Printing Problems After Refill

[ehuesman]

Hi everyone, this is my first post but I've been lurking here for a few months picking up all kinds of valuable nuggets of information. I've been able to find answers to my previous questions by using the "search" function but no such luck this time. So here goes....

I have a Canon MP620 and have been using the German "Durchstich" method to refill the PGI-220 and CLI-221 cartridges. I have been following the now famous post by pharmacist and have completed refills about four or five times without any problems. Well scratch that, I did have what seemed like a minor problem once. While filling one of the cartridges (yellow), ink started dripping out of the outlet and the "breathing hole" (I think that is what it is, I'm talking about the channel on the opposite side of the cartridge from the outlet, mostly covered by the label). I am positive that the needle was all the way into the ink compartment and I thought I was pushing the syringe very slowly. Either way, I simply cleaned up the ink from around the cartridge and also gently dabbed at the outlet to absorb any excess and finished with my refills. I never experience any problems after installing the cartridges.

Yesterday I did another refill and had the same experience while refilling the pigment black, except this time I'm pretty sure I was getting greedy and was probably trying to put too much ink in the tank. Could it be something else? I did the same thing as before in regards to cleaning up the cartridge and dabbing the outlet. I'm not really dabbing it, just touching a paper towel to the outlet and letting it absorb any excess ink on the surface of the outlet. After installing the cartridge this time though, I had some major printing problems. I tried printing a simple black and white text document and had a lot of uneven white lines where it didn't print. I went through all the maintenance procedures in the printer's software package (clean nozzles, deep clean nozzles, print head alignment, nozzle check, bottom plate cleaning, and roller cleaning). It didn't make a difference. Today I printed a color document and the color areas all came out good, but the black print areas are doing the same thing.

This is what I'm talking about:

What is causing this and how do fix it? (Please tell me I can fix it!)

Thanks in advance! - Eric

 

[qwertydude]

The tapering fade out is indicative of ink starvation. Though you may have filled those cartridges to the brim and even overflowed sometimes without a good air path into the cartridge and especially the reservoir, ink can't flow to the print head. In this case with all the ink contamination of the top layer of foam I would purge those cartridges and also check to make sure ink isn't all over the inside area where the cartridge sits. I've notice if ink pools there it may interfere with proper ink flow.

 

[ehuesman]

Alright, I'll look into that and do a search on how to purge the cartridges. I already got a flashlight out last night and looked at where the cartridge sits, it seemed alright to me. Do you think ink could have dried in the breathing holes when I overfilled and now air can't get in?

Thanks for the info.

 

[ghwellsjr]

I have a theory about what could be causing this problem and that is if you do not seal your refill hole, air can get in and go right out the outlet port. I recommend putting a small piece of vinyl tape over the refill hole.

But if this doesn't fix the problem, you make a good point about ink in the passageway leading to the air vent hole. The best way I know to clean that ink out is to first seal off the outlet port and the hole that you use to refill with. You can use a vinyl tape for this purpose. Then turn the cartridge upside down on a piece of paper towel and squeeze the sides of the cartridge in an attempt to get any residual ink out of the passageway. Keep doing this until no more ink comes out.

 

[iP4XXX]

You can also cover the refill hole and put the outlet port over your ink bottle then put your mouth over the vent hole and gently blow air through it until some ink drips back into the bottle. Just be sure to clean any ink around the vent first or you'll get stained lips. This will clear the air passage and reclaim the excess ink.

 

[ghwellsjr]

The problem with trying to clear the air vent port by blowing into it is that it will not clear out the small wells that are in the path. They will just fill up with ink that may eventually get into the path again. Besides, you want those wells empty for proper functioning. See this link for more information on the wells.

 

[ehuesman]

Thanks for everyone's replies. Here is my plan, with a couple more questions.

I could take the cartridge out and try to do all of the suggested fixes at once, but I would like to isolate the problem for future reference, so what I want to do is try one fix at a time with a test print in between. I'm assuming that the ink starvation can lead to damaged heads, so should I even try this one-fix-at-a-time approach where I could potentially be printing several times with continued ink starvation? In other words, how soon can the heads start to get damaged? At this point I've already printed about 7 pages with the problem.

