Planning to refill with PG-510 and CL-511 cartridges

[Lumi]

While I appreciate that the general consensus here is to use single-color cartridges, I am planning to work with and refill the lowly PG-510 and CL-511 cartridges for four reasons:

1. It is what I have, and I've refilled PG-50 and CL-51 inks before so I am a bit familiar with the line (I've not opened the new 510/511s yet)
2. It is a common, cheap cartridge which I see is standard for cheap printers on the 20-50 range, but I've also noticed that more expensive printers (100-ish) sometimes still use this cartridge
3. I have a few friends who use printers and cartridges along this price range, so it will be easier to explain to them the benefits of refilling while staying within their "comfort zone"
4. Once the printhead goes, a new printhead is just 11 or a set for 21

The idea here is to help out the average (or above-average) home user, Mom and Dad who cringe whenever their teenage son/daughter print out a full-color page for their school project. I've printed out full-color game manuals and lots and lots of banners with my only worry being the availability of printer paper, so going from a "you printed **THAT** out? Do we still have any ink left??!!" to a "wow, that's a very nice picture, and the colors are so vivid! You'll get good marks on that project for sure!" would be a nice change and would be a benefit to all involved. Therefore, this isn't aimed at professional photographers or graphic artists or small businesses that print out a few hundred pages on a daily basis but rather for consumers who print every-so-often but would like to save on having to buy new cartridges every time.

In line with this, I wonder if the community has any suggestions for me regarding what to note and what to keep track of during my "testing" of this method?

I will be taking pictures of the process for documentation purposes and will be posting my feedback regarding the performance/reliability of the refill method and the cartridges/printheads themselves.


What I know so far:
a. Ink refilling is a great way to save money. From past experience, I calculated that even printing a full-color image on a sheet of paper, the paper would cost more than the ink used on that paper
b. Printheads on cartridges of this type don't last forever, but they do last longer than even the 10x refill expected. Even if they lasted for 10 full refills (I refill before it ran out), that's still a major savings
c. Constant purging and cleaning of the printhead is a must. It'll eat ink a bit faster but will keep the nozzles clear. I used to do a cleaning and nozzle check once a week if I've not used the printer


What I need to find out:
> How exactly to refill these new carts? I suspect it won't be much different from the older carts but need to be sure
> How long would a printhead last? My previous tests were on a different climate and different currency so the "price-per-page" might be different. Plus I'm talking about 4-5 years ago so things will surely have changed
> What would be the best practice when refilling? I know of videos of drilling small/big holes on the cover, but my previous practice was to pop off the cover altogether and did not notice any untoward results. Again, as this was some time ago, I'll need to "re-test" to be sure


I am in the UK and I am using a Canon Pixma MP 230 that I bought off Amazon for 31.90 delivered, purchased on December 2012. Any help, suggestions, or comments welcome.
Thanks for reading!

 

[PeterBJ]

The sponged cartridges are more difficult to refill than the individual ink tanks, but not impossible to refill. If you refill them successfully, please report details such as methods and inks used. The info might be useful for others, as the forum doesn't have very much info about refilling the sponged Canon cartridges.

Image specialists website may suggest best inks for these cartridges, and maybe they are also used in the single ink tanks and so available from Octoinkjet UK? I would prefer a brand name refill ink specifically made for Canon for a no-name universal ink.

 

[The Hat]

I know little or nothing about refilling these 510 and 511 carts successfully, so I do wish you luck
because the time that you spend refilling these very small cartridges may not be worth it in the long run,
its suppose to be the other way round, like short time refilling, long time printing.

I have always tried to get printers that I can refill and stayed away from the ones that tend to be the most difficult,
yes you do have to pay more for the printer initially but you get in back later in savings on not having to buy tons of OEM inks..

 

[Lumi]

PeterBJ, as I've said, I've refilled the older carts so I suspect the new ones to be similar. Not sure as I've not taken one apart yet but I expect to have at least one "sample" soon. I am getting my ink from OctoInkjet and the webpage says it's Image Specialists ink. I'm just waiting for my first set of inks to arrive.

