Repeated clogging after repeated cleaning/deep cleaning

[PenguinLust]

The problem w/replacing the cartridge is that they don't grow on trees and I don't have a lot of dough for guesswork right now. If others agree that that's the next step, then I'll go there. What about just cleaning it out?

I'm afraid I've not been able to figure out the difference between "dye", "ink" and "pigment", so I'm afraid I don't know what you mean.

 

[rodbam]

If you don't tick the greyscale box in the printer preferences then as I understand it the printer uses the colour inks by mixing the colours to produce the colour black to print B&W text.
I don't know enough to explain the technical differences between dye & pigment inks but pigment inks are water proof & have been used for B&W text printing even in dye based printers. It seems a majority of photo dedicated printers today have all pigment inks as they have better archival properties. The dye based colour inks have less archival properties but from what I have read print better on gloss papers with a wider colour gamut.

 

[The Hat]

PenguinLust
To tell the difference in your two cartridges is fairly easy once you know what youre looking at.
Your 3eBK fat cartridge the one youre having trouble with is the pigment black ink and the 6BK is the dye black ink.
The 3eBK only gets used for text printing and the 6BK is used mainly for photos.
So what I was recommending was to put some dye BK black into your 3eBK cartridge
and see if that will get you back printing again.

rodbam If you don't tick the greyscale box in the printer preferences then as I understand it the printer uses the colour inks by mixing the colours to produce the colour black to print B&W text.

Printing greyscale or colour makes no difference to text black, as text is always printed using the pigment black ink only.
The exception to that rule is when the printer is set to print on matte photo paper..

 

[rodbam]

Thanks Hat that's good to know, I don't know why I assumed the colour inks would be used if the greyscale box wasn't ticked.

 

[PenguinLust]

Ok, thanks for that. So I use the German method to refill, but so far I've only done it w/6 cartridges, not the 3e. Is there anything special I have to know about that? Also, how much 6BK should I put into 3eBK?

 

[The Hat]

PenguinLust
Refilling the 3eBK cartridge is no different and its as easy as all the rest of your cartridges so no worries there.
Just fill up your 3eBK cartridge as normal but with the 6BK black and the only notable difference
in performance will be slightly thicker text that is all + it will be less lightly to clog in the future..

 

[PenguinLust]

Oh, and should I clean out the 3eBK first, or at least remove the free ink?

 

[The Hat]

PenguinLust Oh, and should I clean out the 3eBK first, or at least remove the free ink?

Yes by all means completely clean out the cartridge if you like as it can only help
to make things go better for you, but its not necessary if you dont want too..

 

[PenguinLust]

It's my intention to just fill the tank, since it doesn't have any ink in it anyway right now, but then I saw these deposits in it, and thought before I waste some precious 6BK fluid, I'd check w/you to see if this cartridge is worth keeping anyway. Here's what it looks like now:

Does this indicate a cartridge riddled with congealed ink? So should I chuck it, clean it out, or just proceed with the original plan and fill the tank?

 

[The Hat]

PenguinLust Does this indicate a cartridge riddled with congealed ink? So should I chuck it

Pigment ink doesnt look very pretty but it usually works fine in most cases and it tends to have a greater chance
of clogging than any other ink in your printer because of its viscosity.

The cartridge will be ok to use but if you are still having doughs about it by all means give a clean out,
it will improve its performance and help to put your mind at ease which is the most important thing here..