Air vent blocked, I cleared it by...

[Lilla]

Air vent blocked, I cleared it by blowing into the maze using canned air.

This was a Magenta Canon BCI-6 OEM cartridge that I had recently cleaned and refilled using Grandad's techniques. The cart cleaned up beautifully, and the sponge filled 100% with ink. I must have gotten a little ink in the maze when I was used the pressure syringe to cause the ink to flow to the top of the sponge. It worked very well. This was the first time for me to use the pressure technique to help load the sponge. When I was done refilling, I tried to blow into the vent and found then that the vent was blocked. I blew as hard as I could and this did not clear the blockage.

I puzzled over what to do, and came up with the idea of using canned air. My canned air came with a straw like tube that has a small diameter. I pointed the straw at the entrance to the maze/serpentine where the air vent lives. The maze/serpentine is covered with tape so you cannot access the vent directly as you can on some non-OEM carts.

After a few blasts of air, the air vent cleared, and the problem was gone. I could now blow lightly into the air vent and cause some ink to come out of the exit port.

I don't recall seeing this problem or solution posted before so I decided to share it in case it might help someone else.

Lilla

 

[ghwellsjr]

That's an interesting idea. Did it blow back any ink at you? Did ink drip out of the outlet port when you used the canned air?

There are two wells in the serpentine path that can hold ink. Can you see that they have been cleared? If you look through the side of the cartridge, you can see them and if they are dark, they probably contain some ink.
If so, I would suggest that you repeat your process with the cartridge turned up side down.

When I vacuum refill a batch of cartridges at one time through their air vents, one of the last things I do is put vinyl tape across the outlet ports and then I turn them up side down and squeeze the sponge side of the cartridge so that the excess ink in the maze can be cleared out. I also tap them lightly on the counter top. You can hear a gurgling sound and see the ink come out on the counter top until they are cleared. I do this with about seven or eight at one time and then I examine the wells to make sure they are empty.

Next time I do a batch of refills, I might try your technique. Of course I will have to do this before I put the tape on and if I do it while they are upside down it might be a challenge to contain the ink if it comes out of the outlet port.

 

[Lilla]

ghwellsjr, when I was searching for ideas on what to do, I came across your posts telling about how you cleared the maze/serpentine after doing a vacuum seal. I was glad to know I was not the only one to have this problem. I came across very few posts related to blocked/plugged vents/maze/serpentine.

When I cleaned the cartridge it worked normally when I tested it using water. So, I think the problem was introduced during the fill process.

I experimented with blowing into the air vent entrance with the exit port open and/or the second hole open. The fill hole was kept sealed. No ink came out the exit hole while I was blowing. I tried tapping on the cartridge; it did not help with this problem.

When I cleaned my cartridges (a batch of 18) I added a second hole to all of my cartridges, over the sponge chamber, in the hole to nowhere. This hole and the fill hole (using the original OEM fill hole) are sealed with a #8-32 x 1/4" (purchased as 3/8" and cut-off to 1/4") nylon screw + o-ring. The first reservoir in the maze/serpentine is the breather hole. The second is the "hole to nowhere". Grandad said the "hole to nowhere" is a good place to put a second hole, if you want to add one, so that is where I put mine.

The reservoir where the breather hole lives might have had a slightest bit of diluted ink at the bottom, but it didn't look like it was the problem. This made me think that perhaps the blockage was in the maze itself.

When filling this cartridge the ink flowed easily into the sponge chamber and filled all except a small section (maybe 1/4") of sponge along the very top, all the way across. I used a syringe to force some air through the fill hole to force the ink into the top part of the sponge. The sponge was then 100% saturated with ink.

Lilla