Doubt on the flushing and cleaning procedures

[The Hat]

Can I use the air compressor instead to blow? I bought the cartridges online and I do not want to lean my mouth directly on them and unfortunately I do not have straws.

There shouldnt be a problem putting your mouth over your new cartridges
so as your know where your mouth was previously.

I hear you say you bought your cartridges online, does that mean that they are not OEM carts.

Refilling compatible cartridges is not a very good idea at all so please stick with refilling your OEMs
for much better print control and longer print head life..

 

[ThrillaMozilla]

If you just suck out water you can get to 11,5g. That means an extra ml of water compared to the centrifuge method.

Well, I've probably got an old, very dried up cartridge somewhere. Maybe I'll try this some time. I suspect there's more left in the sponge after "drying" than people realize.

And I'm serious about tap water. I wouldn't go near a cartridge -- especially a pigment cartridge -- with tap water.

 

[Radeon89]

Can I use the air compressor instead to blow? I bought the cartridges online and I do not want to lean my mouth directly on them and unfortunately I do not have straws.

There shouldnt be a problem putting your mouth over your new cartridges
so as your know where your mouth was previously.

I hear you say you bought your cartridges online, does that mean that they are not OEM carts.

Refilling compatible cartridges is not a very good idea at all so please stick with refilling your OEMs
for much better print control and longer print head life..

I bought them empty so I do not know how touched them. :/

Anyway, nobody answer to my question, can I use the air compressor instead to blow?

Thank you!

 

[Tudor]

How much control do you have over your compressor?

I don't know your medical history, but, in general, it's not such a good idea to be so cautious when it comes to germs. How will you get a good immune system?
You could take a napkin, put some medicinal alcohol on it and clean the cartridges. Then you can put your mouth on them.

 

[fotofreek]

I have found that tap water works just fine. Perhaps San Francisco's water is soft enough that it leaves no residue. After blowing out as much water as possible I use an old vacuum cleaner to pull out as much water as I can and then dry the carts with an electric fan. When filling a really dry, purged cart, you may have to apply a slight bit of suction at the air vent to pull ink into the sponge, but it works for me. Is your air compressor oil-less? If not you will have a trace (or more!) of oil in the compressed air, and all compressor storage tanks accumulate some water vapor due to condensation. I'd rather vacuum most of the water out than use my compressor.

Spend a half hour or so and read through the oiriginal thread on the subject of purging Canon carts.
http://www.nifty-stuff.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=311&p=1 and then look at post #21 for my approach.

 

[The Hat]

If you just suck out water you can get to 11,5g. That means an extra ml of water compared to the centrifuge method.

Well, I've probably got an old, very dried up cartridge somewhere. Maybe I'll try this some time. I suspect there's more left in the sponge after "drying" than people realize.

And I'm serious about tap water. I wouldn't go near a cartridge -- especially a pigment cartridge -- with tap water.

I have only ever used tap water to flush out my cartridges regardless of which ink was in them,
and its so pure you can actually drink litres of the stuff with suffering any minor medical problems.

But then we have lots of water so much so its flowing down both the sides of the street daily..

 

[fotofreek]

I have only ever used tap water to flush out my cartridges regardless of which ink was in them,
and its so pure you can actually drink litres of the stuff with suffering any minor medical problems.

But then we have lots of water so much so its flowing down both the sides of the street daily..

So if we are to use something so pure you can actually drink litres of the stuff, I'd opt for Guinness --- while I'm purging my carts with tap water.

 

[ThrillaMozilla]

The Hat and fotofreek, while there are some people who could probably pee in their cartridges and it wouldn't matter, but there are other people on this forum who are always purging their cartridges or desperately trying to revive their printheads. For people who have hard water, this will leave calcium salts in the sponge that are very difficult to remove and may eventually build up. I don't know if tap water can somehow cause problems with a printhead, but printhead plumbing is a lot more delicate than yours is. The only thing I know for sure is that using distilled water is a simple and inexpensive precaution. Carry on.

 

[fotofreek]

The Hat and fotofreek, while there are some people who could probably pee in their cartridges and it wouldn't matter, but there are other people who are always purging their cartridges or desperately trying to revive their printheads.

I don't know if you are aware, but calcium salts from hard water are less soluble in hard water than in cold water. That kills a lot of plumbing fixtures, and I wouldn't be at all surprised if calcium salts are deposited around the heaters in printheads. You may think soft water will never cause problems, but I have seen ink flocculate, and it's dramatic. That would instantly kill a printhead, and I don't recommend taking the chance.

You're thinking that none of this will matter in practice. You're probably right, or maybe not, but I am completely certain that using distilled water is a simple and inexpensive precaution. Carry on.

As to the tap water discussion --- I can only say that my original OEM carts from nine years ago have been hot tap-water flushed many tens of times with no harmful effect to either the carts or my printers. I haven't tried anything other than hot tap water, but I'm sure that someone, now that you've mentioned it, will try to pee in their carts and provide a 100 line post to this thread!

Kidding aside, I've always provided the disclaimer that our water is quite soft and that may be why I've been nothing but successful with these tap water purged carts.

 

[ThrillaMozilla]

I'm not so sure about the calcium salts in the printhead, and I don't even know whether flocculation is a problem, so I've edited that discussion. But it seems to me that a tap water residue is never a good thing, and it's easy enough to rinse it out with distilled water.