BCI-6bk Is it being used? I guess so.

[Nifty]

I've been refilling all 5 of the tanks in my Canon i860 with excellent results...

Well, all of them except for the BCI-6bk which always has ink to the very top of the cartridge. I was actually getting bothered that I upgraded to the i860 from the i560 for the sole reason of this extra cartridge that didn't even seem to be used at all.

Every day or so I run a print head nozzle check pattern to see how all my little soldiers on the front line are doing and to give them a little excessive. To my dismay tonight the line that was suppose to be next to the BCI-6bk mark was non-existent. I was worried that my little BCI-6bk soldiers were sick, hurt, or maybe even worse... dead!

First step was to run a print head cleaning cycle. No dice, er... um... ink. I took the cart out and blew into the air intake maze / hole above the sponge (which usually works well to force ink out of the bottom outlet hole). No matter how much pressure I blew in, nothing came out.

This seemed very odd because the tank had been printing fine during nozzle checks for months. The air intake above the sponge couldn't be blocked because I would have had problems sooner.

I decided to pull the plug from the ink refill hole and just as I did the ink level dropped... fell... actually plummeted to the bottom of the tank. The thirsty little sponge sucked it dry before my very eyes!

I refilled the cart, sealed it up, blew on the air intake and little drops of ink came out the outlet whole. I put the tank back in, ran a cleaning cycle, and voiala... perfect nozzle check patters. All my little soldiers were back in action ready for my every command. "GO FORTH AND PRIIIIIIINT!"

So, now I'm more confused than I was before... actually I'm baffled!

BTW, all the cartridges in my printer are from alotofthings.com and are really easy to refill.

 

[Nifty]

Okay, this just happened with another set of cartridges from alotofthings.com (the arrow or arrowjet cartridges).

Everything was fine then all of a sudden... no yellow. I pulled the cartridge and the yellow LOOKED completely full. I did a head cleaning and got nothing.

I looked closer and the sponge looked pretty dry. I pulled out the refill plug at the top of the reservoir and voil the ink started to drain instantly into the sponge.

After a printhead cleaning cycle the yellow came out perfect... but what's this... now I've got lines in my magenta.

I pulled the magenta (looked full) and decided to pull that plug too. Well, this cart was even more dry than the yellow was... the entire reservoir was emptied into the sponge.

Has anybody else had anything like this happen to them? Like I said above, I know the maze hole isn't plugged because I can blow into it and see ink come out of the outlet hole. I can't image that there is anything I can do to the intricate maze hole to fix the cartridge. Any ideas / suggestions (besides buying new cartridges.. duh)

 

[fotofreek]

Sorry - I answered this post on the overfilled thread!

 

[fotofreek]

another thought (sometimes I think) - Blowing air into the vent is far different from passive airflow into the vent hole. perhaps some of their carts have slightly less width in the maze??? the tape may be pressed down instead of flat and causing the maze cross section to be slightly less than is necessary for pressure to equalize and let ink flow. Is it possible that the molds that form the carts are slightly worn and are not making the maze the same as when the molds were new?

 

[Nifty]

HA... I was reading your post in the other thread and was wondering if I was in the wrong place.

An item I failed to note was that there was yellow ink all over the side of the cartridge. This is odd because I thought my issue was that I wasn't getting enough ink (hence the need to open up the fill hole to let air flow in).

This brings up the point that I mentioned in the other thread: Many problems can look the same on the nozzle print test:

1) No ink
2) Plugged nozzles
3) Too much ink (from a slowly leaking or overfilled cartridge).
4) Not enough air flow from the maze causing no ink.

All of these, from my experience, will show up as banding on the nozzle print test.

 

[BlasterQ]

Do keep us updated on this one, Rob, I have ordered 40oz total of alotofthings bulk inks and 12 cartridges of arrowjet for the pixma ip4000, but haven't tried them yet.

 

[Nifty]

BQ, do you use a lot of ink? When do you think you'll be into the alotofthings ink and cartridges?

At my current consumption it will be a while until I'm even using all of the colors from alotofthings. I'm currently only using their pigment black for the bci-3ebk and the dye black for the bci-6bk.

I'll keep you posted. The problem is that there are so many variables (climate, usage, paper, age of ink, etc. etc. etc.) it is hard to really pinpoint if the issue is the ink or something else. Unless of course you go from no problems to a ton of problems by simply changing ink suppliers.

 

[BlasterQ]

It will be a while Rob, probably in a month. I'm going in vacation in the Philippines, and I will be doing my printing there. i'm bringing those inks too.

 

[Nifty]

I'm realizing that I'm having this problem with more and more of my Arrow cartridges. After quite a bit of printing, or even at the point where lines show up I open the refill hole and the ink flows into the sponge.

I'm guessing that the cartridges have a defect that are not allowing proper flow of air / ink to allow ink to flow into the sponge. My guess would be a poor working air maze over the sponge. I'm tempted to open up one of these with a hot tipped paperclip, but don't want to cause a big ink mess in the printer.

Has anyone else experienced this with their cartridges (OEM or non-OEM)?

Thanks!

 

[Nifty]

Oh, by the way, let me mention again that before opening up the refill hole the cart looks completely full, but once the refill hole is opened and air is allowed to freely flow, a LOT of ink is pulled / flows into the sponge.