My MAXIFY 5350 is on refill ink

[stratman]

It’s odd that no one has come forward to say they were duped...

Sometimes it is worth reading threads that may not apply to my situation just for gems like this.

 

[Artur5]

I reckon you’d be better off staying away from this seller, because if its to good to be true then it usually is, the Pro 9500 doesn’t need the newer version, The Pro 1, the Pro 100 and Pro 10 cannot ender Service Mode so this Service tool would be useless, and the Maxify just might who knows.....

That’s why I’ll wait for one of you, fearless guys, to try first.

It’s worth noting that the same version 5.204 is sold by somebody else on Ebay at a much lower price, but with a shorter list of compatible printers. None of the Pro models are included. Feel free to smell a rat or two..

 

[The Hat]

@Arthur5, I’m not going to be the Pied Piper again on this one, just because I did it on my Pro 1 so I’m happy to announce my Maxify is printing flawlessly, and If it Ain’t broke...

 

[Artur5]

Of course nobody on his/her right senses should try while the printer is working fine, but when/if the waste inkpad counter reaches full..

 

[The Hat]

but when/if the waste inkpad counter reaches full..

I might be deceased by the time that happens...

 

[websnail]

Of course nobody on his/her right senses should try while the printer is working fine, but when/if the waste inkpad counter reaches full..

Well, I'm waiting for such a printer to wind up on my doorstep and got very close to a Pro-10 in such condition but then the seller used my resources to fix his printhead in an ironic twist that stopped me getting it... We'll see

 

[Artur5]

Be warned : this is a very, very long post.

Mrs. Maxify MB5150 arrived last week.

USB set-up was a breeze. If anything, a bit long while the machine initialized the inks and all that.
After my experience with the Pro10s, I wasn’t surprised to see that wireless set-up was another story. People who writes that software and instructions for wireless communication shouldn’t be working for Canon but writing Kafkian novels with absurd convoluted plots.
Why isn’t possible to arrange a simple wireless connection in an automated and simple way ?. Just enter the router password when asked and be done. This is so with any other wireless devices I tried, be it phones or cameras ( not Canon branded, of course).
They must believe that it wouldn’t be fun if it was easy. They don’t explain to you that proper wireless set up can’t be done solely with the help of the menu from the printer’s front panel and the driver installation. You need to open network connections in Windows, select the one more likely to correspond to the Maxify and enter the security password, that you will find buried into the options/configurations of the printer front panel, only if you have activated and configured beforehand wifi direct or via router, but don’t enter this password as the router PIN in windows, you must click below and select advanced security device. If you’re lost by now, so I was. Trial and error was my friend and finally I had it configured as direct wifi bypassing the router. Only drawback is that anytime the printer is switched off/on, you have to reactivate manually the connection in Windows.

After the compulsory wifi rant, I must say that Maxie is fast, much more than the specification figures might lead to believe. As fast as my Brother laser. Scanning and copy is fast and easy, provides good quality and you can use the advanced menu which gives a comprehensive set of controls for scanning. Some people complains that Maxifys are very noisy, I don’t think so; lasers are much louder

BTW I agree with you chaps that having to register the size of the paper every time you pull out the cassette it’s an idiotic thing. More so when the MB5150 has only one drawer.

Before installing the starter cartridges I weighted them. Black: 97.5 gr. Colors: from 61 to 61.5 gr. I gather that they contained half the ink of a regular PGI-2500XL cart.
After printing around 200 pages of text and a couple of documents with color, status of the black ink has lowered a notch, while CMY show still full.

Update after a week :

80-90% of my printing is DIN-A5 text in double side. I was already aware that automatic double side it’s available only for DIN A4/letter sizes. All the printers that I’ve owned in the past behave likewise. So I usually print first the even pages and then the other side. Problem was that the Maxify has a tendency to occasional double feed after the first side of the paper has been printed. My guess is that even if the ink is smear proof almost instantly, it isn’t quite dry and remains a bit sticky. Therefore the upper sheet occasionally drags along the printed sheet underneath. I tried leaving the paper dry for some hours and it did improve but the issue still appeared sometimes.
As you realize, double feed is disastrous for manual double side printing. A single occurrence ruins all the pages printed afterwards. Instead of pages numbered 1,2,3,4,5 etc. you end up with 1,2,3,6,5,8,7,10... .
Never ever any of my Pixmas had this issue. I expect that feeding from a bottom cassette drawer is not quite the same thing, In fact, my laser printer suffers a bit from that too, if the paper has been exposed to humidity.
The solution is obvious but, silly me, I never thought of it before, Just print in DIN AA sheets using the booklet option in the driver. The machine will print 2 DIN-A5 pages side by side in a single DIN-A4 sheet and you can cut the paper afterwards. You have automatic double side printing and any possible double feed will spoil only the current sheet, but I haven’t had a single occurrence of double feed printing in A4 because the printer always fetches a blank unprinted page.

