Shouldn't the lower sponge change colour?

[PenguinLust]

I just filled a CLI-221Y with 7cc of C221yD, (a la PrecisionColors.com) which I intend as a stand-in for a 226. It's been a couple of hours, but the bottom sponge stayed as white as Michael Jackson (was). I tried tapping it (rather hard), but that didn't make a difference. Then I blew in the air vent the ink started flowing. Unfortunately, now that I've forced ink into the outlet, I don't know if it's flowing naturally and will do so for the printer. What should I do?

I top filled it, but then sealed the top. I intend to German fill it here on in.

 

[mikling]

Squeeze the sides a little to get the ink to spread a bit. Then place a paper towel on the outlet to wick the ink to get it flowing a bit when it soaks out a bit and saturates the outlet piece.

 

[The Hat]

The sponge was just a bit to dry when you went to refill the cartridge thats why it didnt take up the ink properly.

But now that you blown into the air maze you have created a natural path for the ink to follow
so it will be ok to use and will work normally for you..

 

[mikling]

The way I refill the dried cartridges is that initially I remove it from the storage clip or leave the outlet open. Then I slowly introduce ink into the cartridge until the outlet filter/sponge becomes saturated with ink. Then I place it back into the storage clip. Thereafter I continue to slowly place ink into the reservoir side. When the bottom half of the sponge looks well saturated, I seal the vent hole and then completely fill the tank side. To seal the reservoir ( I am right handed) I hold the cartridge with my left hand and place my thumb over the vent hole and then using my right hand I fill the reservoir and then close it off with the plug.

When the cartridge is completely dry, sometimes the ink on the middle sponge will move across the sponge and seal off the outlet sponge. The trapped air in the outlet sponge prevents the ink from moving down there. By having it open to the air initally, the ink is free to move down there and gravity is also your friend in this operation.

The final step is when the tank is filled and plugged up, I tilt the cartridge so that the tank side is up and I tap the cartridge a couple times. This will release any air that might be trapped in the ink bridge tunnel/canal between the sponge and tank compartments. This canal is a refinement to provide better ink flow from the tank to the outlet and is not present in older BCI-6 cartridges. On the CLI-8 and forward this is there.

 

[PenguinLust]

The sponge was just a bit to dry when you went to refill the cartridge thats why it didnt take up the ink properly.

The sponge was dry in that it didn't have any wet ink in it. It also didn't have any dry ink, because it was a virgin. Hopefully, you're right and all the nasty surface tensions getting in the way have all been broken.

It's funny. The previous problems I've had w/top filling virgin carts is that they tended to make a mess. It was the opposite way this time.

 

[ThrillaMozilla]

A new sponge may not absorb ink well. Canon even mentioned that in one of their patents.

 

[crenedecotret]

I've "forced" ink into dry sponges a few times by blowing on the refill hole with the vent covered with my thumb. i usually stabilize the ink bottle with a small u-clamp and do this right over the bottle so I do not waste any ink.

I do this three four times and usually all is good. Any you don't risk overfilling the top sponge either.

 

[paulcroft]

I have just filled some purged CLI-8s and also had a problem with the way the ink soaked across the lower sponge. The way I solved this problem was to, first of all, dribble some ink onto the outlet sponge and let it soak into the cartridge from the outside towards the inside, as it were, then let it stand for a few minutes (while I repeated this on the other cartridges). I then put the clips on and top filled in the normal way, as described by Mikling above. I didn't know to tilt the cartridge afterwards and give it a tap to release trapped air so I'll add that to my routine.

 

[PeterBJ]

ThrillaMozilla wrote:

A new sponge may not absorb ink well. Canon even mentioned that in one of their patents.

Do you know any details about how Canon solved the problem? And do you know any details about how Canon fills the cartridges?

The plastic sealing ball suggests that top filling is used but ordinary top fill cannot fill the ink chamber 100% because of the well that holds the sealing ball. Maybe the cartridges are filled upside down or vacuum is involved?

 

[The Hat]

ThrillaMozilla wrote:

A new sponge may not absorb ink well. Canon even mentioned that in one of their patents.

Do you know any details about how Canon solved the problem? And do you know any details about how Canon fills the cartridges?

The plastic sealing ball suggests that top filling is used but ordinary top fill cannot fill the ink chamber 100% because of the well that holds the sealing ball. Maybe the cartridges are filled upside down or vacuum is involved?

I reckon that Canon do use the refill hole to fill their cartridges, why else would it be there.. ?