What do you do when your bottle of ink is nearly finished??

[websnail]

Appreciate the feedback on everything but I do have to disagree somewhat on this point...

6. It is not a big deal if you have ink coming from the air vent. The ink tells you that you have overfilled the cart. Just remove the ink from the vent with a tissue. If you have bubbles coming from the air vent, I cannot tell you what the problem is (i.e. it has never happen to me).

The key thing to note is that the vent is not just a hole but a matrix (or path) that covers quite some distance before you see anything appearing from the open end. If you get ink bubbling out of the open end then you have ink in the entire matrix and this could easily dry to form a constriction/blockage that reduces air flow or even stops it dead. If that happens you get a cartridge with no ink flow and eventually a blown print head if you aren't paying attention.

So my standing advice remains on this score... If you get ink coming out the vent, you've made a potentially big booboo and need to check for air flow and/or consider emptying the cartridge flushing and starting over.


Overall though seems a rewrite on the instructions is in order at some point to add a few more details and also some additional resources in the FAQ/KB... Appreciate the feedback.. thanks..

 

[joseph1949]

To: Websnail

Thank you for your reply. I am glad someone is reading my replies!!!!!!!!!!!

Per reply #21

Quote:

If you get ink coming out the vent, you've made a potentially big booboo and need to check for air flow and/or consider emptying the cartridge flushing and starting over.

End of quote.

Based on my experience with ink coming from the air vent and your experience with ink coming from the air vent we can say two things:

1. Ink coming from the air vent is no big deal (my thinking).

2. Ink coming from the air vent is a big deal (your thinking).

Before I learned how to fill carts in the correct manner (i.e. hold cart in the horizontal position and add ink to the level in the ink reservoir) I experienced ink coming from the air vent about half the time. When this happened I removed the ink from the air vent with a tissue. With the orange cap off and the air vent cleaned of ink I proceeded to wait for five minutes (longer is better) while checking for ink leaking from the ink outlet. With no sign of ink leaking from the outlet I placed the cart into the print head. Because of the ink leaking from the air vent I would baby-sit the cart for two or more days. This means me opening up the printer and taking a good look at the cart for signs of leakage. Let me add that when I fill a cart and place the cart into the printer I would wait over night before doing a nozzle test/print out. This is for all cartswith or without ink coming from the air vent. With this procedure I never (knock on wood) have had a bad nozzle test/print out.

Let me say again, I have never (knock on wood) had a cart to leak inside the printer (or a bad nozzle test/print out) when the cart showed ink coming from the air vent (when I used my procedure). I may be a very lucky person, but there it is.

I believe some people can have ink coming from the air vent and then experience major problems (i.e. leakage inside the printer, bad nozzle test, bad print out, print head gone bad, etc.). I believe that this happens for two reasons: bad procedure and/or a bad cart. In other words, ink coming from the air vent does not mean (but it could) bad things to come. Other factors may be involved when you have major problems.

Websnail, in your reply you said to check for air flow and/or empty out the cart and flush out the cart. I believe that this is an overreaction (but a prudent one). I would tell a newbie to clean the ink from the air vent, wait for ink leakage, and then (with no sign of ink leakage) place the cart into the printer and baby-sit the cart.

Flushing out a cart is not easy. On a scale of 1-10 I would give flushing out a cart a 5 and flushing out a print head a 20. If you do not have a top fill hole, you will need to create one or find some other means to flush out the cart. There is always the possibility that one can damage a cart my flushing. If you are a newbie you can do a search on this site for the correct procedures on flushing a cart. I think that the main problem with flushing is that it can be very time consuming and a newbie can become frustrated and cut corners and end up with a bad cart. Newbies, take your time!!!!!!!!!

So, what do we have? Websnail, based on your experience ink coming from an air vent can be very bad. I on the other hand I think it is no big deal based on my experience. I think we are both right. If you are a newbie please go this site and ask for help. We masters may not have all the answers, but we can keep you from doing something that is absolutely wrong.

Thank you.

 

[ThrillaMozilla]

Joseph,
1. If a cartridge is going to leak because it's overfilled, it will do so in the first few minutes. In case of overfilling I suggest you take out about 1 mL by blowing on the vent, to give yourself a margin of safety.

2. 3/4 full is probably overfilling, the way you are doing it. Mikling recommends no more than 1/4 full with the vent open, if you fill slowly. Then seal the vent with tape and you can fill the ink chamber to the top. Fill the cartridge in the upright position, in the same orientation as in the printer. If you refill with the vent open and on the bottom, ink can run right through the vent (this is not a good idea).

3. You probably should not run a cartridge with ink in the vent, as you risk plugging the vent sooner or later. You don't have to flush the whole cartridge just to flush the vent. If the ink is fresh and not dried, a small drop of distilled water sucked through the vent (followed by air) will suffice.

 

[The Hat]

This ink in the air maze is getting W a y out of proportion in my opinion.
Firstly if you have the misfortune of having a cartridge with ink coming out of the maze you are by definition in trouble.

How you get out of it is another matter and thats what the question is here.

A cartridge with the air maze full of ink has little or no chance of leaking out all over the place
let alone in your printer but the opposite in fact and the result is usually called ink starvation.

Now you may get away with it or you May not thats not answer but I would say its down to just pure luck on your part.

How you deal with the unwanted ink in the air maze is your own personal choice now Joseph1949
and ThrillaMozilla have mentioned their own ways but saying that I wouldnt use either.

Websnail is selling inks commercially and not personally so when giving out free advice
he has to be very careful not to give incorrect information that may be harmful to anyone's printer.

His method on how to correct the air maze blockage maybe longwinded but its a very prudent one which works 100% of the time
so therefore has to be seen as a correct one and I cant see anything wrong with it even dough I may not use it myself. (Fool)

 

[websnail]

As noted... it's a case of YMMV (Your Mileage May Vary) and the more technically minded and informed you are the more likely you are to spot potential problems such as poor ink flow, etc..

I've noticed that the average end user tends to view "missing colour" as "printhead clogged" while experienced users (on here in particular) are much more likely to consider the ENTIRE ink delivery process from nozzle to cartridge vent.

As Hat mentioned above, I have to assume a certain level of low tech ability and/or attention... plus an element of butt covering... Ink in a vent matrix is potentially a big issue and while purging may seem like an over reaction it does at least deal with the issue. I'm also partially guilty of feeling that learning to purge is a useful skill to have for a refiller as there are other instances when this approach is a practical solution. So, it's not wasted effort.

To be blunt... if I vented ink I'd probably not purge (unless perhaps it was pigment ink) but I would definitely be checking for any indications of ink starvation that would indicate a blocked vent.

Each to their own

 

[tomv80]

I would suggest to check out youtube. There are many, many videos on this topic!

 

[ThrillaMozilla]

I know that some people are worried about diluting the ink if they suck a small drop of water through the vent (followed by a little air), but they don't object to purging the entire cartridge and leaving the sponge in a damp condition. I suppose if you are trying to produce museum-quality prints you might not want to do either.

I have encountered ink in the vent while experimenting with vacuum filling, and while refilling blind with an InkTec cradle. I don't see how one could possibly do this with the topfill method, unless one filled with the vent open and on the down side. Hopefully my edited remarks above will help avoid mistakes.