My MAXIFY 5350 is on refill ink

[PeterBJ]

According to the first line Canon does not give the illusion it can be used to refill existing Maxify cartridges .

We have to take @PeterBJ 's suggestion about tricks into account.

I think the warning: "Do not mix with other Canon ink types" suggests just that.

 

[The Hat]

Any suggestions welcome.

Now that you’ve gone to the expense of getting OEM, I wouldn’t waste this opportunity of getting the refilling correct and having clog and trouble free printing.

Just empty your cyan cart of the existing ink then rinse with water, then with W5 cleaner, and finish off the last rinse with a little alcohol.

The chances of you experiencing Yello Gello with this rinsing method will be minimised to zero, beside Yello Gello is not a fatal condition and is easy reversible by switching back to OEM ink for a short while.

I’m with you on this one @palombian, because I intend switching to these 56 inks too with my Maxify, starting with the large black cart.. But I’ll let you plough the road first this time..

 

[stratman]

I think the warning: "Do not mix with other Canon ink types" suggests just that.

Has ChromaLife ink (without the +) ever been implicated in a Yello Gello scenario?

Do the ChromaLife+ CLI-251 inks experience Yellow Gello like the CLI-42 Yellow does?

 

[PeterBJ]

Has ChromaLife ink (without the +) ever been implicated in a Yello Gello scenario?

No, the ChromaLife ink (without the +) was used in the CLI-8 cartridges. There was never a "Yello Gello" problem with these cartridges. But maybe the yellow ink in the GI-23 dye ink set is replaced with a later version that causes the gelling problem? I intend to test the C-M-Y-K from the GI-23 ink set when they become available, but not in my best printer.

Do the ChromaLife+ CLI-251 inks experience Yellow Gello like the CLI-42 Yellow does?

According to @mikling it does. See this.

 

[stratman]

According to @mikling it does. See this.

Have you seen anyone other than mikling report experiencing the issue with the CLI-251 ink? If this is a class effect then I would expect a number of reports.

I would assume that the ChromaLife+ inks perform as a class, including the specter of Yello Gello, but I find the lack of data for the CLI-251 inks concerning "Gello", other than mikling's post, to be very interesting.

Explanations for this lack of real world user data means either no one refilled the 251, every refiller cleaned their cartridges before getting the Gello reaction, no one reported their Gello issues, or there is not a class effect of ChromaLife+ inks.

I looked on @websnail 's Octoinkjet and there is zero warning about CLI-25x ink but there is a caution about the CLI-42 ink:

Key Information:​

• OctoInkjet inks do not cause an adverse reaction to the original ink in Canon CLI-42Y (Yellow) or any other CLI-42 cartridge.
• CLI-42Y (Yellow) cartridges should NOT be flushed as water will react and eventually cause clogging.

Description of Problem:​

The Canon original CLI-42 yellow ink appears to combine poorly with a specific third party ink supplied by Precision Colors, in a way that forms a gel like substance capable of blocking the inlets for the printhead and causing a clog and damage to the printhead.

https://www.octoink.co.uk/kb/questions/186/CLI-42Y+(Yellow)+Cartridge+-+Special+Considerations

Odd that websnail would not know of issues with the CLI-25x inks and only knows about CLI-42 ink issues.

Maybe there is not a class effect with ChromaLife+ inks.

 

[The Hat]

Maybe there is not a class effect with ChromaLife+ inks.

Whether the ChromaLife+ ink causes a reaction is not the issue here, because there has never been any reports of pigment ink ever causing Yello Gello, so we’re relatively safe, but in saying that it’s never a good idea to mix two different pigment inks together without testing first.. Measure twice..

 

[palombian]

Now that you’ve gone to the expense of getting OEM, I wouldn’t waste this opportunity of getting the refilling correct and having clog and trouble free printing.

Just empty your cyan cart of the existing ink then rinse with water, then with W5 cleaner, and finish off the last rinse with a little alcohol.

The chances of you experiencing Yello Gello with this rinsing method will be minimised to zero, beside Yello Gello is not a fatal condition and is easy reversible by switching back to OEM ink for a short while.

I’m with you on this one @palombian, because I intend switching to these 56 inks too with my Maxify, starting with the large black cart.. But I’ll let you plough the road first this time..

I was thinking about this method too, but since @Artur5 revealed there is about 2ml ink in every channel of the printhead, my idea was to fill the Chinese refillable carts with alcohol and use as cleaning carts.

I will start by mixing a few drops with water, alcohol, and different kinds of inks to see if there is coagulation.

 

[Redbrickman]

Just found out about these GI56 carts - look reasonably well priced. Seems the colours are 70ml and Black 170ml according to product pages, example - one for you @The Hat

https://www.inkplus.ie/search.php?c=qsprt&t=1&w=2000&q=GI56

Perhaps there are two sets for different sized tanks? in the similar way the 5100 series have 1500 and 2500 carts. The most logical answer though is that some stores have no clue when doing the product description

 

[The Hat]

but since @Artur5 revealed there is about 2ml ink in every channel of the printhead

I don’t reckon you need to worry about the remaining ink in the print head, because when you change the cart the printer will run a substantial cleaning cycles anyway..

 

[Artur5]

I don’t reckon you need to worry about the remaining ink in the print head, because when you change the cart the printer will run a substantial cleaning cycles anyway..

Usual cleaning cycles suck about 0.3-0.4ml per color on Pixma printers. (according to Canon's service manuals )
That's enough to clean any residue of the former ink inside non-Maxify printehads.
I don't know if Maxify cleaning cycles waste as much as 2 ml when the user replaces the cart. It seems a huge amount of ink to go into the waste ink pads for no reason at all, because Canon expects that people uses only OEM inks (ahem..). In this ideal condition, no problem if the remaning ink inside the printhead mixes with ink flowing from the new OEM cart.
Of course, bad boys and girls refilling with third party ink, are not taken into consideration in this equation, so if something nasty happens when OEM and non-OEM inks mix, this is our problem. .

Concerning Maxify’s cartridge-printhead system there’s a positive factor, if compared to most Pixmas, because it doesn’t have any kind of sponge, so much less chance of ‘yello-gello’ clogs. The possible issue could happen only on the surface of the mesh filter located at the bottom of the inkflow control chamber. Those filters are of the same kind used at the entry ports of most Canon printheads, only the shape is different.
Of course it’s possible to clog the mesh filter if mixing different inks produces a sort of thick gel that blocks significantly the inkflow, That seems unlikely but I wonder.. the first brand of compatible ink that I used on my Maxify was terrible with recurring clogs.