Flushing recycled Canon CLI-42 carts - the challenge

I have just got an answer from the tester, the bad results are probably wrong, a transcription error on the website.

mikling said:

I've now started to receive teensy quantities of CLI-42 carts from the recycle chain. Initially I was excited until I started to attempt to flush them with normal procedures.

As we know the yellow is a feared monster to start with. As it turns out, when these carts are left to dry out and exposed for long periods....things happen.

What things? With the exception of LGY, GY and BK, the other colors are hard to flush out. Processes that would have a CLI-8 spanking white in no time cannot begin to remove the dried out ink. It just hangs in there.

As expected the worst culrpit is yellow....stubborn as hell. The others including PM which normally is an easy flush is also tough.

The first attempt was to use diluted LA Awesome as recommended by some as an aggressive flush agent. No dice.

The only thing that appears to work to some degree is something similar to what Hat used and that is dishwashing liquid. With this, you need to be careful as some contain hand conditioners etc. The other issue is that it is difficult to rinse out properly and this could be why Hat had some issues with his flushed carts. I reckon you need as much as 3 liters of flushing water to get the detergent out. Now you have to get it out properly or else the remaining chemicals will modify the surface tension properties of the incoming ink.

What is clearly evident is that when the CLI-42 ink dries....it becomes much more aggressive in holding on than previously thought and completely removing it can be difficult. Though the CLI-8 is called Chromalife, the CLI-42 Chromalife is a different animal altogether though the name is similar.

Before the ink dries... flushing is much easier however. ...but ink does dry in the sponge at some point no?... Will leaving some colored sponges in there be safe after a flush? I don't know as yet. The safest route is to used CLI-8 bodies for refilling if the CLI-42 bodies cannot be cleansed properly when they need a flush.

I will continue to try various chemicals to see what will work. These results are preliminary as the sample size of the recycled carts are very small so far.

Click to expand...

Hope it's cool to bring this back out as i have received a set of CLI-42's for my Pro 100.
After trying a chemical called Goof Off on 1 test cart in another trhead, and then really researching here on the site i have concluded to using 2 liquids to bring this set to perfection............pictures later this week if interested.
I did not try LA Awesome, or Goof Off on this set even though my test with Goof Off proved to be a quick cleaning solvent, but still left trace of yellow in a test cart.
Instead i just went at it with Windex, rinsed, and then more Windex to anyone in the group that was stubborn which ironically turned out to be the Cyan.............soaked and rinsed this cart 4 times, and finally resorted to PiezoFlush to get this cart to snow white perfection. The PC was the next stubborn in the group, then Yellow of course which ended up being far easier to get perfect with just 2 soakings.
All the carts were a bit stubborn at first, but eventually showed their pearly whites.

Later today i purged one set that i have been using since i started using the printer almost 1 1/2 years ago, and same thing, the Cyan is a real animal to clean. Light Gray was a bear too, and is currently soaking in Windex.

Be interesting to know what Mikling has found out when cleaning these particular carts as well...

Good and practical subject for discussion.

My problem is the cyan and photo cyan.

Needed repeated washing and eventual soaking in windex to get white. Still short of "pearly" but I judged close enough. Has been my first purge and clean due to grungy effect of residual ink in the sponges for about a year.

The set will be used for my next change in about a month.

Here is hoping all will be well.

Rs

Roy Sletcher said:

Good and practical subject for discussion.

My problem is the cyan and photo cyan.

Needed repeated washing and eventual soaking in windex to get white. Still short of "pearly" but I judged close enough. Has been my first purge and clean due to grungy effect of residual ink in the sponges for about a year.

The set will be used for my next change in about a month.

Here is hoping all will be well.

Rs

Click to expand...

Same here on the cyan and Photo cyan.
I just finished with 2 of the 3 sets i have.
2 sets are the current inks i started with where i modified for refilling and just added PC inks to original OEM when they became low, and the 3rd set from which i bought online mainly just to have the chips, but thought what the heck.

Before i did anything i tried LA Awesome (sorry i find it stinky) in a cli-8 cart from my empties stash. Did less than a stellar job (by far) than just plain ol water.

So for 1st set of carts (in current use) i went about to purging with water. The cyan and p cyan were no where near what i expected as they would not come clean of their dye color at all...........even light gray and gray were disappointing .
The online set (since i was only wanting the chips anyways) received a more aggressive approach in that all the carts were given the Windex treatment. These carts came out perfect with the exception again being cyan........but a lot cleaner appearance than the 1st set.
Not to be beaten though, I then soaked these with PiezoFlush which totally cleaned the cyan in the online set, and the p cyan in 1st set, and finally made the cyan in 1st set look almost perfect, but still a blueish tint exists when shining light thru. This stuff really works. Expensive like Jose says, but well worth it. I drain it and save it in another bottle to use just for future rinsing.
The yellow from online set (along with 1 other that had been sitting for over a year) came out snow white even when shining light thru with much less effort. Gave these the Piezo treatment too just to make sure any Canon yellow is gone.
I think as mikling mentioned, there is something about the new ink in these 42's that is much more aggressive at hanging on. I had assumed that since we had no problems with all but the yellow, that the used carts that have had about 2 ounces of PC ink run thru them that they would wash right out with plain ol water. I had no problems with Magenta, Photo Magenta or Black though.
I just refilled set 1 yesterday too and they looked like newly bought carts when done so i'm happy with the results as they were starting to look like trouble was just around the corner from my son who runs 'em down in the middle of the night......leaves me a note saying "i think one of the inks is low.....well yeah, that's what the ink status check is for.
When i am done with the other set i'm now doing ( 2nd in use set) i will post some photos of cleaned and refilled.
So why go to all this trouble?..........like some of you, this part of printer maintenance has become a hobby and pastime that is enjoyable............especially when you beat the odds.
Chip transferring is easy, but i think it's cool to have all the original carts in the Pro 100.