Canon Pro-10s refilling InkTec, Octoinkjet, etc

Peter W

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Hi all,

I just bought a used Pro-10s with original Canon PGI-72 carts. There's quite a bit of ink left but I plan to refill with a 3rd party ink rather than buy more Canon cartridges. I've read every thread here about the subject, but some are 6 years old and suppliers/quality/prices change.

1. I've read that it's good to have a second set of filled cartridges, all 10 being replaced each time one gets low. This is apparently to prevent waste as all carts are purged each time one is replaced, so best to change them all at once. I'm not sure of the logic of this. But alternatively, why not remove all the carts when one gets low, fill them with the modified clip and syringe which as I've seen on YouTube is quite rapid, and then put them all back? How long can the printhead be left uncovered before it dries out? I'd be happy to use 2 sets of carts but empties are hard to find, especially complete with the orange cover clips, and I don't want to spend £110 on a set of new carts just to have the empties.

2. There are many options for ink, though some don't seem easy to find, e,g, Prodinks, Image Specialists (STS), OCP, KMP. Being in the UK I can get Octoinkjet easily, and also InkTec from Germany. I'd like to have Precision Colors available but the extra 50-100% on the price through shipping, forwarding and taxes make it an expensive option. InkTec, I understand, are manufacturers (in S. Korea) and Octinkjet are simply resellers of various products including InkTec. They do sell the resetter.

Of the two I can get easily, InkTec costs about £80 for a 100ml/colour set, and Octoinkjet costs £135 for a 125ml/colour set so quite a bit more expensive. Has anyone experience of these on the Pro-10s?

Many thanks,
Peter
 

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Hi Peter,

Just spotted this as I was popping in so you caught me at the right time with this post.

Just a couple of things.
1. Our inks for the Pro-10 are a mix of manufacturers inks and regardless of the marketing patter, everyone who is selling compatible inks is reselling inks from a much larger manufacturer, be it Inktec, STS-inks, OCP or the like. Our own is a hybrid mix of inks that we've tested and tweaked with customer feedback but obviously I'm biased so I'll let others chip in on their direct experience rather than go hard sell.

2. The bit about the spare set of cartridges vs' refilling is a good one. If you've the time then you can indeed pull individual cartridges out, reset and then top them up but the hidden "cost" is two fold:
a) The printhead likes to move back into the storage position after a few minutes to protect itself so you have to pull it across a couple of times into the cart swap position before you're done>
b) All the time your printhead is in the cart swap position it will be exposing the nozzles to air and drying action so it's probably not ideal.

As to supply of empties... we used to sell them dirty and empty but some of them are, frankly, hard to clean and get ready for refilling if they've been exposed to air for a long period (or contamination) so we've switched to recommending our compatible (re-manufactured) cartridges instead. Not, I hasten to add, to get more profit, but to ensure the cartridges are refill friendly and already primed with our inks so that things like profiling can be done pretty much immediately.

If you're hard locked to getting empties though, eBay is a good option and there are often sets of empties popping up from time to time so worth a look.

Feel free to drop me a line directly or chat through any of this at some point if it would help.. but worth noting I'm unable to answer the phone this or next week as I'm on Dad duty with my youngest following multiple confirmed Covid-19 cases in her school reception class. I can call back though if you email/PM through with a phone number, in the evening once I'm relieved or primary parent mode.

Anyway... hope that helped.
 

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@Peter W, You have got yourself a very good printer, in fact one of the best for printing, refilling and a good supply of compatible inks, that said..

Yes you do need an extra set of cart because trying to refill the carts while out of the printer is a bad situation because as already said the carriage will move back to the parting position and this is not good.. Why..

Because when you finally finish refilling and install all the cart, the printer will then run an extra big cleaning cycle because of the lapse of time it took you to refill the carts, and that’s what we all want to stop. Over cleaning !

When you are refilling you need to take it nice and slow, let patience be your guide, by resetting the chips first, then making doubly sure you put the right colour ink into the right colour cart, it’s surprising how many make that very simple mistake..

These carts are the easiest to refill so don’t over think the procedure, you can use a refill clip to collapse the bladder first and then using a syringe inject the 15 ml of ink in each one, you can also print till empty.

Dribbling ink onto the cart inlet is good way to refill when topping up but its dreadfully slow when most or all the carts are empty, and the use of SquEasy bottles make the dribble method much simpler.

To purge any cart that may need it, using a refill clip is essential, fill a large syringe and push and pull warm water in and out of the cart a few times, then empty and refill with the correct colour ink (about 4 ml), give the cart a good shake and empty, then refill as described..

I don’t want to say which ink you should buy but you won’t go wrong if you decide on OctoInkjet, in fact they have just about all the paraphernalia you’d need to refill correctly..

P.S. I have an extra 76 spare CLl-9 carts, but then I had 3 printers using them..
 

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PGI-72 carts are easy to clean well, having no sponge, just a thin felt pad at the output. For a second set, I strongly recommend empty OEM carts. Third party compatibles are unlikely to approach the quality of Canon, regarding bladder, mesh filter and son on.
 

