Help! (problem with hobbicolors refill system!)

[ggn]

I got my hobbicolors ink refill kit earlier this year for my new Canon MP760 multifunction- at first I thought everything was fine but gradually it seemed like I needed to go through a cleaning cycle every time I wanted to print in colour otherwise I would get either get coloured horizontal lines across my prints or it would all come out in one shade i.e. green blue or red or both! This is something I specifically got my new printer for as my old Epson used to do this and the Canon never seemed to do it with the proper cartridges After about two refills it became increasingly hard to screw the (very very small) plastic screw into the cartridge and I am afraid that the thread has started to go and so it didn't seal properly. Recently I printed out a black and white text page and it had smears of red (magenta?) ink on one corner and one edge. I went through cleaning cycles and the printing was OK, but now a few weeks later I tried to print and I have to go through cleaning almost every page. I took the magenta cartridge out and refilled it but then the printer didn't acknowledge I had refilled and then the magenta didn't come out at all until I did a deep clean. I tried to look to see if there was any leaking ink but it doesn't seem to be possible to access under the cartridges. I would really appreciate some help as I am worried if I do nothing my beloved new printer is going to be destroyed .

 

[KnightCrawler]

I'm going to guess that the carts you are using are the ones provided by Hobbicolors ?

Is it the WC6 ink or the newer UW8 ink ?

The problem seems to be an interaction between the ink and carts. Their is more to it then the carts being a standard piece of plastic that store ink. They are part of the ink deliver system and if they don't work properly then all kinds of problems can occur.

I've always just used the Canon carts since they are designed well and they provide 6 refills before they need to be washed out well or just thrown out. Most bulk ink suppliers will use cheaply made carts from china and they are not really designed for the decent quality ink that will go in them made in the usa.

 

[ggn]

Thanks for your reply. Yes I am using the hobbicolors cartridges that came with the ink. TBH I was nervous as soon as I first tried the screws as they didn't really seem to go in very easily and it wasn't clear whether they were tight enough or too tight as they just kept going round without seeming to get tighter. I'm not sure what the ink is but I bought the hobbicolors kit in January- the 3BK says WC on it but none of the colours have any identifying codes. I have noticed that in the magenta cartridge there doesn't seem to be any part of the sponge not saturated with ink- could this be the cause of the problem (I think I did try to keep part of the sponge white but I think maybe I turned the cartridge upside down to check it wasn't leaking and that could have made the sponge fully saturated?).

 

[on30trainman]

ggn,
I have two printers (ip4000 and ip6000D) that I use Hobbicolors ink in. I have better luck using the Canon cartridges to refill in the ip4000. That printer was two years old and only had used Canon cartridges until I decided to start refilling. I have had problems at times using the Hobbicolor's cartridges - needing head cleanings and leaking at the printhead. The Hobbicolor cartridges seem to sit somewhat looser in the print head than the Canon's do. Possibly the seals around the printhead nozzles are a little compressed and don't seal the Hobbbicolor cartridges as well. In the ip6000D I have been using Hobbicolor cartridges from the beginning and have had no problems. Rarely need to do a head cleaning. That printer (ip6000D) has sat unused for a month or so several times and a head check shows good results and no head cleaning needed when it is finally used.
Replace those plastic screws in the Hobbicolor cartridges with either #6 machine screws or self tapping screws and small "O" Rings - available at Home Depot. This will provide a much easier job sealing the cartridges after refilling. Look thru these forums and you will find many posts about the screws and "O" rings.

Steve W.

 

[fotofreek]

Good tip on changing the screws. I did that with my hobbicolor carts as soon as I got them. Read the info on the screws and Orings. Be sure the screws are stainless steel. I use phillips pan head stainless steel sheet metal screws with very tight fitting o-rings. Easier to insert into the fill hole than the plastic machine screws that came with the HC carts and the o-rings provide an excellent seal as long as they fit the screws tightly and you don't tighten them so much that the o-ring is squeezed out from under the screw head.

 

[vkakula]

I have used the WC6 Hobbicolor ink in an MP750 with the Hobbicolor cartridges. Right from the onset noticed that my prints were coming out with a tad too much yellow. The problem only got worse. I created a custom profile for the paper/ink combination but couldn't make this problem go away.

In creating the profile, I noticed that the printed patch set looked washed out compared to the one I printed using genuine Canon ink on an MP500. I bought a new set of Canon inks, ran a print head clean and reprinted the patch set on the MP750. Voila the problem went away. The colors were saturated and my yellow problem was gone. The impression I got was that the Hobbicolor WC6 inks are watered down.

I have refilled another set of genuine Canon cartridges with MIS ink and the results are much closer to OEM Canon inks. The MIS 100% black doesn't nearly look as dark as the Canon 100% black buy most everything else is in line. I initially bought the Hobbicolor ink because of positive reviews in these forums but my personal experience left much to be desired.

 

[KnightCrawler]

I have used the WC6 Hobbicolor ink in an MP750 with the Hobbicolor cartridges. Right from the onset noticed that my prints were coming out with a tad too much yellow. The problem only got worse. I created a custom profile for the paper/ink combination but couldn't make this problem go away.

