My MAXIFY 5350 is on refill ink

[Artur5]

That sounds like a Canon advertising slogan.

 

[stratman]

I don't think there are others.

I suppose you are correct depending on your perspective. The forum has reported two historically different types of ARC chip function for Canon printers. Or, is there only one type available specifically for the Maxify as far as you know?

When you top all carts at once, some will contain more ink than the chip indicates and the sensor in the printhead never will have to raise the red flag.

This happens? You never experience a red flag because you top off your Maxify cartridge?

 

[The Hat]

This happens? You never experience a red flag because you top off your Maxify cartridge?

I top off and have received the red X on my magenta cart, at the time the cart was half full..

 

[stratman]

I top off and have received the red X on my magenta cart

As I would anticipate.

You only mentioned the Magenta cartridge. Does that mean that the other cartridges have not thrown up a red X because you top off or because they have not reached the threshold in the counter to trigger a red X?

Why would Canon make a two tiered ink level monitoring system after they got rid of that years ago with the deletion of the light sensor in cartridges for consumer printers?

What is the reason to invest the $$$ for additional R&D, parts, machinery and labor costs?

 

[The Hat]

You only mentioned the Magenta cartridge. or because they have not reached the threshold in the counter to trigger a red X?

Yes only the magenta so far has gone to empty, none of the other carts have reached that point yet where the printer has declared them empty, and when the red X appears it’s only a matter of removing the cart, reinserting again and the chip goes back to registering full again.. I have no issues with these Octopus chips..

P.S. I may have under filled the magenta..

 

[palombian]

Yes only the magenta so far has gone to empty, none of the other carts have reached that point yet where the printer has declared them empty, and when the red X appears it’s only a matter of removing the cart, reinserting again and the chip goes back to registering full again.. I have no issues with these Octopus chips..

P.S. I may have under filled the magenta..

Did you weigh it ?

 

[The Hat]

Did you weigh it ?

Most likely not, laziness was much easier..

 

[Artur5]

One of my PGI-2500XL black carts died to practical effects. I discovered that after opening the case where I keep my set of spare carts. Intending to replace the cyan cart, I saw that there was ink in the compartment of the black and also on the cart itself. Not a massive leak, but if I squeezed the sides for a few seconds, a droplet of ink started to drip from the bottom.
After that I recalled that the last time I removed this cart from the Maxify when it was declared empty, it was stained with ink at one side, I didn’t give it importance then but now I realize that the leak hasn’t appeared suddenly while the cart was stored in the case.
In short, as the cart was full, I recovered the ink and removed the chip for spares. Then I decided to perform a 'postmortem' on the corpse.

After much soaking in water needed to remove the rests of ink inside, opening it was simple. Just cutting around the whitish cover to remove it from the main body of the cart.
No apparent holes in the bag, but probably the leak came from a tiny overture in the seam between the plastic film and the black frame where it’s glued.

Those Maxify are sturdy things with a very clever and intricate design for the flow of ink and pressure compensations, but this has been discussed already during this long thread, so let’s pass.
The weak spot of those carts seems to be the bag, made probably from mylar film. You can tear it easily with your fingers. no need for scissors, It’s very easy as well to pull it free from the edges of the black frame. Clearly a design for single use. Of course we can’t blame Canon for that, they don’t intend (or want..) that people refills the carts time and time again.

Needless to say that, from now on, I’ll refill these PGI-2500XL carts with the utmost care. The plunge of the syringe will be pushed very, very gently, I don’t want to stress that delicate bag.

BTW this was the OEM cart from my first Maxify MB5150, purchased in March 2019. It has lasted almost three years. I don’t know exactly how many times it has been refilled, probably no more than 7 or 8.

 

[Redbrickman]

@Artur5 Very interesting to see it dissected. I try to fill as gently as possible but now see that the bag is quite a flimsy affair, so maybe time to look for more OEM spares

 

[The Hat]

One of my PGI-2500XL black carts died to practical effects. I discovered that after opening the case where I keep my set of spare carts. Intending to replace the cyan cart,

I was doing a print today on my Maxify and I was getting no magenta in the image, so after many a try, the OEM cart just won’t maintain a continual output, a couple of cleaning cycles and its back, but two prints later and the magenta is gone again.

So I decide it wasn’t worth the effort to keep fiddling with the cart, and decided to purchase a new one, the cart was still half full.. so it seems that these OEM carts are prone to failure, it’s only been filled twice..

P.S. when I get the new cart, I’ll do a post mortem on this one and try and see what the issue was, I will do it while the cart still has ink in it.. Messy...