The Hat, I agree with you regarding the "short time refilling, long time printing" concept... the sponge carts hold very little ink. However, it is on the basis of points #1 and #5 above that I do this. If I had one of those 5-cart printers, I probably wouldn't bother, but I guess in the end, what I learn and post here will benefit the community in general. Plus considering the target audience, I think they'll be "long time printing" before they need to refill again.

 

[FastForward]

I know little or nothing about refilling these 510 and 511 carts successfully, so I do wish you luck
because the time that you spend refilling these very small cartridges may not be worth it in the long run,
its suppose to be the other way round, like short time refilling, long time printing.

I have always tried to get printers that I can refill and stayed away from the ones that tend to be the most difficult,
yes you do have to pay more for the printer initially but you get in back later in savings on not having to buy tons of OEM inks..

As you said, you know nothing about these carts. There are knowledge resources on here about those cart even if they are not your cup of tea. I think the man's post detailed quite precisely why he is choosing to refill this cart...super cheap printers....

 

[pebe]

If the construction is the same as the PG40/CL41 carts then, from this video, it looks quite straightforward.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u9aPqD0G714

 

[FastForward]

I read an excellent post about refilling these carts on here but I can't find it now, as its buried in a sea of posts about high end printers that only 1% of people who view this forum have. Do a search for 210 and 211 carts as I think that was what it was posted under. It didn't involve cutting off the top like that vid but I know from my HP days that these carts don't need an airtight seal.

 

[mikling]

There are pros and cons of popping the top. The pro is that it ensures that you don't overfill. If you don't pop the top, and you end up overfilling, the ink leaks out of the printhead and then crosses over to the other colors via the nozzles and then proceeds to cross contaminate the ink of the other colors. Washing out the contaminated ink is not easy. Thus the safer route is to pop the top and then fill just enough when the top of the sponge gets colored. Filling should always be done from the bottom up via the sponge so that you don't trap air pockets or layers internally between old ink and new ink. The recommendation is to top up frequently to ensure that the entry of new ink actually is actually below old ink where the needle dips into the old ink.
The con is that it needs to be done carefully as a knife or a sharp edge is involved.

Weighing will not help in the multi compartment cartridges because you will not know how much of each color is left.

If you drill a hole in each compartment, and don't pop the top, you are guessing at how much ink is required and then if you rely on the visual overflow to stop, then you could fill the serpentine vent with ink. ...which we know will cause flow problems later even on normal tanks that we favor.

Canon is de emphasizing the separate tank printers and is pushing these types more and more....like HP had done.

 

[Lumi]

pebe, I am hoping they are the same, but until I am sure, well, I'm not sure until I am sure

FastForward, from my experience with the older carts, there is no need for an airtight seal. It'll probably help with preventing ink evaporation but considering the foam and the ink quantity, it's not a really big deal.

mikling, HELLO! Nice to see you're still around sir! Anyway, yes, spot on with regards to popping the top. I've tried just drilling big holes but it's hard to gauge overflow and I've even had a couple of times when the ink flowed out of one hole and dripped into the other hole. OOoops!! So I've since popped the tops, and kept any spare foam as "spares," if I contaminate another chamber by being lazy, I simply take out the contaminated foam right away (contamination doesn't spread very fast if it's just a bit of ink), put about 2ml of ink in the empty chamber, pop in a spare dry foam, then refill. Pop the cart in the printer, a few deep cleans, done. I then rinse out the contaminated foam, leave it to dry, and now it's another "spare."

Luckily, I've not had to do this often.

 

[barfl2]

I have a HP Photosmart 7760 which uses the 56/57/58 carts which are tri-colour and look similar. I have refilled them by peeling back the label which exposes the holes 2 for black 1 for each colour. However they are not that receptive to multiple refills say 3 0r 4 times. More of a top up really as you do not know how much is in each compartment.

There is also a dodge with masking certain terminals (inktec site I think) to retain ink level monitoring. My printer is only used as a backup to the Canon MP620 but I would never get rid of it because of the ability to get a new print head easily. Also is very forgiving, will sit there for weeks on but unused, give it a print command and it works fine straight away. My son has the same but only buys OEM and gets photos using the 2 colour carts as good as the Canon but of course at great cost.

I expect these newer carts have more tricks up there sleeve ?