Here Is An Up–date On The Yellow Cli-42.

Its First victim me !

I have been using these cartridges for the past year or so (Not in a Pro100) and only last week did a problem arise for me, was it caused by the Yellow CLI-42 cartridge I don’t honestly know but my gut instinct would suggest yes, conspiracy theory or otherwise.


I don’t like airing my misfortunes openly and boy I’ve had quite a few lately but I feel it’s vitally important that others should be aware of things that can go bump in the night.

The print head on my converted iP4700 went bang last week, massive failure in the yellow !, yes I said the yellow and for no apparent or obvious reason, just coincidently it happened that I was using one of these rebadged CLI42 carts, it has been refilled five times.

I first put the problem down to using oversize cartridges but was later reassured by@Tudor that this was not the cause, so it just must have been the age of the print head, (Expired) till I was purging all of the cartridges that I had used.

Here is the CLI-42 cartridge purged of all ink with just clean clear water in both the reservoir and sponge sides, (Completely Full) the sponge has always remained stained with ink which is unlike every other yellow cartridge that I have purged in the past.



So here is the question:- Was @mikling right to bring this to our attention, is there an issue with OEM and 3rd party yellow inks mixing, well I would say absolutely, especially in my case anyway. (To darn late)

So now its decision time, do all you guys just ignore this helpful advice given free or do you act upon it and use an alternative CLI-8 cartridge till you can remove all of the remaining ink inside your CLI-42 cartridges, it will save a perfectly good print head if you do.

I will post later on how to remove the remaining yellow out of the cartridge and make it safe to use again..

This is all very reminiscent of the Yellow ink issue of 2011 when a particular Image Specialists ink batch had a really bad day when used to refill 221 and 521 cartridges in much the same circumstances as this "new" issue (ie: When the cartridge had not been flushed of OEM ink). That was not a fun time and certainly not one I would wish on any poor soul.

... and before anyone thinks.. "Oooh! Bad Image Specialists!"... Erm, no! There were also reports, around the same time, of an OCP yellow having the exact same issue, so to be honest this isn't a new problem, nor specific to one in the broadest sense but is for the CLI-42.

As things stand, (and because I know I'm going to get asked) no we're not seeing the same thing for the CLI-42 inks we have stocked at OctoInkjet but that's not to say we won't see something similar now that we know something is awry. Certainly I'm testing for it now that it has been highlighted

What I can say with a reasonable level of certainty, is that it would appear prudent to start flushing any OEM cartridges using Yellow ink and removing the potential for heartache later... and yes our flush clips would seem to be a much simpler way of doing that.


I'll report back when I have some more data on the OC42 inkset.

There are two way to get rid of the yellow. Soak in windex with ammonia first. Flush with windex and again flush like crazy with lots of water and pray you got rid of all the yellow ink and compounds that might have been released.

Second way is to mix up some Dishwasher Cascade with water, filter it through a lab filter or lacking that a multiple layers of a coffee filter, fill the cart, let it soak and then flush like crazy.

The OEM yellow hangs on like crazy and as water and refill ink hits it, it releases nasty bits that will clog the inlet of the printhead.

If it does that any of the above solutions will instantly break it down, put it back into solution and allow the flush solution to clear it out.

I went into to making the inkset fully aware of what to look for given the past history of Canon yellow chromalife in the CLI-221/521/526/226. This problem is not similar, it passed the tests used for those inks. This phenomena has something to do with how the Canon ink dries and sheds itself when refilled.

There are, it appears so far as I can detect TWO problems that occur. They are separate problems, each occurring in different phases and conditions. That is the problem with finding it. What you might go out looking for is not what you find but something else and it did not add up initially. Both of them are dynamic conditions in real use.

mikling said:

I went into to making the inkset fully aware of what to look for given the past history of Canon yellow chromalife in the CLI-221/521/526/226. This problem is not similar, it passed the tests used for those inks. This phenomena has something to do with how the Canon ink dries and sheds itself when refilled.

Click to expand...

I'm not suggesting any lax practice here at all. Given the slow ingress of the issue it's easy to see how this wasn't spotted sooner and I doubt anyone could fault the resultant response.

However I'm not sure I agree with your assessment that this is completely different. Yes, it certainly doesn't take place in nearly the same timeframe as the original issue but the solution proposed and the mechanism through which the ink clogs the printhead nozzles appears identical and suggests some commonalities.

The 2011 issue caused a clump of solid material to be clearly visible in the spongeless compartment within hours or days (depending on remaining OEM ink) of refilling, and while this is not a symptom here, the incredibly slow progression might well explain that. It further occurs to me that we didn't see the sponge symptom (as @The Hat raised) in the earlier models because the 221/521 carts are opaque in the sponged area so without foresight to tear one apart and check could also have been an indicator, albeit a moot one given the solid mass in the spongeless section.

As for other solutions, given that CLI-42's appear to be the culprit, then the CLI-8 yellow cart would seem to be a good alternative for a simple chip swap to avoid the issue altogether.

I found a much simpler way to rid the sponge of this pesky yellow residue.

I used a small amount of Fairy washing up liquid mixed in a drop of warm water and put that through the cartridge in the same way as before. (Purging)

It cleared the sponge almost instantly and after a couple of syringe full’s of water to rinse all of it out the cartridge was not back to normal and ready for use once I dried the sponge with @Ghwellsjr wick drying method.

http://www.printerknowledge.com/threads/draining-a-canon-cartridge.4760/#post-33958

click to enlarge

I still see yellow in there. Be careful.
Anybody else see it?

Thank you I will to be sure..

mikling said:

I still see yellow in there. Be careful.
Anybody else see it?

Click to expand...

I also see it. I can clearly make out the boundary betweed the upper and lower sponges.

It sure shows how that yellow ink wants to hang in there. Here is where the issue is. Eventually the refill ink might allow the yellow ink to shed. With normal refill ink, it redissolves evenly back into the ink. With the Canon ink, it sheds as the dried ink appears to be tough. I'll tell you what it reminds me of at some later time. But what the issue is that if it does not totally go back into solution, it will get filtered out and caught in the inlet portion of the printhead and block that. The other side to this is that as I described, when traces of the ink is present with lots of water, some instabilty of some sort is displayed and it sort of flocculates over time in the presence of water....and refill ink.

That is what I found to the best of my abilities. So my advice to folks who don't want adventures....just do not reuse the CLI-42Y. Now as for you Hat, You love this stuff!