Time for a rethink on the use of refillable compatible for Canon..

[The Hat]

@wilko There’s no need to use compatible carts on your MG6250 at all, the easier method is to use 520/521 OEM carts and just swap over the chips.

That way you can refill a lot easier and be more comfortable knowing that you can see how much ink you are actually putting into the carts.

I gave my grandson an iP7250 and it uses refillable compatible carts (octoinkjet supplied) in it which I refill for him.

His last nozzle check showed the cyan was half missing and the magenta had a couple of straight lines in it, so the heads are nearing the end of life now, and it’s not the carts that has caused this problem, more like pure laziness on his part to maintain the printer properly.

I want to print NOW attitude and I can’t be bother checking if the printer has ink or not, it has lasted him about two years with just over 1000 sheets printed so that in itself is amazing considering he managed to kill the last laser printer in less time than that.

It seems to escape some kids notice that if they don’t want to buy OEM carts then refilling is a better option but it has its own set of consequences if it is not done properly, it will be interesting to see which printer his Da will buy him next, that was his third printer..

 

[CakeHole]

I suggest you buy him one of the latest HP, Lexmarks or Dells for his next printer with no aftermarket carts available and then laugh when he has to spend £25 quid on a new cart See how far the I WANT TO PRINT NOW youngster attitude of today gets him them (god i now sound evil and old) ......... Sits with uncle @The Hat and happily talks about the I WANT generation for hours

 

[Smile]

I suggest you buy him one of the latest HP, Lexmarks or Dells for his next printer with no aftermarket carts available and then laugh when he has to spend £25 quid on a new cart See how far the I WANT TO PRINT NOW youngster attitude of today gets him them (god i now sound evil and old) ......... Sits with uncle @The Hat and happily talks about the I WANT generation for hours

Yes, I always say before you buy anything:

1. Get opinions about it.
2. Get service manual.
3. Source cartridges and inks etc.

Usually with any new gen printer you have to wait a year at least until there are chips for it.

 

[Pentode]

Never refilled any tanks myself but just wondering, if the sponge deteriorates with age or it gets clogged with minute particles of dried ink.

I thought you were suppose to flush them with ink cleaner fluid once in a while to stop this, I'm no expert mind.

Just a thought, how about the intake nozzle that connects to the cartridge on the tank assembly.

Dave

 

[The Hat]

I was wondering how long it would take you to consider the refilling option, there are hundreds of thread on that subject right here for you to read and they will answer all of the questions for you.

You can always buy aftermarket cartridges and not go down the refilling route if you wish, either option will save you quite a bit of dosh..

 

[fotofreek]

Never refilled any tanks myself but just wondering, if the sponge deteriorates with age or it gets clogged with minute particles of dried ink.

I thought you were suppose to flush them with ink cleaner fluid once in a while to stop this, I'm no expert mind.

Just a thought, how about the intake nozzle that connects to the cartridge on the tank assembly.

Dave

I've used ten year old OEM carts for refilling. I've not noticed deterioration, but when the ink feed slows down due to some dried ink in the cart flushing and drying can bring them back to working like new. Dye-based inks are water soluble and don't require any cleaner fluid. I have very little experience refilling with pigment-based inks, but the ones I have done have worked just fine with a hot water flush. Because I have only dye-based ink printers and a few with just a black pigment-based cart for text printing my experience is limited for the pigment-based carts.

Keeping a cart in the print head appears to keep the print head ink intake screen from drying out. The automatic cleaning routines the printer runs seem to take care of that area for the most part. Occasionally it may be necessary to run the cleaning routine you will find in the printer driver software if the nozzle check is less than ideal.

 

[Smudger]

Perhaps someone could report their experience with good quality compatible carts, preferably refillable ones.

An interesting thread. My only 3€ worth is that cloned 550 and 551 carts for my three printers are £12.50 for twenty (four of each colour) on Amazon, (or Go Ink dot com) at which price it seems wise to stock-pile carts in favour of refilling. That's £1.60 each, about CISS prices, I think. (See avatar pic.) So far, so good.

I replace a cart. or two most days and have had no problems yet with these compatibles. I use OEMs in the A3+ printer for client prints, though.

The three machines all use the same carts, which helps. One of them is the 'evil IP7250'

If anyone wants to try Go inks dot com (UK) the loyalty code LOYAL5 gets you 5% discount. (No, I don't work for them.)

 

[fotofreek]

An interesting thread. My only 3€ worth is that cloned carts for my three printers are £12.50 for twenty (four of each colour) on Amazon, (or Go Ink dot com) at which price it seems wise to stock-pile carts in favour of refilling. That's £1.60 each, about CISS prices, I think. (See avatar pic.)

The three machines all use the same carts, which helps. I use OEMs in the A3+ printer for client prints, though.

One of the major benefits of refilling over using non-oem prefilled carts is that there are refill inks available from known, reliable sources. You don't know the source of the prefilled cart ink. The companies in China that manufacture and prefill non-oem carts have been known to change ink sources without notifying the consumer. Consequently, your results can be quite variable.

Years ago I used prefilled "arrow" brand carts briefly. I found that the carts themselves came from either two different manufacturers or from one manufacturer that used two different molds. One set worked just fine, but the other was somewhat ink-starved due to too small an air vent hole. Unexpected variability and poor quality control.

It is certainly possible that there are now manufacturers with better quality control and a uniformly delivered product. Of course, the key here is that you are using OEM carts/inks for client work.

 

[Smudger]

"You don't know the source of the prefilled cart ink."

Quite. I use the two A4 printers for proofing, and the A3 for finals. It seems to me that having at least two printers means you can save the OEM inks for work that isn't going straight into the shredder and run the 'cooking printer' from low-price 'gangstah' compats.

My supplier quotes 'ISO90001 & ISO14001 Manufacturing Compliance' for what that's worth.

As we can see, you get a lot of ink for your money:

 

[ThrillaMozilla]

That's a beautiful, artistic print, Smudger. Is that how you got your screen name? Looks like maybe it's printed on the wrong side of the paper?