Canon CL 41

[David Hoffman]

Hi Folks
New here, just did my first reink on this cartridge and the yellow seems not to flow too good. I have tried to clean and deep cleanse etc and it did work for 2 prints then stopped again. I have read on a reinking website that sells ink to let the cartridge settle for 24hrs. Is this good advice or crap as I'd like it to work asap and if I am wasting my time waiting I'd rather not... Now I just did a new print and the red is doing it now so I'd say I'd better wait some time as air bubbles may be the problem.

 

[mikling]

Let it sit overnight and cross your fingers. Looks like you got some trapped air just above the screen filter above the head. I would guess that you continued to use the cartridge after the low ink warning for a bit. The best way to get rid of this is to seal the head nozzle area airtight and place the cartridge in a deep vacuum chamber. Unfortunately this kind of apparatus is not readily available to the home refiller. Unless you have a foodsaver machine and foodsaver jar.
Otherwise, if you refilled by removing the top cover, try pushing down on the yellow sponge a bit and see if it helps.

 

[David Hoffman]

Thanks for the reply mikling. I used a jettec color reinking kit and it gets you to drill holes in the lid so I can't push the sponge and it was close to the low ink warning but it didn't actually show. Only the black did but thought while I was at it may as well do both anyway. I think it is air so if it settles overnight it may be the thing and get rid of my problem.

 

[David Hoffman]

Just did some ground work on the net and I extracted some ink then reinjected it with some more and it cleared the air bubbles and all is well. Next time I will put more ink in the syringe than I need, therefore no air.

 

[Desoya]

If you can, try to avoid soaking the top of the ink sponge. This cart is somewhat new to me but it seems to react like the HP 23/78 etc. when it comes to overfilling. (aka, short term good, long term backfire)

Hope it continues to work well!!!

Des

 

[headphonesman]

let the cartridge settle for 24hrs. Is this good advice or crap as I'd like it to work asap and if I am wasting my time waiting I'd rather not...

I have never had to wait 24 hours after refill for ink to flow ok...just 2-3 cleaning cycles. But I am refilling with "the top off", this probably avoids the formation of air pockets because I insert the needle to the bottom of the chamber and steadily withdraw, ensuring the sponge is well saturated in the area of the filter screen.

The top is secured back in place with a rubber band made from the cross section of an old bicycle inner tube. This method of "top off" allows much more control of the refill process on the 41 and 51. The sponges can be extracted, washed, dried and replaced also with the "Top off".

To get the top off, patience and care is needed (initially). A penknife or similar is pressed progressively around the joint of the top to the body, usually you can see and hear the first parting. Now continue from this first parting, twisting blade slightly in the gap as you go, until the top pops off.

There is no need to stick the top back on using adhesive, use a rubber band, an airtight seal was never necessary, (in my opinion).

 

[mikling]

Here's the deal guys. If you get bad output, you have basically coated the heaters with baked on ink. By doing a head cleaning and waiting for 24 hours you allow the new ink to DISSOLVE the baked on dry ink and allow the heaters ( the nozzle engine actually) to work again.

If you continually top off, you would not allow the heaters to get baked since you would be refilling before any problems occur so no waiting is necessary. And yes, topping off below the level of the existing ink allows no air to get in. Topping off is THE BEST WAY to keep any integrated head cartridge going for a long time. The airtight seal is not necessaary.