Aomya refillable Canon 551 carts

I'm thinking about getting a spare set of refillables and have been looking at these Canon 551 refillable carts from Aliexpress, trying to understand the refill instructions.

The listing is from the manufacturer (Aomya), so I assume they know what they're talking about.
Quote: "Adopts No-sponge structure to avoid damaging the printer head. Innovate them on the basis of first generation, making sure there is no ink leaking or blocking when printing. Offered with latest version reset chip."

I'm not sure what "no-sponge structure" means. There is clearly a sponge visible in the pictures, but I'm wondering if it means that the sponge is intended only for ink transport rather than storage.

They say, for first filling, to keep the air-vent sticker in place while injecting ink into the ink tank, and don't seem to use any sort of vacuum priming technique. If you look at their photos it seems that most of the sponge remains devoid of ink. I'm wondering if this is intentional, to maintain air flow through the sponge? If so, I'm wondering whether the priming techniques developed by Octoink and others to completely fill these newer cart types with denser sponges may be unnecessary and even counterproductive. I have messaged Aomya and they stand by their priming instructions. This being the case, one would hope that the ARC chips reset at the appropriate level given the reduced amount of ink in the carts.

Would be interested in any options.

@ninj, completely disregard the instructions from Aomya, not because there no good, but because their translations are woeful.

I have used these carts from OctoInkjet and have filled them in my own standard way, but on viewing Martins video I would recommend you follow his instructions and method, it was better than mine.

When you refill the carts a second time the vacuum method won’t work so just inject ink into the reservoir the standard way...

Thanks @The Hat - I will follow your advice as always! Do you find that the ink counters on these carts are accurate enough to run until 'empty'?

@ninj, I don’t think you have any choice in the matter because the chip wont reset until its declared empty by the printer, the sponge side never completely empties anyway, so it’s safe enough, I never liked those chips at all...

I have two different sets of compatible 550/551 carts. I don't know the brand, but they have auto-reset chips and the ink level reported by the carts drops slower than the actual ink level, so I have to inspect the carts manually and refill as needed, whatever the chip reports. The sponges look approximately like in the photos in the listing when full.

Vorkolor said:

so I have to inspect the carts manually and refill as needed, whatever the chip reports

Click to expand...

I did much the same because I never trusted those Friggin ARC chips...

ninj said:

...
I'm not sure what "no-sponge structure" means. There is clearly a sponge visible ...

Click to expand...

I'm not sure if they know ... yes really bad instructions, as usual from those sellers.
I once ordered an ink set from them, searching for better UV resistance and reliability of ink flow, but sadly I can't report any of their promises coming true. Went back to the sellers who know their stuff and are able to explain.. two of them are well known here in the forum..