The first, and easiest, thing I'll try is to cover the German refill hole with tape. Is vinyl tape the same as "scotch tape" or is it the black electrician's tape?

If that doesn't work, I'll try clearing the vent hole that is under the label. While following ghwellsjr's link on the wells that are part of the vent hole path, I saw some posts that made me think I shouldn't remove the label to do this. Does the label being in place ensure some sort of equilibrium or equalization or is it okay to remove it to facilitate clearing or observing the vent hole path? Or do I have the whole idea wrong about where the vent hole is?

In regards to actually clearing the vent hole using ghwellsjr method, you state:

Then turn the cartridge upside down on a piece of paper towel and squeeze the sides of the cartridge in an attempt to get any residual ink out of the passageway. Keep doing this until no more ink comes out.

Are you talking about doing this after I have drained the cartridge? I do not understand how if I keep squeezing the sides while the cartridge is upside down (label side and vent hole facing down), ink wouldn't just keep coming out until the cartridge is empty.

Strictly from layman's perspective, it seems to me that blowing air from the outside into the vent hole (iP4XXX's method) would displace the ink that may be in the vent hole with air (which is what I want, right?) and that squeezing ink from inside the cartridge out the vent hole would displace any air in the vent hole with the ink. Or do I have this whole idea and principle wrong as well?

After trying the above, I will attempt my first drain and purge using these methods here and here. If I understand these correctly, I can just drain the cartridge using ghwellsjr's method, then refill with water using the German method, and repeat as necessary until the cartridge is clean. Then I let it air dry and refill it with ink.

 

[pharmacist]

One moment: pigment ink cartridges (PGI-220) can only be refilled 6-7 times. After that the cartridge need to be flushed, depending on the ink used and how well the cartridge is refilled (oversaturation of the sponge must be avoided, as the top will dry out and can cause flow problems).

 

[ghwellsjr]

I don't think you are going to burn out any nozzles by doing your tests one at a time. I usually print a solid page of black when I'm trying to solve these problems but as soon as I see the problem, I cancel the rest of the printout.

Vinyl tape is not Scotch tape. You can use electrician's tape.

You don't want to remove the label on the top of the cartridge. Otherwise, the serpentine path would be useless. The vent hole is what you uncover when you remove the seal around the cartridge when you first install it. The vent hole is actually the end of the groove that snakes around the top of the cartridge (under the label) and eventually goes into the cartridge.

If you are going to try the fixes in order, the first one would be to cover up the fill hole. Then you want to try my method of clearing the vent hole path. There is a gap between the top of the sponge inside the cartridge and the top of the cartridge. The ink will not flow across this gap unless the sponge is filled to overflowing which we are assuming happened the last time you refilled but it won't stay this way because the ink will flow right out of the outlet port if there is ink in the gap. The purpose of squeezing the cartridge is to create air pressure inside the cartridge to force residual ink out of the air vent. You have to squeeze really hard and repeat many times.

If that doesn't work, then use the method iPXXXX suggested. If it is very difficult to blow into the vent hole, then you're ready for the next fix.

Finally, pharmacist's observation will probably prove to be the correct one which is that the sponge material gets so clogged with dried ink that it cannot pass air through quick enough to allow displacement of the used ink in the tank. Unfortunately, to fix this you will have to drain your ink out of the cartridge and start over.

Several people on the forum follow the practice of blowing into the vent hole before they get ready to refill and if it is too hard, they know it is time to flush the cartridge. It really should be quite easy to blow into the vent hole and have ink flow out of the outlet port.

 

[ehuesman]

Okay, thanks again. Hopefully I will get a chance to try these fixes after work today. I will post my results.

One last question (for now), do the terms "purging", "draining", and "flushing" all refer to the same process of emptying the cartridge of ink, flushing it out with water (or solution), and then refilling with ink after it is dried?