Best empty refillable carts for Pixma IP4500?

[vcelkamaja]

Hi,

I'm using Hobbicolors inks and I'm happy with the colours. However it seems that the print are not consistent in time. I'm printing the same picture several times and I can see a color shift. Also when I perform nozzle check patern print I can see some thin white lines or dots in the light cyan bar. Head cleaning sometimes helps but after a few prints it is the same. The probem is only in light cyan bar (sometimes also mid cyan bar is not smooth).

I think that the problem might be either density of the ink (is the density of cyan ink higher than magenta, yellow or black?) or quality of cartridges. I have a brand new printer and printer head so I'm sure it is not a problem of print head. I'm using Chinese Microtec sponge cartridges: http://www.szmicrotec.com/english/product2.asp?id=1147.

Can someboy recommend me the best empty refillable catridges to be used together with Hobbicolors inks?
What about spongelesss cartridges? Are they beter than sponge carts?

Thanks.

 

[fotofreek]

The best carts to refill, by far, are the original Canon OEM carts. See if you can locate an extra set or two, buy a chip resetter, purge the carts periodically to keep them feedin ink efficiently, and you are good to go.

 

[vcelkamaja]

Thanks for your comment. What is the best refill method when using original Canon carts?
Is it necessary to purge them? And how to do it?

 

[ghwellsjr]

"Best" can mean different things to different people. For example, I vacuum refill about 75 Canon dye ink cartridges with 1 liter of ink at a time, because I refill for many other people. I think vacuum refilling is the best way to go. I believe that the vacuum action performs the main advantage of purging which is to eliminate air pockets in the foam that act like barriers to the ink.

But, if I were just refilling for myself, I would go with the German method because vacuum refilling is very messy and it wouldn't be worth doing for small quantities, not to mention the initial expense.

You can read about the German method by clicking on Nifty-Stuff at the top of this page and then clicking on Printers off to the right. The first article is the one you want. You normally don't have to worry about purging until a cartridge refuses to deliver ink and one way to keep those pesky air pockets from forming in the foam is to keep the tanks (the part of the cartridge that doesn't have foam) from becoming empty. If you make it a habit to top off all your cartridges weekly or how ever often it takes, then you probably will never have a problem. See this link for an example of someone who has successfully used this method for a long time:

http://www.nifty-stuff.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=3954

 

[vcelkamaja]

Sounds good. Thank you or your comments.

By best I 'm reliable cartridge uitable for refilling with consistent results over time and no cloging.
If I use Canon OEM carts I would need to purge them to not mix Canon inks with Hobbicolors inks.

However are the chips on the cartridges colour sensitive? I mean is it possible to use e.g. purged cyan cart filled with magenta ink?

What is the main difference in quality while coparing Canon carts with others (noname chinese carts)? Is the plastic parts, or sponge?

 

[ghwellsjr]

Don't purge for the purpose of not mixing inks. Just start refilling.

The cartridges are color sensitive. Only refill with the same color.

The main difference between Canon OEM cartridges and third party are the foam pieces (also called sponges). Canon uses two different kinds of foam which is very important for the proper flow of ink and air inside the compartment. Also, some third party cartridges do not have a serpentine air path for the vent which is very important to prevent evaporation of water from the ink.

 

[on30trainman]

I will put in another vote for only using Canon OEM cartridges for refilling. But I have limited experience with other brand cartridges - especially the chipped ones. Several years ago I used cartridges from Hobbicolors for my ip4000 and ip6000D. They worked OK but I think I got better results from empty BCI-6s. Anyways, Hobbicolors doesn't sell the empty cartridges anymore. I just think that the Canon cartridges are a better/more consistent design. The sponge is a two part design - not sure that feature is in the other brands. The Hobbicolor cartridges had a one piece sponge.

Yes the CLI-8 cartridges are color sensitive - you must use an empty Cyan for refilling with Cyan etc.

I personally would purge whenever refilling with another brand ink. Eventually the new ink would be the predominant color but you could have some different color tones until several refills have been done. I use the top refill method. I remove the plastic ball over the spongeless part and both refill and purge through that hole. I reseal the hole with a 3/8" long #8 flat head nylon screw that I get at Home Depot.

Steve W.

 

[vcelkamaja]

Again thanks for your comments.

If I want acurate colours and create custom ICC profiles it seems that I would ned to purge original Canon carts to not mix the rest of the ink with new Hobbicolors ink...

What is the best way to purge the carts? Using syringe and needle with water? Blow out the rest of ink and cleaning water by mouth through vent? And what about sponge drying? How can I check if the sponge is dried and ready to be filled with new ink?

Is there any good source for empty Canon carts with chips?

 

[on30trainman]

Here is the way I purge - I remove the plastic ball over the spongeless compartment and forward purge through that hole with an adapter that connects to my faucet (used with RO systems), through some plastic aquarium tubing to a short piece of 5/32" OD metal tubing. The tubing force fits into the hole on the cartridge top. Water is forced into the compartment and then into the sponge, outputting through the larger outlet port. The water flow is rather intense. My method prevents the sponge from moving away from the outlet hole as the so-called reverse flush method can - especially with the larger pigment ink cartridges. I blow out the excess water using a similar device connected to my compressor. I then let the dye based ink cartridges (CLI-8s) dry out for several days before refilling. Don't let the PG5BK cartridge dry out completely - the ink will not refill as well. There are some who say my purging method (I call it forward purging) could cause a build up of dry ink in the outlet port, but I have had no problems and have been using this method for over a year both on BCI-6 and CLI-8 cartridges.

If you are going to create custom profiles I think purging is necessary.

I got 2 complete sets of empty CLI-8s, some various extra CLI-8s and 6 PG5BKs a few months ago on E-Bay for about $18 including shipping as a Buy It Now/Best Offer. Think I was lucky and saw it right after it was posted. But I have seen other postings - they have mostly been for larger sets than I would want.

Good luck with the refilling. I really like my ip4500. Was using Hobbicolor inks, but recently switched to IS inks from Precision Colors.

Steve W.