I prefer the German refill method for the PGI-5/CLI-8 cartridges, I also use some cartridges I have top filled and plugged using Octoinkjet's standard (lipped) plugs. There are no clearance problems, not even when the print head is in the raised position for cartridge change or CD printing.

Some MP, MX and MG models, especially the newer models have a clearance problem. You will have to use low profile/zero clearance plugs plus aluminium tape on cartridges for these printers.

Edit: I don't know if the high plugs on the refillable cartridge also will be without problems. They might be higher than the standard plugs from Octoinkjet UK.

 

[Photofan1986]

Tank you for you opinions
Ok, so I got my "new" ip5200, and what can I say: wow, the print quality is superb, and it is fast as hell with the big print head! I'm a happy camper
The guy had to let it go because he bought a Windows 8 computer, and that Canon did not make a driver for this printer (shame!). Fortunately, the first thing I did when I bought my new laptop recently is switch back to 7.

Ok so now the print quality is close to perfect, colours are nice, print head is clean... but the guy always used original Canon OEM carts. He did not refill.
I am a bit concerned here, because I must confess that I never really got the same quality with refilling (octoinkjet inks) than with oem Canon carts.
HOWEVER, I must also confess that my technique was very approximative. I only used one set of carts, I refilled them as fast as possible using german method, and the main problem I encountered was color inaccuracy. Now, as an afterthought, I believe I may have screwed the proper ink/air flow in the cart by refilling it so fast. Not to mention the printhead clog from drying out...

So my idea now is to have at least two sets of oem carts, and refilling it from the top and let them rest for a couple of days. I believe there are fewer problems with air flow this way. What do you think?

Also, yesterday, I was refilling a cli-521 Y cart with german method, and I could not get any ink inside, as if the internal pressure was too high.
So I removed the plastic ball that seals the cart, purged hot water through it, blowed into the cart, let it dry with the paper towel and elastic band.
Today, the cart seemed completely dry, so I closed the top hole with hot glue (I don't have plugs at the moment), and began refilling with german method.
Well, to my surprise, the cart still gave me the same resistance
How can this be?

Sorry about the long post, but I'm really keen on learning

 

[PeterBJ]

Congratulations with your "new" printer, it looks like it has been taken good care of. I also have a Pixma 5200, and in my opinion it is probably the best intermediate level printer Canon ever made.

I am refilling my OEM cartridges using IS inks from Octoinkjet UK and printing photos on the popular Sihl paper from Aldi and Lidl. My results are very close to those obtained with OEM ink and paper.

Please don't risk the life of the print head by using compatible or refillable cartridges; from Octoinkjet UK you can get a set of empty PGI-5/CLI-8 cartridges for less than the cost of the refillable cartridges you linked to.

Both the German refill and the top fill methods work very well with the reasonably sized transparent cartridges and don't forget to also buy a resetter, it would be a bad idea to risk the print head by disabling the ink level monitoring and rely on periodic visual inspections of the ink level.

If you want a service manual and parts catalog for the printer, they are found here: http://soft-manufaktura.ru/manual/hp/iP5200sm.pdf and here: http://www.arbikas.com/view/locator/PIXMA_IP5200.pdf . if you want to do service mode operations on this printer, for instance to check its history, then please read this warning first: http://www.printerknowledge.com/threads/warning-error-in-some-canon-service-manuals.6388/

I have recently upgraded to a new computer running Win 8.1 64 bit, and installing Canon printers including the Pixma 5200, couldn't be easier, just connect the printer to the computer and let Windows update find and install the proper driver. After installing the printer(s) using plug and play, download and install the CD Label print program and an add-on-module that will add CD print support to the drivers supplied by Microsoft, from Canon website. I think you shouldn't tell this to the previous owner!

IMO this printer is a real gem and deserves the best possible care. Feel free to ask if you have any questions.

Does it sound like I like this printer? It should, because I do.

 

[Photofan1986]

Many thanks for this info. Lol, did not know about windows 8 trick Sure will not tell him. Maybe it's the moment to grab some bargains with people believing that their printer has become incompatible.
Oh and do you have an idea about the hard to refill cart?

edit: about the service manual, yes I printed a nozzle check yesterday, and I concluded that I had to press the power button to execute the task. Fortunately, I did not mess up anything

 

[The Hat]

The two sets of cartridges are the way to go for refilling, 1 is that you always have a spare set ready to go in, 2 the cartridges are not left standing for months unused, 3 the print head is not left without a cartridge while you’re having to refill, and last but not least change all the cartridges when one becomes low that way cutting out a lot less ink wastage with unnecessary cleaning cycles.

Your hard to refill cartridge, one theory could be that you let the sponge get to dry after purging, try putting one ml of water/alcohol 50/50 in the outlet and leaving the cartridge upside down for half an hour, then retry filling it..