OK to blow out carts after purge ... or not?

[l_d_allan]

Remove all the ink from the cartridge with the durchstich method and then blow out any ink from the sponge back into the bottle, taking care you close the durchstich refill hole with your finger (or you will risk a horizontal jet of ink splashing over your desk) by putting your mouth over the breathing hole.

the ink contain preservatives and will keep for years without any ill effects. Just keep it tightly closed and sealed and place the bottles in a dark and cool environment.

I recently purged about 30 CLI-8 carts I got from eBay. I don't know if that was beneficial or not because they seemed to be in pretty good condition. Since they were "unknown quantities with unknown history", I figured it would be advised.

To speed up the drying process, I first tried a 20 ml syringe with needle through a #1916 plug in the inlet port to blow out the cart, but that was a slow process. Instead, I finished by orally blowing out the cart with my finger over the vent hole, let them sit overnight with the open outlet port down, and then blowing them out again. There were typically about 10 drops of water blown out.

The above steps will minimize the exposure of your inks to the environment containing mold, spores, dust, bacteria, etc. Our inks contain a reasonable quantity of organic chemicals--which is chicken soup for these contaminants, noticeably true for the magenta family of inks.

After reading the above, I'm wondering if the oral blowing out that I did was a flawed process, and whether I should perhaps do something to sterilize the carts before refilling. The contents of my breath are hardly sterile. YMMV <g>.

I've thought about mixing up some of pharmacist's conditioning solution and re-purging, which would seem to be able to decontaminate the carts ... if that is really an issue since the ink has preservatives.

Here is my cartridge flush/conditioning solution recipe again:

-3 % propylene glycol (or 2 % glycerin)
-20 % isopropyl alcohol
-distilled water up to 100 %

To make this conditioning solution a cleaning solution to dissolve stubborn stains: add 5 drops of concentrated ammonia per 100 ml of this solution. This solution has been tested by several forum members already and they are very happy with it. It also enhances the absorption degree of ink into the sponge after flushing, especially with the difficult pigment based BCI-3eBK/PGI-5Bk cartridge.

Or am I being overly concerned, and it's ok to just get on with it?

BTW, ghwellsjr describes a procedure of drying out a purged cart by getting a paper towell in contact with the outlet port filter so that it wicks dry. I've tried that, but it didn't work all that well for me ... but I can try again more carefully.

Something else I've wondered about ... when orally blowing out a purged cart, there can be a fair amount of pressure inside the cart. I've got my finger over the vent hole, and am concerned whether this could be hard on the "serpentine labyrinth air maze", especially the multiple pressure equalization chambers.

 

[ghwellsjr]

BTW, ghwellsjr describes a procedure of drying out a purged cart by getting a paper towell in contact with the outlet port filter so that it wicks dry. I've tried that, but it didn't work all that well for me ... but I can try again more carefully.

Did you make sure the turned up corner is in good contact with the filter material in the outlet port?

Something else I've wondered about ... when orally blowing out a purged cart, there can be a fair amount of pressure inside the cart. I've got my finger over the vent hole, and am concerned whether this could be hard on the "serpentine labyrinth air maze", especially the multiple pressure equalization chambers.

The main issue with getting liquid out of the serpentine path is that you need to do it with the cartridge upside down because there are two "wells" along the path that will retain the liquid if you try to it while the cartridge is right-side-up.

 

[l_d_allan]

Did you make sure the turned up corner is in good contact with the filter material in the outlet port?

Mea culpa ... I did leave off that essential step the first time I tried. I did try again on the same cart, but by that time the only cart I was playing with was barely damp, so there were little or no wicking. Careless/inattentive on my part to leave off that part of the technique. I'll try again with a saturated cart, which should probably work much better. Red face here <g>

The main issue with getting liquid out of the serpentine path is that you need to do it with the cartridge upside down because there are two "wells" along the path that will retain the liquid if you try to it while the cartridge is right-side-up.

I think that another approach would be having the syringe's needle in the reservoir through the plugged inlet port, plugging the outlet port with a #1813 cap , and more or less gently pumping the syringe plunger to draw air in and out throught the air maze. Or maybe just withdrawning the plunger to create a partial vacuum to draw air into the serpentine path? Still, I can speculate that it could take a while for the "wells along the path" to fully dry out.

 

[emerald]

ghwellsjr's method of "wicking" a cartridge dry is one of the best methods posted on this forum. It's simple and effective. I use it after flushing and mouth blowing through the refill hole. If you leave the sponge side vent open while blowing, it will evacuate any water in the maze while right-side up. I've modified the wicking (capillary action) system a little. Instead of using a corner of the folded paper towel, I tear off a small chunk of paper towel and wad it up into a ball about the size of the outlet nozzle. I place the ball on top of the nozzle and then cover it with the folded towel before securing it with a rubber band. I place the cartridge with the folded paper towel in contact with a newspaper over night. It's amazing how much moisture you find on the towel and newspaper in the morning. There's a trace of moisture left in the sponge - just right for absorbing ink evenly throughout the sponge. Tip of the hat to ghwellsjr.

 

[RMM]

+1 on the wicking method

Works great!

 

[l_d_allan]

ghwellsjr's method of "wicking" a cartridge dry is one of the best methods posted on this forum. It's simple and effective. ... Tip of the hat to ghwellsjr.

Agree ... works much better when I'm careful to follow instructions about tucking in a corner into the outlet port. I have a fuller appreciation for wicking. Red face here

It might be interesting to use an accurate scale to weigh:
* Bone-dry cartridge (or perhaps cart that printer has reported as Empty)

* Cart filled with distilled water for these weighings (or maybe diluted ink 1:5 or 1:10?)

* Cart allowed to naturally drain with inlet and outlet ports open (sponges still quite damp)

* ghwellsjr wicking method applied to above, overnight so paper towel thoroughly dry

* Cart after refilling with distilled water, and then blowing out (orally or with squeeze bottle or alternative)

* Cart after blowing out and then wicking with ghwellsjr method.

My speculation is that the ghwellsjr method results in lower weight cart, which would indicate dryer.

Anecdotally, I've noticed that a wicked cart draws ink from the reservoir into the sponges area better than a cart that has not been wicked, and just blown out. That was just a casual observation with a sample size of one, however.
(to an engineer, the plural of anecdote is not data)