Second issue: after refilling the black cart for first time and printing a few dozens of pages I saw ugly banding in the text. The grid of the nozzle check revealed plenty of blank nozzles and others with double lines. Cleaning improved things but the issue reappeared shortly afterwards. My suspicions were towards poor quality ink, although it’s a brand I’ve been using for years without nasty effects.
Finally, common sense told me to do what I should have done the first time : remove all the remaining OEM ink in the cart flushing with cleaning solution until the liquid exiting was quite transparent. After that, I refilled again with my third party ink and nozzle checks improved gradually and have remained perfectly OK since then (touching wood).
Probably the residual OEM black ink, which I unwisely didn’t remove in the first refill, reacted with the third party stuff increasing the viscosity or something, Sort of a mild CLI-42 yello-gello syndrome. If I’m not wrong, @palombian reported some problems with Octopus cyan ink and he hinted too about possible bad interaction with residual OEM cyan.

Page count is 1350-1400 now. Status of refilled black is around 2/3 full. C-M-Y (still OEM ink from starter cart.) are at 3/4 aprox.

 

[stratman]

My guess is that even if the ink is smear proof almost instantly, it isn’t quite dry and remains a bit sticky.

What is the brand and version of the paper you are using? Maybe a different and compatible inkjet copy paper would work better.

my laser printer suffers a bit from that too, if the paper has been exposed to humidity.

Consider a dehumidifier in your printer's room or store the paper in a sealed container until ready to print.

My suspicions were towards poor quality ink, although it’s a brand I’ve been using for years without nasty effects.

What is the brand and version of the aftermarket ink you used? While one ink may be used in more than one printer model, ink is not universal. Your clogged issue may be due to a different solute content, suspension of the solute in solution, or size of the pigment particles in the aftermarket ink used. Look for 3rd party ink designed for your printer.

 

[Artur5]

Thanks a lot for your feedback @stratman

Yes, different papers may behave different. but the one I’ve been using for years never made trouble with my Pixmas. I reckon that regular top feed is easier for the printer than bottom feed from a drawer.
On my Brother laser I soon found out that keeping the paper totally dry is paramount. If the paper has been exposed to ambient humidity only a couple of days, the sheets become soft and curled after printing the first side and you’ll end up with double feed or jams when trying to print the reverse side.
As you suggest, the problem can be fixed keeping the blank paper dry. I keep it inside hermetic plastic bags with zip along with several small bags of silica gel, Since I’m doing that, not the slightest trouble anymore.
Maxify’s issue is different. It doesn’t matter if the paper is perfectly dry because it’s the not-totally dry ink that makes trouble. I tried another brand of paper (that Navigator widely publicized in Amazon) and it made no difference, even if it’s smoother than the one I’m using regularly. Leaving the ink to dry overnight after printing the first side helps considerably but, why bother if printing on DIN A4 and cutting the paper afterwards solves the issue ?.

Concerning the clog problem, in this particular case, I believe that it’s not because of poor quality but of bad interaction with the remaining Canon OEM ink inside the cart, That was totally my fault. Of course, if the problem arises again then it might well be the ink.
If you want to know, this third party ink is from Arici ( the German manufacturer that @Ink stained Fingers doesn’t appreciate much ). They sell it specifically for the PGI-1500/2500XL cartridges.To my surprise, it’s three times more expensive than their pigmented black for Canon PGI-5 carts, which I’ve been using for years without clogs.

My first intention was to buy Octopus ink but I found, to my dismay, that they ship by UPS, This is a deal breaker for me. Don’t get me started, let’s say only that they refuse to deliver at home, So I decided to revert to my former supplier. I didn’t save a penny; on the contrary, Arici’s PGI-2500X ink is more expensive than Octopus’ and shipping it’s also a bit more but I least I got the parcel delivered at home in less than a week. UPS would have delivered it to a pick-up center several miles away with the false pretence that ‘customer wasn’t at home’. After three times in a row that they did likewise, I decided to forget about them. Over here there’s a joke about being more difficult to see the UPS truck in town than to find an honest politician.

 

[stratman]

Maxify’s issue is different. It doesn’t matter if the paper is perfectly dry because it’s the not-totally dry ink that makes trouble. I tried another brand of paper (that Navigator widely publicized in Amazon) and it made no difference, even if it’s smoother than the one I’m using regularly. Leaving the ink to dry overnight after printing the first side helps considerably but, why bother if printing on DIN A4 and cutting the paper afterwards solves the issue ?

I asked you what the specific paper you have issues with for a reason, not only for others to see what may be an issue but also to determine if there is a better choice. Now you have two papers I am asking you to document for us as problematic.

Additionally, Is the tacky ink issue with OEM Canon ink, Aftermarket ink, or both?

his third party ink is from Arici ( the German manufacturer that @Ink stained Fingers doesn’t appreciate much ). They sell it specifically for the PGI-1500/2500XL cartridges.

Thanks for the info. It appears to be an ink specifically sold (and maybe designed) for the Maxify.

My first intention was to buy Octopus ink

Makes me wonder if the same issues would occur with a different aftermarket ink. Maybe someone in your general part of the world (?) with a Maxify can recommend a different ink set.

Over here there’s a joke about being more difficult to see the UPS truck in town than to find an honest politician.

We have the exact opposite issue - no joke - here in the States. UPS is great in my area. As for an honest politician.... aren't those called unicorns?