i865 ink cartridges: BCI 3e or BCI 6

[Gypsy]

I was wondering if anyone could help me. Unknown to me at the time i purchased several BCI 3e ink cartridges and used them in my i865 printer. Several days of use later i realised that i had got the wrong ones. They should have been the BCI 6 cartridges. The cartridges look identical and there seems to be no difference printing, but i was wondering if there WAS a difference and if the 3 series would cause any harm to the printer. I would prefer to use the BCI 3's as they are at least $5.00 AUS cheaper. I am unable to find any info on the canon site {when i can actually get there pages to come up } I don't want to use refills until my warranty runs out, after that there will be no problem.

 

[hford02]

Some of the generics that I've used have shown them as identical and I know I've used both in an i560 ... my guess is that it was a model number change to make the older ones obsolete so owners of the older printers would replace a perfectly good printer because the inks were harder to find.... just a speculation.

If they work why not use the cheaper ones?

 

[hford02]

Good luck with refilling tanks --- generic carts are so cheap it doesn't seem worth the effort to me anymore..... and you can really screw up you heads if they don't flow right.

 

[Nifty]

hford02, you are totally correct! My printing "total cost of ownership" spreadsheet shows that refilling is only a little bit cheaper than generic cartridges. Here is a link to the thread:
http://www.nifty-stuff.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=40

Personally I've had great success refilling and actually enjoy it (yeah, I'm messed up that way).

 

[Gypsy]

thanks for the imput hford02
thanks for the info on refills
I got a reply from canon.
This is what they said:
"Good afternoon. In answer to your question, you should be using the correct ink cartridges, using different ones can damage the print head as well as have unexpectant output results, but as mentioned your prints look ok, I am more concerned about the damage it could do, so yes I would advise to use the inks specified for the printer"

 

[ocular]

I would like to know what the difference is between the the BCI-3eC/Y/M and the BCI-6C/Y/M. The cartridges seem physically the same. Ink refillers seem to supply the same ink for both. Is there any difference?

For example. The i560 and the i850 have the same printhead Canon (part No QY6-0042-000) yet Canon recommends BCI-3eBK,BCI-6C,BCI-6Y,BCI-6M for the i560 and BCI-3eBK,BCI-3C,,BCI-3Y,BCI-3M for the i850. Could not be too much difference if they can go thru the same printhead.

Why is there a difference in price between what appears to be the same ink as Gypsy mentioned. ?is this a marketing ploy.

 

[Roccitman]

Does anyone else have any information on the post left by Ocular? I have the same question and I am tending to go with hford02's assesment of Canon trying to get more $$ out of people.
-roccitman

BTW: I have an i560

 

[BlasterQ]

as far as i know, in a i860, the bci-3eBK is a pigment based black ink. while the bci-6bk is a dye based black ink.
pigment based ink is intended for crisp black and white text, while the dye based is for better photo quality.
with regards to the other non-black cartridge, i think canon uses the same inks, ie all dye colors are the same in all their cartridges. or i may be wrong.

 

[ocular]

i think canon uses the same inks, ie all dye colors are the same in all their cartridges. or i may be wrong.

Speaking to the ink suppliers that the BCI-3C/Y/M cartridges and the BCI-6C/Y/M are identical at least they recommend the same color ink .

Canon recommends different colour cartridges when the machines have the SAME printhead and charge a higher price for the BCI - 6 cartridges . eg IP3000 This can only be interpreted as a marketing ploy. Canon needs to be confronted about this. Anyone emailed canon about this? The reply should be interesting.

 

[Craig Ross]

I have canon s9000 using bci_6 and a i865 I also refill my own carts my ink supplier
tells me that bci_3 black is pigment and bci_6 is dye, pigment will block a dye head but
I can use the bci_6 black dye in the bci_3 black and in fact some people prefer this.
The yellow is identical between bci_3 and bci_6 and I have been swapping these for
a while however when a magenta bci_3 is put in place of a bci_6 prints are way way
magenta so I can only assume that they are a much darker magenta than the bci_6
bci_6 are perhaps designed to work in tandem with the photo magenta cart and must a lighter
magenta than the bci_3 same as cyan I,m guessing