New technique to clean BCI-6 carts

[Tin Ho]

This is a phenomemon if you use hard water to clean the cartridges IMO. If you use tap water (who doesn't) you need to use ditilled water to clean them from any minerals. And if your water is very hard this becomes a problem.

Great info. I seem to have experienced a similar problem on a purged and completely dried CLI-8 ink cartridge. Never suspected that it is the water problem. Yes, my tap water is pretty hard evidenced by numerous problems on my hot water plumbing system.

 

[lin]

What is the ink you are using? Maybe the ink is the problem. Try to wet the sponge with water. The sponge does not need to be totally dry before being refilled.

I am trying out refill ink. My first time trying refill ink. I am sorry Canon, I couldn't continue with canon original ink all the time as they are 'sucking out my blood' (too expensive). Probably for printing that I need very good quality, I may continue to use original. But for normal day to day printing, something that I may need for short term ..... or not needing it for quality color/ print, I am exploring to use refill ink.


Hi Smile, fotofreek, Tin Ho,

Yes, I used the tap water to wash these cartridges.

I think I got carried away with the drying of the Black PG5BK & CLI-8BK cartridges (all OEM). I washed the 2 black cartridges few days before washing the rest of the colored cartridges (CLI-8C,M,Y). As I want to refill all of the cartridges at one go, so the Black PG5BK & CLI-8BK actually end up having more days to dry. And since it was my first time trying to purge the cartridge, I was more conscientious in 'vaccum' out water for these 2 black cartridges in hope to minimize diluting the inks. By the time I got to washing the colored cartridges a few days later, I was a bit tired and not so 'hardworking' in dry out the water. So the sponges for the colored ones were absorbing the inks well.

Since I had already refilled the black ones, it's not feasible to re-do the washing with distilled water. The refill ink would have gone to a waste in such a case.

Do you think that by leaving a few more days, the inks will start to saturate a bit more inside the sponges?

Currently, this is the way how my two sponges look like (sorry I don't have camera to capture the actual picture of the 2 cartridges as my camera has been borrowed and hasn't been returned yet). It's been 2 days and the inks have not budge much.

 

[Smile]

What is the ink you are using? Maybe the ink is the problem. Try to wet the sponge with water. The sponge does not need to be totally dry before being refilled.

I am trying out refill ink. My first time trying refill ink. I am sorry Canon, I couldn't continue with canon original ink all the time as they are 'sucking out my blood' (too expensive). Probably for printing that I need very good quality, I may continue to use original. But for normal day to day printing, something that I may need for short term ..... or not needing it for quality color/ print, I am exploring to use refill ink.


Hi Smile, fotofreek, Tin Ho,

Yes, I used the tap water to wash these cartridges.

I think I got carried away with the drying of the Black PG5BK & CLI-8BK cartridges (all OEM). I washed the 2 black cartridges few days before washing the rest of the colored cartridges (CLI-8C,M,Y). As I want to refill all of the cartridges at one go, so the Black PG5BK & CLI-8BK actually end up having more days to dry. And since it was my first time trying to purge the cartridge, I was more conscientious in 'vaccum' out water for these 2 black cartridges in hope to minimize diluting the inks. By the time I got to washing the colored cartridges a few days later, I was a bit tired and not so 'hardworking' in dry out the water. So the sponges for the colored ones were absorbing the inks well.

Since I had already refilled the black ones, it's not feasible to re-do the washing with distilled water. The refill ink would have gone to a waste in such a case.

Do you think that by leaving a few more days, the inks will start to saturate a bit more inside the sponges?

Currently, this is the way how my two sponges look like (sorry I don't have camera to capture the actual picture of the 2 cartridges as my camera has been borrowed and hasn't been returned yet). It's been 2 days and the inks have not budge much.

http://hotimg15.fotki.com/a/165_21/154_100/spongeink-vi.gif

Well, it is hard to say. As with any patient there are individual cases that place them in different position than all others.
Your cartridges can restore to normal if you fill them a few times to restore the pH level.

Now as far as I know Dye ink use high ph like 10, and pigment use low ph like 5, neutral water is 7. You can measure the actual pH using a special meter that I do not have. It would be nice if someone did that and posted the results

If the problem is the minerals in your sponge I doubt that the situation can improve, you need to wash your carts in distilled water to dissolve the minerals and restore neutral pH balance. Remember tiny Dye ink nozzles can print because ink pH is 10 and not like hard water besides for same reason ammonia can clean even clogged head it's pH is about 10.000

 

[dougsewell]

Talking of blowing through the exit hole by mouth to clear excess water reminded me of when I performed this "trick" just before going shopping in the nearby town. I wondered why I got plenty of stares and it was not until I got back home that I noticed a red stain all around my mouth. What must folks have thought. The moral of this story is to check in the mirror after such "hole blowing" before appearing in public.

Doug

 

[Nifty]

Doug, that's a fantastic story!!!

 

[stratman]

Yes, a hole blowing story.

Thankfully it was not brown ink.

;-)

 

[mrelmo]

depending on which refill method you use, instead of blowing through the exit port, cover the exit port and blow through the vent maze on top, you can do that if there is an opening in the reservior side of the cartridge as i have gone back to filling through the manufacter's hole where the ball is, this forces any water into the reservior area. when i have forced air through the vent maze i used a syringe to pull the water out of the reservior where i took out 4ml of water. i did not think that there was that much water in the sponges. then to further dry the cartridge i placed a wet dry vac over the fill hole (still covering the exit port) and let the vacumn do it's thing for several minutes. by covering the exit port you are forcing a complete path from the top of the sponges to the reservior, other wise you would bypass better than half of the sponge as air would only go from the exit port to the reservior area. this is only my 3 cents which is a little better than 2 cents

 

[Nifty]

I thought I'd give this great thread a one year bump to the top of the forum.

I just purged two Canon carts using this method. I just happened to have a universal shower wand handle / tube contraption where the tube was the exact perfect size! I was going to go to the hardware store to find the conversion sink fittings for my garage utility sink and then I realized I was half way there because my utility sink faucet already has threads for a garden hose connection. As I was about to leave to the store to get the rest of the bits / reducers I thought I'd dig through an old bin of fittings I got from my dad... and lo & behold, I had a fitting that went from a standard male garden hose to a reduced fitting that was perfect for my shower wand hose. I'll say this, when I just happen to have everything on hand lying around for a project, it sure doesn't help reduce my hoarding tendencies at all!

During my purging, I made the fatal mistake of not wearing gloves. I'm not sure if other people have the same results that I did, but BOY what a mess. My hands are still terribly stained. So, I encourage all to wear gloves when purging / cleaning their carts this way!!!

Well, looking at how sparkly clean these Canon carts and sponges are (you'd almost never know what color ink was in them originally) I started to wonder: "Does anybody ever purge, clean, and refill their carts with different color inks?"

I mean, if you happen to need a new cart and don't have the right color, but have a squeaky clean cart from a different color, I doubt this would be an issue. Of course you'd not want to mix pigment with non-pigment carts, but I'd think there would be no problems with mixing non-pigment cart colors, right?

What do you masters think?

 

[Grandad35]

The only reason I try to keep OEM carts on the original color is because the label on the top is practically indestructible and provides a good way to identify which ink is in the cart. When I have to switch colors, I remove the color identifier from the label. Other than that, there is no reason not to switch colors.

Obviously, you can't switch colors on chipped carts.

 

[Subarub4]

I'm late but how do you vacuum the carts out?