Don't refill compatible cartridges

A couple of weeks ago I salvaged a Canon MG5550. The printer missed some cartridges, It had compatible PGBK and yellow cartridges and an OEM photo BK installed, magenta and cyan were missing. To test the printer I bought a set of cheap compatible cartridges with chips, buying a set of OEM XL cartridges, resetter and ink set or refillable ARC cartridges plus ink set would be gambling too much money on a possibly defective and irreparable printer.

The two black cartridges both indicated half full so I left them in place and installed compatible C, M and Y cartridges. The first nozzle check looked like this, showing PGBK starvation:



after blowing into the vent of the pigment cartridge and holding a piece of paper under the ink outlet to check if it could deliver ink I did a couple of PGBK cleanings from the maintenance and got this nozzle check print:



Text from the Windows printer test page and a photo now printed nicely, and after some days I continued testing by printing the Druckerchannel.de Grafik test page. This was a surprise, PGBK was now being starved again, see this:



I then changed the PGBK compatible cartridge with a new one I had bought and got this after a couple of PGBK cleanings from the maintenance:



When I examined the removed cartridge which still had 50% ink in the reservoir, I noticed a hole for "German refill".



I don't know how the cartridge worked when it was new, but I think this indicates that compatible cartridges intended for single use should not be refilled. You risk burning out the print head.

Indeed, the quality of the sponges, air vents and other innards lack the quality and ingeniosity of the OEM cartridges.

I use the compatible carts from salvaged printers as cleaning cartridges (filled with pharmacist solution) or (with printhead conservation solution) to lay up a printer.

When I throw them away, I keep the chips so I can transplant them to other cartridges just in case.
Most are resettable, better an OEM cart with a compatible chip than vice versa.

PeterBJ said:

I don't know how the cartridge worked when it was new, but I think this indicates that compatible cartridges intended for single use should not be refilled.

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It just goes to show the strength and quality of the Canon cartridge and chip, they were designed and built to last for one use only and not be used again, but yet many still successfully work after endless refills.

Who in there right mind would want to refill a compatible cartridge..?

Somebody who wants to start refilling and have thrown away their OEM cartridges, or didn't want to buy new OEM XL cartridges for three to five times the cost of compatibles?

Vorkolor said:

Somebody who wants to start refilling and have thrown away their OEM cartridges, or didn't want to buy new OEM XL cartridges for three to five times the cost of compatibles?

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@Vorkolor, they are the very guys that @PeterBJ is try to reach, if they don’t have their OEM cartridges then the cheaper alternative is to purchase aftermarket cartridges, but never try and refill these same cartridges.

The end result will be the loss of the print head as demonstrated by PeterBJ in this first post#1, what starts out as a cheaper option usually turns out to be a more expensive option in the end, scratch one print head..

@PeterBJ launched a warning, not a prohibition.

You can - as I did - print temporalily with refilled compatibles, but be double as vigilant and do a lot of nozzle checks.
You don't have to buy new OEM carts, it is possible to find empty ones.

You are right.

Compatible cartridges are not equal and some are better than others. The general advice is not to refill a compatible cartridge as these cartridge often develop ink flow problems after a short time if refilled. It cannot be ruled out that some compatible cartridges can be refilled with success, but if you try this you should watch the print quality closely and stop at the first sign of ink starvation.

Apart from a silicone plug and an ARC chip I wonder what is the difference between compatible and refillable cartridges? There are also some refillable cartridges that are better than others.

Would you believe I had a 3eBK aftermarket cartridge that I used for years and only retired it after I was gifted with 4 spare empty OEM’s, I was only using dye ink it dough.

It just goes to show that some of these cartridges do work but many of them don’t and can secretly destroy the print head as shown by @PeterBJ post#1, and I certainly still wouldn’t recommend their use, they should be avoided all costs..