3rd party ink choice and refilling for Pro 9000 Mark II--needing some advice

[DiGiTaLdAzE]

I am new to this site, and joined hoping to get a little advice. I am using a Pro 9000 Mark II and like everyone else cannot afford the OEM inks. So, I need advice on 3rd party ink choice, and refilling. I did do some refilling years ago with an i9900, with mixed results. One ink I used seemed to have damaged the printer head, (I do not recall the brand) which I replaced. I have used G and G ink carts in the Mark II without problems. Currently, I have a mix of G and G and Canon carts in that machine. I can only find the G and G ink in B, Y, M, and C in refill kits, so must find another brand of ink. I found the R-JetTek site, and am considering to buy some of the bulk (4-8 oz.) size bottles. I am wondering if it is okay to mix and match ink brands, as I have on hand a new G and G refill kit. So, I am thinking of buying the OCP colors I need to go along with the G and G. Will this do any harm to the printer head? I am thinking no. Once the G and G ink is used up, I would plan to move on to all OCP colors, although R-JetTek told there may be a lack of availability of the OCP CLI-8 compatible colors soon because a lack of demand.
Secondly, I am wondering about the best refill method to use. In the past I used the top filling method. Initially, I found it quite messy, and had problems with leaking carts. A rep at R-JetTek said something about wanting to avoid air getting in to some part of the cart and through to the printer head, but I did not really understand what he was saying as it was a very brief conversation. Can anyone point me to some good tutorials on refilling. I am going to a city tomorrow where I can get any needed supplies, and it would be nice to know exactly what to buy. The G and G kit I have does not inspire to much confidence. The ink may be fine, but the instructions are very poor, and the sealing items do not look very adequate. I saw a YT video where the person used aluminum tape to seal the hole(s) and so I may pick up some of that. Any opinion on the quality of the G and G ink would also be appreciated, and thanks for any help in advance.

 

[Emulator]

I have been using top fill, Precision Colors ink in my 9000 II in OEM cartridges, with good results. If you do a few searches on this site, you will find many threads on Octoinkjet and Precision Colors inks and discussions on profiling, avoiding head clogging, etc. etc.

 

[The Hat]

You have finally made your first thread here with lots of questions, so let’s see if we can welcome you with some good answers.

G&G inks sold in compatible cartridges were pretty reasonable about ten years ago but since then they have not keep up with things and so have fallen out of favour and loss of market.

Now it is not recommended to mix inks together in a cartridge because they may be made up of different chemicals and react with each other to cause poor ink flow, nor is it prudent to mix colour cartridges together from different brands either, that results usually gives odd looking colour output.

The best recommendation that I can give is to refill your cartridges with good quality ink to have years of successful printing and at a fraction of the cost of OEM inks, its the most favoured method here.

But, and there’s also a BUT, its not cheap to start out refilling, the benefits only come with time, once you have purchased your initial bits and bobs with new ink, you can then print every day without worrying about the cost.

There are two way to refill your OEM CLl-8 cartridges, The German "Durchstich" way and the standard top fill method, both are equally excellent ways to refill but you have to choose the one that suits you the best, so don't ask which one is better.

These two methods are extensively covered in many threads here and are not hard to find if your use SEARCH and if you still have trouble finding them ,then ask and you’ll be pointed in the right directions.

If you decide to refill you must follow the instruction carefully, they are very simple to use but deviate from these procedures and it will lead to leaks and ink in all the wrong and strange places, but the most important thing to remember is to only use OEM cartridges, no others, and please don’t use tape to seal your refill hole.

You can get all the thing you need for refilling at this one website, I mean everything including “How to Videos”, good luck with your new adventure. http://www.precisioncolors.com/C8B.html
http://www.precisioncolors.com/Maintenance_Canon.html

 

[PeterBJ]

If you start refilling your OEM CLI-8 cartridges, you should buy a resetter for these cartridges if you haven't got one already. The resetter will cause the refilled cartridges to look like new OEM cartridges to the printer, and ink monitoring will still be active. This is much better than disabling ink monitoring to print using refilled cartridges.

Precicion colors has this resetter for your cartridges. As the resetter is battery powered you should also order a replacement battery.