BulkInkJetCarts

[JV]

On my Canon iP8500 printer today I installed new (all 8 colors) carts from www.bulkinkjetcarts.com
at a price of $1.69 per cart plus $6.00 flat rate shipping for any size order. So far I have printed eleven 8.5" x 11" photos.

One of the photos (Test.jpg) was from www.photo-i.co.uk used in iP8500 review. With Kirkland paper at
$0.16 per sheet all photos were as good as with OEM carts and more expensive papers. I just ordered more
carts from BulkInkJetCarts and will report future progress.

I received the carts in 3 days after ordering. Packaging of the carts was as good as on the OEM carts.
Apearance of the carts is shown in the photo below. The carts are made in China. For comparison a photo of the OEM carts just removed from the printer is also shown.

I searched ResellerRatings.com for web sites containing "ink" and came up with BulkInkJetCarts as
one of the higher rated sites.

Searching Yahoo for "BCI-6R" brings up 3 more ink web sites at the same address selling inexpensive
carts. One of the sites shows Taxpayer Identification Number and the company name "Computer Supplies of Carolina, Inc. located in Atlanta, GA.

 

[Grandad35]

JV,

Does your photo show new carts? They look new (the vents are sealed), but the ink chambers are 1/4 to 1/3 empty on all 8 carts. Are the clips that seal the exit holes on these carts reusable?

The ink usage on your Canon carts is in line with my experience. I note that it appears that the "top sponge" in these carts has emptied before the ink chamber starts to empty - also in line with my experience.

 

[JV]

Grandad,

Thanks for commenting on my post. The BulkInkjet carts are new. The clips appear to be reuseable.

I compared the tank dimensions and ink levels of a new BCI-6PM OEM cart and a BulkInkJetCarts cart:

OEM BulkInkJetCarts
Ink chamber size 3.6 x 0.8 x 2.2 = 6.3 cc 3.6 x 0.8 x 2.5 = 7.2 cc
Sponge chamber size 3.6 x 0.8 x 3.9 = 11.2 cc 3.6 x 0.8 x 3.6 = 10.4 cc
Ink level in chamber 3.5 cm 2.6 cm
Ink level in sponge 3.0 cm 3.2 cm

The white OEM sponge appears to hold less ink than the sponge in BulkInkJetCarts cart.

JV

 

[JV]

Grandad,

I weighed the new BCI-6PM carts from OEM and BulkInkJetCarts in the Post Office. The scale was checked with a 1.00 oz calibration weight. I removed the wrapping plastic and clips from both carts. Both carts weighed 1.00 oz each.

I estimated the total ink volume by measuring the tank materials (they are very nearly both the same) and assuming specific gravities of materials.

Note
Cast Plastic case 13.4 cc x 0.93 g/cc = 12.45 g or 0.44 oz
Sponge 9.6 cc x 0.138 g/cc = 1.32 g or 0.05 oz
Ink 14.4 cc x 1.01 g/cc = 14.50 g or 0.51 oz
Full cart 28.27 g or 1.00 oz

Note: Revised after weighing a full and disassembled OEM cart on a Jewler's scale in grams.
Plastic case barely floats in water.

JV

 

[JV]

So far I have printed 25 photos and 15 plain sheets all 8.5" x 11". They look good.
After observing that ink levels were not dropping proportional to printing, I inspected
the PM cart. The upper ~75% of the Sponge was lighter than initially. The fill hole was
securely sealed with tape that could not be peeled. I punctured the tape with a needle.
There was no seal plug. The ink level quickly dropped 8mm and was absorbed by the sponge.
The sponge was now uniformly darker. With a few drops of glue I sealed the pinhole and continued
printing without problems.
Without sealing the pinhole nozzle check patterns had white stripes for the PM and adjacent
BK and R carts and I lost 1.6cc in the ink tank.
JV

 

[Nifty]

JV, thanks for the update! This sounds very similar to the problem I was having with the Arrow cartridges. A full reservoir after printing a lot of pages, followed by banding. I'd pull the carts, open the refill hole and ink would drain from the reservoir to the sponge.

 

[JV]

I have printed 38 photos and 30 plain paper 8.5"x11" with good results.

Today the Photo Cyan cart got a "low ink" signal. The ink chamber was empty exposing the optical sensor prism. I replaced the PC cart and got a full ink level status.
I have been weighing all carts with DuraScale 100 (100 grams +-0.01 grams capacity) since May 5 including a
disassembled OEM and BulkInkJetCart. That allowed me to determine the ink remaining after the "low ink" signal.

