After years of success, the German Refill Method didn't work!

[Nifty]

Ok, for sake of argument, just assume that in the video I did it wrong, but I can guarantee that all the other times I'm refilling and not looking through a camera screen I'm pushing in the needle far enough.

 

[The Hat]

Ok, for sake of argument, just assume that in the video I did it wrong, but I can guarantee that all the other times I'm refilling and not looking through a camera screen I'm pushing in the needle far enough.

Rob take a leap of faith and try the top filling method again but using SquEasy bottles,
it saves a lot of time and no messing around cleaning syringes afterwards.

It has in my opinion the best filling success rate used over a longer period of time
with far less flushing needed or head scratching for that matter.

Whatever can be said about the top filling method you know straight away if you got it right
by just removing the orange clip from the bottom and you get
the answer to stratman's puzzle whether the kitty is with us or all around us?

 

[jimbo123]

rob,

looks like your yellow CLI8 cart is not working for whatever reason. my yellow acted up 2 years ago, but i got it back working by drawing ink out of the sponge side. it has now been working for 4+ years along with my other orig CLI8s. each CLI8 has 30+ refills on them and still ticking......

when my yellow acted up i did pick up 2 spares. i'd be more than glad to send you one. that way you'll be back printing and can play around with the offending ink cart if you want.

your site has helped me and others, so would be more than glad to do that for you.

PM me if interested and will send it out to you.

J

------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Printers: Canon MP830, IP4500, MX700, MX860, MX870, MP980
Method: German Durchstich Method
Ink: Hobbicolors ink, PMT-BK, UW8
Misc: Squeeze bottles - so much easier than syringes

 

[MP640]

Rob take a leap of faith and try the top filling method again but using SquEasy bottles,
it saves a lot of time and no messing around cleaning syringes afterwards.

It has in my opinion the best filling success rate used over a longer period of time
with far less flushing needed or head scratching for that matter.

Whatever can be said about the top filling method you know straight away if you got it right
by just removing the orange clip from the bottom and you get
the answer to stratman's puzzle whether the kitty is with us or all around us?

I second that.

I experienced similar problems refilling 525/526 cartridges. I transplanted the chips to (transparent) 520/521 cartridges and removed the seal ball for topfilling with SquEasy bottles. Works like a charm and indeed, no more cleaning of syringes.

Because of the top clearance of my MG6150 I use the silicone (?) plugs from Octoinkjet and to be on the safe side I use a piece of electrician's tape over the plugs. I can post pictures if required.

Obviously, I did something wrong with the german Durchstich method (it works fine for many other forum members), but my solution to the problem I had is top filling.

 

[Nifty]

Thanks guys, and thanks Jimbo for the cart offer... but I have plenty of spares to play with. I could jump to a new cart, but I like trying to fix stuff like this... well, at least until I get frustrated and want to break something!

I'm going to stick with German method because even with these problems, I still find I've had fewer issues and problems than any method I've tried.

I'm starting to lean toward thinking that the problem is a result of overfilling the tank / reservoir and saturating the sponge side of the cart. I'm looking for a break in my schedule and will flush the cart once I have a chance.

I'll keep you posted!

 

[ThrillaMozilla]

I'm starting to lean toward thinking that the problem is a result of overfilling the tank / reservoir and saturating the sponge side of the cart.

Something doesn't make sense here. You can't overfill the reservoir. 100% full is just fine. It's the sponge and vent that you need to worry about.

And I don't see how normal use can get you a saturated sponge and an empty reservoir Normally the sponge has to empty to a considerable degree before the reservoir can begin to empty. So this cartridge didn't get into that state by use, it probably got there by an effort to fill it.

I think what may have happened is that you inserted the needle wrong and filled the wrong chamber. Then on subsequent attempts you were careful to insert the needle correctly, but by now the sponge was saturated, and there was no way for air to get out without blowing out ink.

I suppose you could use it as it is and let the printer empty the sponge a bit (although you would be without ink monitoring -- possibly not a good situation). I would probably be better just to empty it partly by letting the ink wick into a paper towel, and then try again. You can still flush it if it doesn't work, but I don't think you'll need to. I suggest that while you're at it, you let it suck in a small drop of distilled water or purge solution into the vent. That will make sure the vent is clean.

 

[stratman]

the answer to stratman's puzzle whether the kitty is with us or all around us?

A deep thought from Yoda's Hat.

 

[Nifty]

For the guys who stubbornly think I inserted the needle wrong, please see this image below. Every time I've refilled with the German Method I've pushed the needle as seen in this image:

Ok, before flushing the cart, here are a few things I just tried:

1. I blew into the air vent to get as much ink from the sponge as possible to get as much of the ink out of the sponge and ink grooves as possible.
2. I inserted a needle all the way into the ink reservoir and used an empty syringe to pull a vacuum on the ink chamber. I could see ink being pulled from the sponge into the ink chamber AND also into the syringe (Im guessing the exact reverse of what I experienced when injecting ink). I continued this until I no longer saw ink going into the chamber or into the syringe.
3. I then inserted my needle attached to my refill bottle and injected ink. I was able to get the tank 1/5 full before ink started migrating up the needle and making its way back to the exit port and also down to and out of the air maze.

My next test will be to flush the cart thoroughly and see what happens when I refill. If the problem persists I'll either keep playing and experimenting with the cart or just dump it and move onto a new one.

If I do have the time / patience to keep testing, I may try enlarging the hole where I insert the needle. After that I'll plug that hole and then drill a very tight hole above it and create a new, more diagonal channel to the tank reservoir to see if that makes a difference.

 

[mrelmo]

it has been a long time since i last used the german method, what is the postion of the cartridge while filling, and is there a prefence as to which port the air should be forced out of, the vent maze or the ink port, would it be preferred to tape the maze port while filling you may get ink out of the inkport which could be over a container that you could reclaim but at least you would not be forcing ink up through the vent port.

 

[Tudor]

Rob, the cart in the image is the same as the one in the video? Did you try with a smaller diameter needle and slower refilling?