Overfill / Leaking Cartrides. They can effect their neighbors Plugged?

[fotofreek]

Grandad - I didn't mean to imply that the ink residue that condenses inside the case was a problem. It doesn't alter the function of the printer, and it cleans off easily with windex. I would guess that in the process of the Epson piezo-electric device "squirting" the ink onto the paper a minute amount of ink would vaporize and some would condense on the inside of the case. The Epson actually had more ink residue accumulated in and on the case than the Canon! I sometimes failed to do the page setup properly and ended up with the printer trying to do a landscape oriented print on paper that was set up as portrait. This caused some ink to spray where there was no paper to receive it and probably accounted for some of the evaporation. In the Canon it may relate to the borderless printing in which some ink is discharged beyond the edge of the paper inside the printer. Almost all of my printing is borderless. That is actually one of the reasons I changed printers - got tired of all the trimming after printing. Much easier to occasionally clean the inside of the printer case!

 

[Nifty]

Just a reminder that overfilling cartridges is BAD... at least it has been for me. I got a bit overzealous and overfilled my BCI-3ebk and have been having lots of streaking / ghosting problems with that cartridge. I've had to do a cleaning cycle every once in a while to get things working properly again.

I guess I could have taken some ink out, but I don't think I overfilled that much. Everything seems to be okay now that the cart has gotten to the appropriate levels. I'm reminding myself that these cartridges are so easy to refill there is no reason for me to be "pushing it" and I'd rather under-fill than overfill.

 

[fotofreek]

Nifty - The last set of carts I've refilled are virgin carts from MIS. The first filling worked great. When I refilled them they still worked perfectly. When I removed them a few times to check that they weren't leaking at all, however, a few of them had left a bit of ink in the round well around the print head intake port. I think that refilling them nearly to the top just put too much of a gravitational load on the exit port. What surprised me was that as I was refilling them the sponge area took up the ink from the reservoir so rapidly and completely that a bit of ink came out of the air vent on two of them. Luckily they still printed ok. Next time I'll leave some headroom in the reservoir. About the rubber plugs in these carts - Although they are harder to handle than the blue computer friends plugs for the OEM carts, I nudged them out just enought with a push pin to grab a small portion of the top edge with a hemostat (left over from my retirement from orthodontic practice). I didn't have to fumble with rubber gloves on and the little bit of ink that makes them slippery. Much easier to handle. For anyone who wants to buy a hemostat they are available at most fly-fishing stores.

 

[Manuchau]

I refill ink cartridges for part of my living, and I can definitely say that underfilling is the best way to go...with ANY company's carts.....it's safe, and let's face it. no sense trying to get in the last cc of ink. After all, you can always remove it and add more.