I Hate My Canon

[mrelmo]

OK after all the issues that I have been having with my magenta refills (OEM cartridges) I think that I may have smoked a new printhead in my MP990 so at this point I am going to look for a different brand maybe brother or epson the canons have serviced me well 2005 or longer however this issue with the magenta is just too much and I am going to throw in the printer uuuuuuuuggggggghhhhhhh. Maybe I will try the old printhead with a new cartridge that I will buy from the store. But that is it

 

[Roy Sletcher]

the canons have serviced me well 2005 or longer

WOW! By your own admission over 10 years of good service and now you are going to toss them because of a magenta issue.

Hope the replacement is half as good!

rs

 

[mrelmo]

This is driving me nuts

 

[pkk]

Well it won't be much consolation to you but I'm relieved to know that a printer guru is as frusterated as I am with the magenta problem on Canon printers. I've burned through 1 MP 830 & 2 Pro 9000's. I got a Pro 100 last year & immediately had magenta problems. But that turned out to be a defect in the printer or the head. I think there were two issues at work at the same time. 1) When I started refilling I don't remember anyone saying you should not run a Canon cart all the way to empty before you refill it. If I had seen that I wouldn't have done it. I believe that is what caused me to fry my MP830 & maybe the first Pro 9000. 2) About the time this forum started preaching that you should refill as soon as the cart read "low", Precision Colors started having problems with the magenta inks. This has been throughly discussed and they believe the problem is solved. But we were actually chasing two problems at once, hence the hairpulling.
I just ran my first large print job through my new Pro100 with Precision Colors ink with no problems. (knock on wood). It has been a very frusterating ordeal but there is no way I can print what I want to without refilling so I had to try one more time. The good news here is that my total investment in all this gear was less than a new Pro9000's sticker price because Canon seems determined to giving their printers away. My second Pro100 cost me net $30, new in the box. So I'm sticking with it for now. I have 2 Epson printers but I use OEM carts & ink on those. because the investment in refillable carts is more than I can justify. So if I'm going to refill, it's Canon.
All of this is offerred for your consideration, mrelmo. Best of luck to you.

Pkk

 

[MP640]

I switched from Canon to Brother for the very same magenta reasons. Brother has some pretty good printers. All are YMC/B, so photo printing quality is less than Canon, but I find it acceptable for home use.

 

[mrelmo]

which brother have you switched to, is it wifi and duplex and how do you refill

 

[Grandad35]

I don't print nearly as much as I used to, but I still use my old i9900's with BCI-6 carts using Precision inks and top refilling. The new magenta inks do not wet out the "sponge" nearly as well as the old inks when refilling, but here is what seems to work for me:

1. Start with a purged cart.
2. Blow out the water with 20 psi compressed air through the refill hole until water flow stops.
3. Weigh the cart and compare it to a completely dried cart - it should weigh no more than 1 gram more than a completely dried cart (indicating no more than 1 cc of retained water in the sponge).
4. Use a syringe with a short piece of vinyl tubing installed where the needle would normally go.
5. Fill the syringe with 50 cc's of Pharmacist's conditioning solution (I use glycerine) and hold the open end of the vinyl tubing against the cart's exit port.
6. Slowly push the conditioning solution into the cart. Once the ink chamber is full, plug the refill hole and then continue pushing the remainder of the solution into the cart so that it exits from the vent maze on the top of the cart. The idea is to guarantee that all areas of the sponge are completely saturated with the conditioning solution.
7. Let the cart sit for a few minutes, then blow the conditioning solution back out in the same manner that the water was blown out.
8. Dry the sponge using one of the many methods discussed in the forum over the years. I use the folded paper towel pressed against the exit port method. A fan speeds up the process, but it still takes a few days.
9. When you refill the first time, the ink should quickly wick into the entire sponge. If it doesn't, the cart may not work well.
10. After refilling and with the refill screw removed, the cart should drip about 1 drop every 2 seconds or so when the exit port is uncovered - if the drip rate is too slow, the cart can't deliver the ink properly. When you cover the refill hole with your finger, the dripping should stop within a few seconds.
11. VERY IMPORTANT - don't run the carts to empty. Refill on the "low ink" warning, preferably before.
12. Always run the drip test after refilling. If too many air pockets form in the lower sponge while printing, the air blocks ink flow. The drip test lets you know if the "ink link" has been broken.
13. I am usually able to refill numerous times before needing to purge, with the single most important factor being that the carts are never run empty. A single "run to empty" is usually fatal on the drip test.

Good luck

 

[mikling]

Having handled and sold over 10,000+ refurbed carts not having been prepped with Pharmacists conditoning formula? why is there a need for it? Here is what I have noticed. Whenever there is an absorption/wicking issue it generally starts with an off brand ink from Amazon or Ebay. Using suitable inks solves the problem completely. I have not run into a need for this with the current inks or inks properly suitable for use in Canon carts.
The second video was done with a normally dried cart without a conditioning formula. It fills fine and operates fine. This is the behavior we expect and want. See second video.

http://www.precisioncolors.com/Maintenance_Canon.html

Now where Pharmacists solution comes in is when someone insists on using ink with marginal physical properties for the application and the priming with the solution will get it over the hump to be operational but it is operating with a marginal tolerance. One way to preprime is to use proper ink first which will aid the marginal ink to work afterwards.

As you can tell, I am not eager to use the conditoning formula because it can mask problems.

 

[martin0reg]

...

1. When you refill the first time, the ink should quickly wick into the entire sponge. If it doesn't, the cart may not work well....
2. ...

Saturating the entire sponge is what I do NOT want, because the upper sponge is for air exchange..
So get the lower sponge saturated, the upper can be left partially or even totally white.

With pharmacists solution as a "conditioner" it happened to me that first the lower then the upper (i.e. the entire) sponge got saturated...but finally ink would reach the air vent - and I have to stop before the ink chamber is full. So my personal issue is too much or too quick saturation of the upper sponge.
So I agree with mikling, his video shows it very well.

(.. I have to add I fill "german" which might increase the problem of ink saturating too quick and reaching the air vent, because of possible pressure while refilling..)

PS: What I always do with new refilled carts is priming: blow in the air vent to push some drops out of the cart, this will push the ink down into the lower sponge.

 

[MP640]

which brother have you switched to, is it wifi and duplex and how do you refill

DCP-J4110DW and MFC-J4510DW. Both have wifi and duplex and print in landscape (printhead goes over the long edge of the paper). Can also print single sheets of A3 by manual feed. The 4510DW also has an ADF for 25 pages and a fax (which I don't use). Successors are 4120, 4620, ..

I refill with a Proluer (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LmrIQj6wINA). Works like a charm and no cartridge modification necessary.

Hope this helps...