Thoughts on the Canon iP7250?

[Lucas28]

I dont like this purging, is it necessary?
It seems better to fill the emptied cartridge immediately with new ink, before the sponge gets the chance to dry out. Then store them with ink in it.

After purging some mls of water stay behind in the sponge, which will dilute the ink. It will be diluted with 10 to 15% of water. Thats not good, even with distilled water. BTW did you know that fungi love demi water?

And why buying empty OEM carts? The sponge may be dried out. I buy new OEM carts, sealed by Canon, second hand on eBay. They are sold by people whose printer died.

 

[The Hat]

Empty OEM carts bought from Octoinkjet are delivered with clips attached to them. The clips are not OEM, but they are perfect for refilling and storing your cartridges. There is no need for elastic bands.

Your right on, I just used an old Picture for display purposes , but here is one of these empty Octoinkjet carts
with the new clip on them that I got for my i9950 recently and they do fit snugly.

I dont like this purging, is it necessary?
It seems better to fill the emptied cartridge immediately with new ink, before the sponge gets the chance to dry out. Then store them with ink in it.

After purging some mls of water stay behind in the sponge, which will dilute the ink. It will be diluted with 10 to 15% of water. Thats not good, even with distilled water. BTW did you know that fungi love demi water?

And why buying empty OEM carts? The sponge may be dried out. I buy new OEM carts, sealed by Canon, second hand on eBay. They are sold by people whose printer died.

Regarding purging, it is sometimes necessary when a cartridge get tired
of being constantly refilled and the ink flow starts to slow down noticeably.

After purging your cart and before you dry-out the clean water inside it (by the wicking method)
you can inject a couple of drops of alcohol onto the outlet sponge and blow on the outlet hole
forcing some of the water/alcohol out through the air maze, now you have a fungi free zone.

http://www.nifty-stuff.com/forum/viewtopic.php?pid=34175#p34175

A new OEM CLI-8 cart costs 13 but the equivalent empty cart costs only 2.20
so why spend a lot more cash if you only need an extra empty cart or just the chip itself ?

 

[Lumi]

Ah! Finally got the time to work on my "new" OEM carts today. Removed the ball from the top inlet port, gave each cart about 1 liter's worth of flush, and now I got nice and clean carts!

My purge method was a bit different. I did not like pushing the water into the cart for fear of "displacing" the foam inserts so I pulled water into the cart instead whenever possible. I'd attach the cart to the purge clips from Octoinkjet, invert the cart with the top of the cart immersed in warm water, then pull the water into the cart. I'd do this twice, then load up the syringe with 60mls water and push it into the cart, flushing about 20mls with the inlet port covered with my finger --- I did this to make sure I flushed the vent properly. I'd then put the cart right-way-up and vacuum all the water out of the cart. Then I'd do this again once or twice -- two pulls, one push, then take the water out. When I'm happy with the cart, I'd do another pull, then take the water out. I must admit after purging 8 carts, I can feel the burn!

Here's my CLI-8 Y cart before the purge:

The outlet port seems a bit caked with some bits of dried ink:

My purging setup:

After the first "pull," I can see I've gotten a good portion of the ink out:

Second pull:

Clean cart:

Here's the rest of the gang:

And here they are after the process:

I didn't have any rubber bands so I got the carts to stand on the clips provided anyway. I must say I am impressed about this "drying technique" for the carts. By the time I got to the last cart, the paper towel on the first few carts were moist up to the sides as well! I'll leave the carts like this overnight, then probably put new paper towels on them tomorrow morning.

I'm a bit concerned about the moisture on the reservoir chambers though. I guess it'll have to evaporate as normal, but with the weather going back to the colder temperatures, I just hope it'll evaporate soon!


@ Lucas28: As I've bought second-hand OEM carts, I have no idea how long these carts have been empty so I don't know how much ink has dried up in the foam. Best to purge and start clean and fresh. Also note that the cart's foam will be allowed to dry for at least a couple of days --- while the ink may not be 100% pure for the first few refills, I'm sure the amount of water left on the foam vs. the ink that I will introduce plus the ink in the reservoir means whatever water left will not significantly dilute the ink.

As for empty OEMs vs. second-hand new ones, well, I spent all of 20 for a set of 8 CLI-8 carts. Hard to argue with that.

 

[thanhhuy123]

Do we need distilled water, or just normal water we are drinking for this cleaning? Does it work with pigment ink? (since I see it a little bit harder to sweep out of my hand when I do refilling).

Thanks.

 

[The Hat]

Im glad you see you tackled the cart purging like a real master and thank you for sharing your nice pictures
which a lot of newbies I know will certainly appreciate your details and concerns.

The remaining moisture inside the carts wont cause you any loss of colour
because there is just not enough of it to dilute anything.

Now before you begin to refill any of your carts with ink, DONT forget to reset your chips before you start,
always reset first, it a simple first mistake to make but it stops you getting drips of ink all over your hands and resetter.

The trick is that you cant reset the chip with the orange clip still on the bottom of the cart
and you tend to squeeze the carts while resetting them which will then cause the ink to drip out of the outlet.

