Hobbicolors UW8 versus Canon OEM BCI-6 inks

[Defcon2k]

I'm not sure how many times defcon2k could refill one cartridge until leakage happened.

Yes, I tested my yellow cart by piercing the sponge 300 times. The cart has also been refilled 8 times until now, and there is not the slightest degradation to be seen. I still use it just like my other carts. I can't say how long my carts will last, since I don't print that much and I also have a second set of carts so I can alternate between them.

I think if a cart will stop printing at some point in the future, it won't be because of a damaged sponge, but because of the usual ink "glob", so I will try to flush it with Grandad35's method. I already did that with some empty carts I bought on ebay, and it worked well.

Regarding this refilling method: I won't claim that your carts will live forever (although I've read multiple reports of people who refilled them 20 times and more without problems), but I think it is a clean and easy way of refilling.
I have two friends who initially said "Printer refilling? Oh no, it's certainly messy and difficult".
Then I put one of my carts, a syringe and an ink bottle under their nose and said "Here, please refill my cart for me". They gave it a try and then decided to refill, too, from now on...

But of course there are also other nice refilling methods... I would advise anybody to just give it a try and see which one works best for him. It's a good thing to have alternatives to choose from.

 

[pharmacist]

Defcon2K,

Fine to know the method has been tested thoroughly. But have you ever heard about the diagonal Durchstich method ? Where the hole is made at the upper side of the cartridge front and then the needle is pierced down in a 45 degrees corner downwards towards the ink entrance hole ? I think this method should be even more reliable since there is an extra safeguard (thicker buffering layer by the sponges for the inkflow). Maybe I will try this method in the future.

 

[Defcon2k]

Heard: yes, but I don't think it's necessary. Here is a (german) thread about that idea: link

 

[pharmacist]

Problem occured yesterday: my first refilled photo-magenta cartridge with the Durchstich method is feeding ink badly. I used cheap ink from I don't know, since I'm waiting for my order from Hobbicolors (my photo magenta run out and took cheap ink instead). I have to remove the cart and put in an new Canon PM cart.

The cartridge doesn't leak at all when you take it out, but when printing the cartridge sometimes feeds the ink very badly causing banding in blue skies and eventually I got drops of photo magenta onto my pictures randomly. The ink must be pumped too fast into the nozzles causing them to leak. Strangely enough when I take the cartridge out it does not leak at all and even the drilled hole is completely dry and also the ink opening is smooth and I can not see any small drop hanging out of it.

What could be the cause of this problem ? Could it be the cheap ink I used temporarily for refilling the cartridge ? Or did I wrongly drill the hole in my cartridge ? But it doesn't leak at all when refilled and even after the printing problems after taking it out from the printer it still is not leaking.

 

[Defcon2k]

Oh, I'm sorry to hear you got problems. Unfortunately I don't have much experience with refilling problems, since I've never encountered any, but I'll try:

"Banding" sounds as if there is too few ink - "drops" sound as if there is too much ink.
Is the nozzle test okay? Have you refilled the cart before, or was it the first time? Was the sponge still wet (I personally refill when there is still a little bit of ink in the reservoir chamber), or was there already much air in the sponge? Is the vent hole okay, or is there maybe some ink in the "labyrinth" which blocks the path of the air? Did the ink work for you before or is this the first time you tried it?
If there seems to be too much ink, it has been perhaps overfilled. You can squeeze some drops out of the cart to fix that, or start a purging cycle in the printer. (I never had problems with overfilling, because the sponge absorbs just as much ink as it likes... i think I could only overfill the cart if I would force more ink in)

 

[pharmacist]

The nozzle print check is 100 % OK and the cart is refilled the first time (original Canon cartridge) and the sponge is not oversaturated (original Canon carts are allways partially saturated with ink in the upper sponge). And excess air should not be a problem since the air can actually escape using the Durchstich method. The cartridge is refilled immediately the printer says the cart is empty. But the problem only occured after a while of normal printing without problems. But what I can see is that the wall of the ink chamber is covered with ink that runs only slowly towards the bottom and doesn''t have the consistency like the other inks. It actually sticks a little bit to the inner wall. This is the first time I used this (cheap) ink, so maybe it is the ink (tomorrow or the day after I should receive my Hobbicolors ink and I hope this will work better).

The cartridge looks completely OK above and below it. So I think it is probably the cheap ink. I will tell later if this is the case. After installing an original Canon cartridge the problem went away almost immediately.

 

[pebe]

I think your comment about the ink sticking to the side of the ink chamber says a lot about the problem.

I always refilled using ink from a supplier in Lancashire. After about 18 months use I had a magenta blockage that would not clear. I ended up with a replacement head but after a very short time the new head had the same problem, but I was able to clear the jets using several deep clean cycles.

Suspecting the ink, I turned the magenta cart upside down which revealed what appeared to be thick ink sticking to the bottom of the chamber. I decided to open up the fill screw and drain the chamber and found what appeared to be bacterial glop all down the side of the chamber.

I thought that if the cart was like that, what was the bottled ink like? Turning the bottle upside down I could see the same viscous stuff sticking to the bottom of the bottle. The same for the cyan, but the yellow seemed perfectly OK. I decided to ditch the remaining magenta and cyan ink and buy from Hobbicolors.

I think the ink may have passed its sell by date and the extra viscosity of residue in the bottom of the bottle may be a good future indicator of bad ink.

Once the head was cleared I replaced the magenta and cyan cartridges with ready filled ones until the Hobbicolors kit arrived. Ive had no problems with them.

The Hobbicolors kit has now arrived, and I was pleasantly surprised to find that the ink was cheaper from them than from my previous supplier even allowing for airmail postage and the 5 empty carts included!