In creating the profile, I noticed that the printed patch set looked washed out compared to the one I printed using genuine Canon ink on an MP500. I bought a new set of Canon inks, ran a print head clean and reprinted the patch set on the MP750. Voila the problem went away. The colors were saturated and my yellow problem was gone. The impression I got was that the Hobbicolor WC6 inks are watered down.

I have refilled another set of genuine Canon cartridges with MIS ink and the results are much closer to OEM Canon inks. The MIS 100% black doesn't nearly look as dark as the Canon 100% black buy most everything else is in line. I initially bought the Hobbicolor ink because of positive reviews in these forums but my personal experience left much to be desired.

The problem might have also been a problem with the carts themselves and not just the ink. If the yellow ink was pooling into the printhead you get some really bad effects.

That said the newer UW8 ink is an improvement over the WC6 inks.

 

[hpnetserver]

Vkakula, I haves used two refill kits from Hobbicolors and both were WC-6 ink. I think the ink is actually a very nice set of ink for my ip8500. I have not had any green cast others reported and I have no yellow cast as you described. In fact I printed a few pictures with both Canon OEM and Hobbicolors WC-6 ink and showed them to friends and relatives. I got a statistics of opinions from these people who did a compariosn between the two sets of photos. The result was about 2/3 of the people gave the prints printed with WC-6 ink a thumb up. If the ink really has the green or yellow cast issue It won't take any genius to give a thumb down to the prints instead.

I probably should mention how I print photos on my ip8500. I set the printer to print on plain paper. Yes, you hear it righht, plain paper. Ip8500 does not have a BCI-3ebk so there is no issue about pigmented ink getting used. I set the print quality in custom mode to Fine and diffusion in halftoning. All photos came out perfect in colors and saturatation. I can not imagine how others got green or yellow cast. It just never happen to me. WHen I use OEM ink I had the same setup as well. This setup was based on a Kodak instruction printing on Kodak photo paper bought from Costco a while ago. I don't use Kodak paper any more but I keep using the same setup ever since.

I do not have all the colors of UW-8 ink for my ip8500 so my UW-8 ink experience is limited to my ip4200. It's a great ink, different from WC-6 ink. I don't believe I will ever buy OEM ink any more. My ip8500 still is the best printer to print photos even with WC-6 ink. But I am not using my ip4200 for printing photos. It is far too slow and painful to print photos on ip4200. I can't use the plain paper setup on ip4200 to print photos. That's another reason I don't print photos on my ip4200. Well, once spoiled by ip8500 I do not have the motive to print photos on the ip4200.

 

[KnightCrawler]

Vkakula, I haves used two refill kits from Hobbicolors and both were WC-6 ink. I think the ink is actually a very nice set of ink for my ip8500. I have not had any green cast others reported and I have no yellow cast as you described. In fact I printed a few pictures with both Canon OEM and Hobbicolors WC-6 ink and showed them to friends and relatives. I got a statistics of opinions from these people who did a compariosn between the two sets of photos. The result was about 2/3 of the people gave the prints printed with WC-6 ink a thumb up. If the ink really has the green or yellow cast issue It won't take any genius to give a thumb down to the prints instead.

I probably should mention how I print photos on my ip8500. I set the printer to print on plain paper. Yes, you hear it righht, plain paper. Ip8500 does not have a BCI-3ebk so there is no issue about pigmented ink getting used. I set the print quality in custom mode to Fine and diffusion in halftoning. All photos came out perfect in colors and saturatation. I can not imagine how others got green or yellow cast. It just never happen to me. WHen I use OEM ink I had the same setup as well. This setup was based on a Kodak instruction printing on Kodak photo paper bought from Costco a while ago. I don't use Kodak paper any more but I keep using the same setup ever since.

I do not have all the colors of UW-8 ink for my ip8500 so my UW-8 ink experience is limited to my ip4200. It's a great ink, different from WC-6 ink. I don't believe I will ever buy OEM ink any more. My ip8500 still is the best printer to print photos even with WC-6 ink. But I am not using my ip4200 for printing photos. It is far too slow and painful to print photos on ip4200. I can't use the plain paper setup on ip4200 to print photos. That's another reason I don't print photos on my ip4200. Well, once spoiled by ip8500 I do not have the motive to print photos on the ip4200.

I wouldn't exactly call the 4200 slow and painful and the plain paper mode could probably be used on the 4200 as well since it has a photo black cart and would not use the text black even in plain paper mode. The 8500 however is the best Letter photo printer that Canon put out at that time now there is only the 6700 or the jump to the Pro 9000.

 

[ggn]

Thanks for the advise on the screws and inks- I had noticed that the black printed a little greener than the original Canon but it's only really noticeable if you compare two prints side by side. I am now pretty sure at least my magenta has been leaking- will this have caused any serious damage that I need to dismantle the printer to fix (any tips on how to do this for an MP760 if I do?)? Could the leaking be due to the sponge being saturated all the way to the top, perhaps caused by me turning the cart upside down (should you not turn them upside down?)?.