How "clean" does a CLI-42 cartridge need to be?

[martincregg]

I have just received a set of used OEM CLI-42 un-flushed cartridges. I have flushed them with tap water using a syringe. A lot of ink came out, but the sponges still show some very slight colouration. Interestingly, the black one is the cleanest. How "clean" do the cartridges need to be? BTW - I didn't flush the yellow one yet - I will do this Windex that contains ammonia.

 

[stratman]

sponges still show some very slight colouration

That is fine as long as you do not suspect mold or fungus. In that case I would go with a round of Windex and alcohol at this point followed by water flush.

Follow your plan with the Yellow CLI-42 as you stated.

 

[martincregg]

I'll give them a quick round of Windex just to be on the safe side, but are there any tell-tale signs of mold/fungus? Also, I live in Nashville and the water is quite hard. I notice some threads talking about flushing with distilled water. Does hard water really create a problem?

 

[stratman]

tell-tale signs of mold/fungus?

Besides the usual signs you'd notice elsewhere like on food or wet walls, look for particulates. Unusual odors may occur but I haven't read about tis as a sign.

Does hard water really create a problem?

The thinking is possibly so. One concern is the ions in hard water may cause an electrical short in the circuit board and contacts oc the print head with the printer and ruin the print head and/or printer.

Another concern is creating unwanted particles in the ink suspension or clogging up the sponge over time. Remember, the ink is designed to be at a certain pH and containing only certain substrate and not others so that flow and deposition of ink from cartridge through the print head is a smooth journey.

Consider distilled water final flush.

 

[PeterBJ]

Besides the usual signs you'd notice elsewhere like on food or wet walls, look for particulates. Unusual odors may occur but I haven't read about tis as a sign.

Here are two flushed Canon CLI-8 cartridges. One is OK, the other shows fungus:

The outlet also shows a difference, the OK cartridge has a white ink outlet, the infected cartridge shows an outlet stained by ink that cannot be cleaned away. The third cartridge has not been flushed but dripping a few drops of pharmacists cleaning solution into the ink outlet shows no sign of fungus.

AFAIK there is no reason to fear the fungus if the cartridges are Canon OEM that were never refilled AKA "Virgin Empty OEM". AFAIK the fungus has never been found in Canon OEM inks, only in some refill inks.

 

[stratman]

the other shows fungus

How do you know it was fungus?

AFAIK there is no reason to fear the fungus if the cartridges are Canon OEM that were never refilled

The theory is that empty virgin OEM Canon cartridges laying around for a period of time in an environment conducive to infection or growth certainly can become infected via at least 2 ports of entry - the air vent and the ink outlet port (+/- any hole made for refilling). It depends on how the cartridges are stored and whether they were exposed to contaminants regardless of what ink was used in the cartridge. Obviously if all openings to the inner cartridge are sealed/covered then the threat of infection approaches nil, at least until the cartridge openings are exposed once again.

 

[PeterBJ]

I don't know but I assume these spots are caused by the fungus. The cartridge was one that had caused a lot of problems with ink flow and it might also have killed a print head. I had marked the cartridge with a label with "??!!" to avoid reusing it. I flushed to see the fungus if possible. My info about the fungus is mostly from the posts by @mikling . See this post. Notice the mentioning of coloured spots inside a cartridge as a sign of the presence of the fungus. A fungus was isolated from some IS ink, which suggests that some bad batches were the cause of the problems, but I think that doesn't rule out that the infection could also be airborne.

@mikling does this CLI-8M look like a typical case of fungus infection, please?

Luckily the fungus problem seems to be a thing of the past? (Touch wood)

 

[stratman]

My info about the fungus is mostly from the posts by @mikling . See this post. Notice the mentioning of coloured spots inside a cartridge as a sign of the presence of the fungus. A fungus was isolated from some IS ink

Where does mikling say the issue was fungal? He never appears to positively identify it although he mentions fungus, along with other biologicals. He refers to what he found in ink as "organism" and "growth". I'm not saying it isn't a fungus. I'm saying mikling talks around an identification without saying it.

It would be great if spots in the sponge like in your picture were pathognomonic for fungus similar to funnel shaped streaking (lack of ink) is pathognomonic for ink starvation.

 

[The Hat]

This is all way over my head, I’ve never had an issue with any fungal infection in any of my carts and some of them have not been flushed in ten years... (BCl-6)

 

[stratman]

This is all way over my head, I’ve never had an issue with any fungal infection in any of my carts and some of them have not been flushed in ten years... (BCl-6)

Me either, but... Are you saying that you only post on things you have experienced? If so, then you have had nearly every crappy thing possible happen to you except fungus.