Try not to over dry the sponges inside all of you carts either otherwise it will take some time for the sponge to absorb ink
on the first refill which makes the refill sponge look a bit spotty, one or two drops of alcohol on the outlet sponge helps prevent this.

Happy Refilling, go share and enjoy all of your hard work with the rest of your kids,
O I hope you have plenty of paper to hand..

 

[Lumi]

While I am curious about the pigment cart (The Hat's pic shows it wasn't very clean), I don't have one so I can't really try it out.

The Hat, I can be a bit OCD sometimes so I guess that's a bit of a benefit here. Of course, if this thread can be of benefit for future refillers, that's a big plus! For me, it'll be a good "chronicle" of how I got my new Pro 9000 MK1 working.

I've examined my carts today, about 20+ hours after I've let them sit with a paper towel to dry. The paper towels were moist all over, so I guess they've sucked out as much as they can and are saturated. I also noticed that there was still a bit of condensation inside the ink reservoir chambers, but mostly where it was covered by the moist (and cold) paper towels. With new towels, I hope it'll be moisture-free by tomorrow. I've changed the paper towels so here they are with towel #2:

An interesting thing I've found was that there was still a bit of ink coloring on the old paper towels. Mind you, this is after a liter's worth of purging, and I've even wiped the exit port afterwards to get rid of any ink that was on the plastic.

Is the concern about resetting before refilling simply to avoid making a mess? What happens if the chips get wet by water or ink? I presume there is little damage, considering some members here flush/purge the carts by holding it under a running tap!

As for over-drying the sponges, I'll just get them as dry as possible with the paper towel method. Maybe another round of paper towels after this one. If, after leaving the carts overnight, the paper towels are still dry the next day, I'll be happy with that and will start refilling. No rush at all, but I do admit I'm excited to get these carts into the printer and "flush out" the old, unknown ink. I got a ream (500 sheets) of A3 and another ream of A4 standing by, plus my wife has started re-arranging stuff so I have more room now!

Thanks for all the tips!

 

[The Hat]

When I use the paper towel for wicking I put a screw directly under the outlet hole to make better contact with the sponge
and I leave it that way for about 35 minutes, in a warm room thats usually enough I find, then reset the cart and refill straight away.

To reset your carts properly just hold them in the resetter till you get a continuous red light for about 3 seconds
and the chip will be reset back to full again just like new.

The chip on the cart usually dries out quicker than the sponges so
I have never had a problem with any of my chips after purging a cart.

The large black pigment cartridges seldom get completely clean so the normal flushing applies to them in just the same way,
the pigment permanently stains the sponge so if the water is clear then all the ink has been removed,
you might get one with your next printer.

Happy Printing..

 

[Lumi]

you might get one with your next printer.

The idea here is for that NOT to happen for a good few years


Re: wicking, I suspect the corner fold is enough to make contact with the sponge, and thus, wick the moisture out of it. I also jam it into the orange clip as you can see, so that holds the paper towel in place. Just inspected one of the carts and it seems like the corner-folded part is still dry so I suspect the foam has all been wicked-out but I'll still leave it there until tomorrow to be sure, then refill. No rush.

 

[PeterBJ]

Hi Lumi, a few comments:

The Hat wrote:

Now before you begin to refill any of your carts with ink, DONT forget to reset your chips before you start,
always reset first, it a simple first mistake to make but it stops you getting drips of ink all over your hands and resetter.

The trick is that you cant reset the chip with the orange clip still on the bottom of the cart
and you tend to squeeze the carts while resetting them which will then cause the ink to drip out of the outlet.

This is very good advice. Water and ink residues on the chip are electrically conductive, so they could cause the printer to reject the cartridge, or worse they could ruin the chip, or in a worst case they could ruin the logic board, making the printer a total loss. The worst case scenario is probably unlikely, but better be safe. An added bonus: the resetting also checks the chip and the function of the resetter. If the chip fails to reset, there is no reason to waste ink on that cartridge. The chip might be defective, or the resetter might need a new battery. Although it is a rare occurrence, a resetter or a chip can fail.

The Hat wrote:

Try not to over dry the sponges inside all of you carts either otherwise it will take some time for the sponge to absorb ink
on the first refill which makes the refill sponge look a bit spotty, one or two drops of alcohol on the outlet sponge helps prevent this.

I can also confirm this. Compare a rag. A rag that is completely dry is difficult to wet, a slightly moist rag absorbs water easily.

You can flush the dye ink cartridges, so the sponges become white or almost white. But you cannot get the pigment ink cartridges white by flushing. When the colour of the sponges has changed to a uniform medium grey and the water runs clear from the cartridge, the flushing is OK.

 

[The Hat]

Do we need distilled water, or just normal water we are drinking for this cleaning? Does it work with pigment ink? (since I see it a little bit harder to sweep out of my hand when I do refilling).

Thanks.

Normal clear drinking water (No addictives) is perfectly fine to use for purging your cartridges with,
however you are recommended to final flush your cartridges with Distilled water
if you live in a area which has Hard water (All sorts of Nitrates in it).

Its no different when youre dealing with pigment or dye inks, soapy water gets pigment off your hands faster than dye ink,
but dont be tempted to put it into your cartridge..