Peter W

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Thank you Hat, websnail and Artur. It's good to know the experts approve my choice of printer. I was going for the Pro-100s before but was a bit concerned about ink fading. And then this Pro-10s came up for under £200 with less than 200 page count, so it was easy to go for it. In the USA people write about special offers where they manage to get a Pro-10s for $95 after discounts and rebates but here they are 10 times that.

Websnail, I was trying to send a PM but there doesn't seem to be a button for it, so would an email to your company get to you?

OK I'm convinced that a second set of carts is a good idea and will look for an OEM Canon set. How would I know if they have to be flushed before use, because I'm a bit concerned about the sacrifice of 40ml of ink for the second flush? If it must be, it must be, of course.

Further question: when refilling a set of partially used cartridges (after I get the second set) what should I do with the remaining Canon ink? Can I leave it in and safely mix my 3rd party ink with Canon ink? I know the colour gamuts of Canon and 3rd party are bound to differ, but if I choose good inks (like Octoinkjet!) I'd hope the difference would be fairly small. I would hate the idea of throwing perfectly good and very expensive OEM Canon ink down the drain. I'm not yet at the stage of owning a Colormunki or writing my own profiles. Mind you, of course, that phase wouldn't last long before all the Canon ink was used up.

Again talking of refilling, Jose of Precision Colors has a host of fine videos on YouTube many to do with filling the Pro-10s and I could do worse than do what he does.

I had a Canon photo printer perhaps 10 years ago, and to avoid putting wrong colours in the carts I numbered the carts and ink bottles 1 to 8 with a sharpie. It was easy to match 1 with 1, etc. Worked fine, I made no mistakes.

Peter
 

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Websnail, I was trying to send a PM but there doesn't seem to be a button for it, so would an email to your company get to you?
Follow the pic provided below to send a PM, but it’s called a conversation on this forum, now you know why you couldn’t find it easy..
Untitled-1.jpg click to enlarge..

videos on YouTube many to do with filling the Pro-10s and I could do worse than do what he does.
As far as refilling these PGl-72 carts go, the simple instruction above in #post 3 are more than adequate to insure you are doing it right, so that is up to you…
 

Peter W

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Thanks, Hat, for the tip on "conversations"; yes, it's a bit confusing. As for filling, your detailed instructions are I'm sure all one needs.

Can you help with my questions about mixing 3rd party ink with remaining OEM ink on the first topping-up of an OEM cart, and about determining whether a washout and 4ml flush of a used cart has to be done?

Peter
 

The Hat

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Can you help with my questions about mixing 3rd party ink with remaining OEM ink on the first topping-up of an OEM cart, and about determining whether a washout and 4ml flush of a used cart has to be done?
The 3rd party inks will mix with OEM without causing any clogging issues and the 4ml flush is not compulsory or necessary, you’ll still get great print results without it, it’s only a recommendation if you were going to use or make your own profiles..
 

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PGI-72 carts are easy to clean well, having no sponge, just a thin felt pad at the output.
Erm... Yes and no... Only if they've been in use the whole time or stored with the orange claps so that the sponges are moist. When they've been left open to air and dried to concrete some of the cartridges are an absolute nightmare to clean properly.

Tip: If you have really nasty/clogged PGI-72 carts and access to dirty PGI-9's then you can clean PGI-9's much more easily and just chip swap across to make the 9's appear 72's.

.. this Pro-10s came up for under £200 with less than 200 page count, so it was easy to go for it.
Nice find!

OK I'm convinced that a second set of carts is a good idea and will look for an OEM Canon set. How would I know if they have to be flushed before use
As above... if they've been stored open to air or have obvious signs of soiling contamination.

Further question: when refilling a set of partially used cartridges (after I get the second set) what should I do with the remaining Canon ink? Can I leave it in and safely mix my 3rd party ink with Canon ink?
Standing advice, my end, is to use up the OEM ink as much as possible and then refill. Best not to mix inks if you can avoid it. Mostly down to colour variation and the effect on prints.

I'd hope the difference would be fairly small.
It's nigh on impossible to get direct one for one replacements of inks as the pigments used are often locked down by the OEM's so alternatives have to be used and those don't always match. OEM's will spend a lot of time trying to make such matching as difficult as possible through patents, and the like. As such you end up with an ink set that works as well as a team, but not if it's chopped and changed in with other inks.

I would hate the idea of throwing perfectly good and very expensive OEM Canon ink down the drain. I'm not yet at the stage of owning a Colormunki or writing my own profiles. Mind you, of course, that phase wouldn't last long before all the Canon ink was used up.
Yup... understood but ultimately if you mix you're wasting it anyway... Better option might be to consider getting two sets of other cartridges, refill those and keep your OEM carts for those times you want to use them for comparison, special projects or similar. They will store well with the orange clips on. Ultimately you're looking at a cost somewhere. Waste of the ink or additional cost or more cartridges.

I had a Canon photo printer perhaps 10 years ago, and to avoid putting wrong colours in the carts I numbered the carts and ink bottles 1 to 8 with a sharpie. It was easy to match 1 with 1, etc. Worked fine, I made no mistakes.
:) Everyone makes mistakes... or erm... so I'm erm... told... by a... friend? ;)
 
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