Flushing recycled Canon CLI-42 carts - the challenge

mikling

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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.
 

Roy Sletcher

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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.


Thanks Mikling,

Good to know. Thank goodness I did not throw out my old CLI-8 carts when I got the Pro-100. So far my CLI-42 carts are behaving themselves, but your heads-up info will be invaluable if I run into problems.

RS
 

turbguy

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Sodium Hypochlorite?
 

jtoolman

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I had to use some Piezoflush from CONE. As water and Windex did not do the job 100%.
I don't know what Piezoflush is made of, other than that it contain red dye. But it dissolved the leftover ink, including the dreaded YELLOW cart and all washed off with a warm water final flush resulting in snow white sponges.
The flushed and refilled Yellow original cart has been working fine for over a month of constant printing. Knock on wood!

Joe
 

stratman

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I had to use some Piezoflush from CONE.
Promoted for Epson printers. Saw a site that sold both a version for pigment ink and another version for dye-based ink. The info and video on inkjetmall.com is interesting.

So this juice worked well for Canon cartridges? It is also promoted as a storage medium for Epson print heads and safer to copper components of the print head than Windex. Wonder if it is also gentle on Canon print heads.

Sounds like a versatile fluid for maintenance, storage and clogs of Epson and maybe Canon printers. It's expensive -- 110 ml's for US $25, but keeping components working well, especially in storage, may more than make up for it's initial cost.
 

jtoolman

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All of them! LOL
Seemed to dissolve the residue instantly. Flushed away perfectly clear. But yes, expensive as hell.

Joe
 

PeterBJ

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Maybe the best option is to use cleaned, relabelled and rechipped CLI-8 cartridges? You can get the sponges in a virgin empty CLI-8 cartridge perfectly white with less than 200 ml of demineralized water.
 
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martin0reg

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...
...Though the CLI-8 is called Chromalife, the CLI-42 Chromalife is a different animal altogether though the name is similar.
...
Regarding the new ink with the old name:
I have read a test of the pro-100 in a german magazine. They are testing also the durability of prints with oem material. Dye printers are normally not as good as pigment, but earlier tests of cli-8 printes were not so bad regarding fading of UV (sunlight) and ozon (air).

The pro-100 with the new cli42 has reached 0 (!) points here, massive fading both under UV and ozon.

EDIT: This results are probably wrong, a transcription error on the website!

http://www.colorfoto.de/testbericht/canon-pixma-pro-100-test-review-tintenstrahldrucker-1548169.html
(scroll down and click on "ganze tabelle anzeigen")

For example ip4500 gets 5 (UV) and 2 (ozon) points out of 7. I have send an e-mail to the reviewer, hoping to get informations about this issue. Beside fading the results of the review are good.

If the fading is in fact so much worse than earlier canon dye printers (what I can not prove now)- this would make me speculate moreover about the new "quality" of the cli-42 ink...
 
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stratman

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The pro-100 with the new cli42 has reached 0 (!) points here, massive fading both under UV and ozon.
http://www.colorfoto.de/testbericht/canon-pixma-pro-100-test-review-tintenstrahldrucker-1548169.html
(scroll down and click on "ganze tabelle anzeigen")

For example ip4500 gets 5 (UV) and 2 (ozon) points out of 7. I have send an e-mail to the reviewer, hoping to get informations about this issue. Beside fading the results of the review are good.

If the fading is in fact so much worse than earlier canon dye printers (what I can not prove now)- this would make me speculate moreover about the new "quality" of the cli-42 ink...
Very interesting. If true then a dumb move on Canon's part since the printer is aimed at photography enthusiasts.
 
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