(1.04 g/cc ink)......................................................... BulkInkJetCarts OEM Carts
Ink in average Full Cart............................................. 12.7 cc 14.0 cc
Ink remaining in cart Sponge at "low ink" signal..........4.2 cc (1) 3.5 cc (2)

(1) The above Photo Cyan cart
(2) Based on Sieg's 3-28-05 post in "Ink Level Monitor" under "Refilling InkJets" in this forum

I had punctured the Photo Cyan cart as described in post #5 for the Photo Magenta cart. Maybee it is not necessary to puncture.

Here are the cart component weights in grams:

..................................BulkInkJetCart OEM Cart
Plastic Case & fill hole seal..11.70 12.52
Sponge & Filter.....................2.29 1.33
Clip & air hole seal................1.37 1.98
Wrapping Plastic....................2.17 2.23 assumed

____________________________________
Using iP8500 printer with BulkInkJetCarts

 

[JV]

The yellow cart reached the "Low Ink" signal when I had printed 48 photos + 40 plain sheets (8.5 x 11).
The cart was not punctured. I replaced it with a new cart and have not had any problems.

______________________________________________________________
Using iP8500 printer with BulkInkJetCarts and Kirkland Paper.

 

[JV]

I have now printed 75 full page 8.5 x 11 inch photographs on Kirkland photo paper at the highest print quality and 50 sheets on plain 8.5 x 11 inch paper at standard print quality.

Colors were good and I did not make adjustments. I used 9.35 cartridges of ink including ink used from carts in the printer. Cost per cart including shipping is $2. Assuming that the 50 plain sheets used as much ink as 5 photos, cost of ink was 23 cents per 8.5 x 11 inch photo.

All carts were weighed a number of times during their use and ink remaining in the sponge chamber was calculated by subtracting from the total weight the component weights from Post #7 and the measured ink in the ink chamber.

Results for all carts are summarized in the above graph. All carts first used ink from the sponge chamber and then used ink transferred from the ink chamber until the "low ink" signal. At "low ink" the optical sensor prism was exposed and either all ink was gone from the ink chamber or a small amount remained.

The carts fell in two groups. PM and PC carts had an average of 3.8 cc ink in the sponge chamber at "low ink". The Cyan cart also fell in this group but had about 30% of its ink remaining. Since this group had less ink in the sponge chamber than the OEM carts, PM and PC carts were replaced with new carts at "low ink". A 5 cc mixture of PM and PC ink weighed 1.03 g/cc. The PM data point showing up in the next group is after puncturing the cart (see Post #5).

The Y, Bk and M carts had an average of 6.5 cc in the sponge chamber at "low ink". The R and G carts also fell in this group but had about 40% of their ink remaining. Since this group had more ink in the sponge chamber than the OEM carts, Bk and M carts were used until the "empty" signal when an average of 5.5 cc remained in the sponge chamber. Subsequent Y, R and G carts will also be used until the "empty" signal before replacing them with new carts. Magenta ink weighed 1.05 g/cc.

The Cyan cart in use has a vertical "air path" 3 mm wide from the top of the sponge to the filter. It is a noticeably lighter area of the sponge. The new C carts have a fainter "air path" difficult to see thru the plastic wrapping. Most of the OEM carts in Post #1 photos also have a faint "air path".

On the OEM carts the "air path" is a slight groove cast in sides of the case.The BulkInkJetCart cases do not have a groove. Since inkjet expert Michael Carlotta stated that air path to the filter can cause early failure of the cartridge, I sent an e-mail to bulkinkjetcarts.

In about a day and a half, Scott, from Computer supplies (BulkInkJetsCarts) called me. He knew about Michael Carlott's article and my forum. He had also disassembled a cart. Scott had not noticed the "air path" before, however the air path problem described by Carlotta was for Epson carts with an intregral ink chamber below the filter. Canon ink chambers below the filter are in the print head. Scott sold 20,000 carts and has excellent feedback with no problems on Canon carts but some problems on others. He also has printers using the ink. He did not believe that there would be a problem with the Cyan carts and thought it a good idea to continue testing. Of course, there would be no problem replacing the carts. He suggested removing the air hole seal before the clip to minimize air rushing in.

Scott explained that all of the ink (Canon compatible carts) comes from three Chinese factories regardless of the number of labels used by the many resellers. If you order 1000 carts, the Chinese will put on any label. He is now stocking ink from Chinese manufacturer #2 which is of slightly higher quality and does not have air paths. He offered to send me a set of carts for testing and in two days I received the carts.

From a quick look, the carts appear almost identical to OEM carts, and manufacturer #2 is www.inklabcartridge.com. The cart photos on the boxes I received are the same as in their web site. I could not identify manufacturer #1.

I feel theat I can learn more by testing manufacturer #2 first, rather than printing 30 more photos to verify the Cyan cart from manufacturer #1.

 

[Nifty]

JV,

Thanks for the post. I didn't see the graph, what file format is it?