CLI-42 Yellow Gelling Issue

[turbguy]

The purpose of this thread is to "brainstorm" as to root cause of the reported gelling issue of the CLI-42 carts when refilled with aftermarket inks...

With the appearance of other colors rearing similar issues, it makes some sense to see what members think about POSSIBLE causes, to see if we can develop the "most probable cause" of the issue...unless someone has already done the research.

We first need to describe the problem as well as we can by answering:

1. WHAT is the problem
2. WHAT ISN'T the problem
3. WHERE is the problem
4. WHERE ISN'T the problem
5. WHEN does the probem occur
6. WHEN DOESN'T the problem occur
7. WHAT IS THE EXTENT (how many times, how often, how frequently, what population is effected) by the problem

I would postulate the problem can be summarized as:

"After refilling CLI-42 OEM Canon Inkjet Cartridges in Canon PRO-100 printers with Aftermarket Inks, the yellow inkjet nozzles stop ejecting ink"

There may be more facts to add. Such as what stops the yellow inkjet nozzles to stop ejecting ink due to clogging of??? Aha! WHERE is the clog, and WHERE isn't it? How long does it take to "stop ejecting ink"? Does it occur only to CLI-42 yellow carts (which only the PRO-100 uses)? Do other aftermarket inks NOT cause a problem?

Feel free to add your thoughts...

 

[jtoolman]

OK I was one of the first to report this problem to PC.
I had refilled my OEM yellow cart about 3 times now and nothing appeared to be wrong. I printed some shots of the grandson for my mom to see. I decided the very next day to print a few more and the results were immediately different. Yellow was missing from the mix!

I ran a nozzle check and about 80 of the Yellow was not printing. I immediately removed the carts and the head and dribbled Windex directly ion top of the Yellow inlet to the head. I did that for about one half day.

Rinsed the head in warm water.
Dried it and reinstalled it with a CLI-8 with the yellow chip from the previous CLI-42 Yellow cart filled with PC Yellow.

After the ink charging process, I ran a nozzle check and most of the yellow had returned. Ran one head clean followed by another nozzle check and all was back to perfect.

I was VERY lucky!

Now to the possible causes.
Mike from PC has done extensive testing and experimentation. He determined that it takes some very specific conditions to have the gelling reaction take place.

In my case I have loaded PC ink immediately after the LOW cart warning was displayed.

That means the liquid side had just become devoid of liquid ink and the Prism detected air!!!
The sponge side would still be at a fully saturated "Working" condition.
Had I continued printing the sponge side would have been slowly depleted of ink till it was declared empty.

Because I had so much OEM ink still left in the sponge, the new PC inks had plenty of time to react with the remaining OEM inks. It still took 3 refillings
for the now yelled Yellow ink to seep through the out let and into the heads Yellow ink inlet.

Windex solved the issue but only because I immediately took action.

Now I have been able to flush out these OEM Yellow carts to the point where they are pristine white. Only CONE's Piezo Flush ( $$) was able to fully dissolve the yellow coloration left over after water flushing. Windex was effective but not as good as Piezo Flush.
Following the PF treatment I flushed with water and all traces of Yellow were gone.
I then and ONLY then was able to fill the original Yellow carts with PC Yellow without a single problem to date and it's been almost of year's worth of printing.

I would still recommend the use of a CLI-8 cart with the chip swapped rather than take a chance.

Joe

 

[turbguy]

So:

Problem occurs with PC ink, with Yellow OEM cart only, no others in the set affected.

Problem does not occur with well-flushed CLI-8 cart or well-flushed CLI-42 cart

Problem occurs after "several" (3) refills with PC ink with non-flushed OEM cart.

Deposition( of some sort) occurs at/on inlet screen of Yellow ink inlet at printhead.​

Partial potential conclusion:

PC Yellow Ink-caused deposition forms in the contaminated "sponge fiberous media", can penetrate the cart outlet "sponge media", yet cannot pass through the print head yellow inlet screen?

Potential cause: Difference in Fiberous Media in OEM CLI-42 yellow carts vs other color carts.

 

[The Hat]

I’ve had this happen to two of my printers’ iX4000 and iP4700 that were both using the CLl-42 cartridges (Un-flushed) over a period of 9 months, I replaced the offending yellow cartridge with a CLl-8 cart which of course made no difference. (Complete ignorance at this stage)

The yellow head in the 4000 was 25% blocked up for 6 months and I continued to use it till I could buy a new head, meanwhile I converted my 4700 over to using CLl-8 carts and it went down in just over a month with an 85% blockage, same CLl-42 cartridge so alarm bell started to ring.

I decided to take both of the printers off line (Not print any further) and soaked the heads in Fairy liquid, warm water and about 5% ammonia for more than a week, by that time I had a new head for the 4000 and was in the process of getting a new head for the 4700, Ouch…

I took the chance that I could clear the blockage from both heads and low and behold they were both cleaned up again and are still working to date. (100%)

From this I concluded that the Gello entered the heads as a liquid and once it was heated ready for ejecting it changed into some sort of semi-solid compound which was then too big to be ejected and remained in there.

As I only used the CLl-42 yellow cartridges I couldn’t say whether this can happen to any other colours in the CLl-42 ink set, I was using I.S. ink at that time but now STS has entered the market and things may or may not have changed.

It’s not the CLl-42 cartridge or sponge that is the problem here, it’s only the OEM Yellow ink that is causing this for the moment but when you switch to using a CLl-8 cartridge that eliminates this issue completely, thanks to milking quick thinking.

If I had one of these great printers I would not use the CLl-42 yellow cartridge at all (Never) but instead use any CLl-8 cartridge (Flushed) and fill it with a third party yellow to start with..

 

[turbguy]

I’ve had this happen to two of my printers’ iX4000 and iP4700 that were both using the CLl-42 cartridges (Un-flushed) over a period of 9 months, I replaced the offending yellow cartridge with a CLl-8 cart which of course made no difference. (Complete ignorance at this stage)


From this I concluded that the Gello entered the heads as a liquid and once it was heated ready for ejecting it changed into some sort of semi-solid compound which was then too big to be ejected and remained in there.



It’s not the CLl-42 cartridge or sponge that is the problem here, it’s only the OEM Yellow ink that is causing this for the moment but when you switch to using a CLl-8 cartridge that eliminates this issue completely, thanks to milking quick thinking.

So it also has occurred in other Canon models that were using CLI-42 carts (rather than carts they were supposed to be using)!

So you theorize the "clog" forms as a result of heating during ejection, placing the "clog" in close proximity to the nozzles, rather than forming in the "contaminated" CLI-42 cart and blocking the print head inlet? Possible, yes. Any observations that support this?

Are we certain the sponges are not "treated" differently in the CLI-42 yellow carts than in CLI-8 yellow carts? Could intensive flushing remove the "treatment", thus producing a reliable cart for aftermarket inks.

 

[jtoolman]

In my case I do not believe that it was heating.
I ran my prints. Perfect.
I ran a nozzle check. Perfect.
I waited two days, Blocked Yellow Channel.
Treated with Windex, dissolved clot!
Had the Gello been baked in place. I do not believe it would not have dissolved with Windex as in the case of the Magenta channels on PRO 9000 MKIIs.
But I could be wrong.
Joe

 

[turbguy]

So, we can conclude that some amount of TIME is required for the clogging to occur? Perhaps several days?

 

[The Hat]

Yes and I reckon the Gello needs plenty of time to do its dirty work.

I have purged my yellow CLl-42 carts successful using the same solution that unblocked the heads and all’s well with them now.

Another strange thing with this Yello Gello is that it doesn’t always burn out the nozzles, WHY ?