Refill without a resetter

[Flying Scotsman]

Can someone please tell me if you can refill cartridges for the canon 9500 without buying a resetter.
What are the pros and cons of this if it can be done.

Thanks

 

[palombian]

I have a resetter but since the printer does a purge of all cartridges (or at least half of them according to the manual) there is a loss of 5-10 ml of ink even if you change one cart.
Therefore I top up (and reset) all 10 colors when one is empty.
With a scale, a full cart is 31,5 g.

You could do the same without reset after a number of pages/time, or when you see missing colors .
The PRO-9500 uses significantly more ink for purging than the 9500 MkII, unless you print very regularly it costs more standing still than printing.

Since a new printhead will cost you € 138, you better invest in a resetter at € 60.
A cheaper solution could be the resetter for CLI-8/PGI-5 (€ 15, and modification of the body) wich will reset 8 of the 10 colors (and buy auto reset chips for the PBK and GY).

Even with 3th party ink the printer has a certain cost to run, you have to stock 10 inks, a refill will cost you € 20-25, good to print 50-70 A4 or 25-35 A3 photo's in high quality (in a short time).

But it is (still) a very good photo printer.
New printheads are available, and when the pads are full you can reset the counter and guide the purge tube to an external printer potty.
Unlimited lifetime.

Enjoy !

 

[stratman]

Can someone please tell me if you can refill cartridges for the canon 9500 without buying a resetter.

Yes. Refilling is completely independent of chip resetting, though the best practice is to do both. (see Pros and Cons)

Eventually the cartridge will be marked empty by the printer and the printer will advise you to replace with a new cartridge or no further printing will be allowed. At this point instructions will pop up on your monitor about disabling ink level monitoring. You will have to press and hold a button to override (disable) ink level monitoring. Putting in a new or reset chipped cartridge will return ink level monitoring functioning.

Pros:
- Do not spend money on a chip resetter
- Thrill of living life on the edge of burning out your print head

Cons:
- Thrill of living life on the edge of burning out your print head
- Frequent manual checking of ink levels in cartridges which could lead to more waste ink if you take the cartridges out to examine them (maintenance ink purges whenever you remove and return a cartridge)
- Spending even more money on a new print head than a chip resetter

 

[palombian]

Believe it or not, I once bought a PRO 9500 II from a couple who purchased a € 60 resetter with the idea to squeeze the last drop of ink out of the OEM cartridges.
I didn't mention they could refill .

I observed that the empty OEM carts I received (plentyfull) only weighted 16.5-17.5g, the full announced 14ml was printed out.
My resetted cartridges can signal empty with 22g.

Not a big deal, but apparently the resetter does not exactly the same.

 

[PeterBJ]

Was the print head still good? To me that idea sounds like playing Russian Roulette with the print head.

 

[The Hat]

If your refilling your cartridges, it makes no sense to try and drain them, you don’t save any ink that way, for instance if you refill a cart that’s drained (empty) then you’ll use up 16 ml of ink to refill it, and if you do the same with a cart marked as low ink, that cart only needs 10 ml, so where is the saving ?

If on the other hand you play the dangerous game of overriding the ink monitoring to save on the price of a redsetter (€49), you could very easily end up forking out for a new print head (€100+) on a very regular basics.

The Pro 9500 is one of the great Canon printers, but its only as good as your last print head...

 

[stratman]

If your refilling your cartridges, it makes no sense to try and drain them, you don’t save any ink that way,

Et tu, Brute?

Removing a cartridge and then reinserting it or another functional cartridge will trigger a purge of ink, presumably to prime the "new" cartridge and print head nozzles and facilitate proper ink flow.

Refilling earlier than the cartridge is marked as "Empty" results in more maintenance ink purges. That is a loss of ink.

That said, there is a reason Mikling recommended refilling early - before there is a loss of ink in the sponge side causing drying of residual ink in the sponge - to prevent poor ink flow and potential ink starvation.

The issue then becomes one of a trade-off for the greater good. A little ink wastage now may prevent an irreparable print head later, so the forum consensus goes.

 

[The Hat]

There’s no sponge in the Pro 9500 carts, so running to empty has no ill effect on them, and the only time you’ll get a purge is when a cart that shows low is replaced with a full reset one, plus if the ink monitoring has been disabled then every time you raise the front cover, it triggers the 5 ml waste purge.
It’s like waste ink heaven...

 

[palombian]

Was the print head still good? To me that idea sounds like playing Russian Roulette with the print head.

Yes, but the head did not survive the shipping to Ireland, that's another story .

I never understood what they were doing, as already mentioned the eventual saving would be drained away in the purge after inserting the carts.

.. plus if the ink monitoring has been disabled then every time you raise the front cover, it triggers the 5 ml waste purge...

Didn't know that, do all Canon printers do it ?

From my experience I have to refill 10 ml in the most empty (resetted) carts when the first shows empty, others need maybe 6 or 7 ml.
So you loose that 5 ml purge ink every 70-80 ml, not every full load of 140 ml.
Not a real problem since ink is not too expensive (you loose more changing OEM carts one by one), and the waste counter can be reset when full and a printer potty added.

The carts are not very big (14ml), but compared to a 9 ml dye carts, where you should refill - with the Durchstich method - when the ink chamber of 5 ml is empty, you can print a lot.
I use my 9500 II not every day, even not every week or month from time to time, but the ink consumption is very reasonable.
Together with my office printing with the MX7600 I used about 1.5 l ink a year, that's € 1000 at Canon prices, I don't think I pay as much for my refill ink.

 

[stratman]

the only time you’ll get a purge is when a cart that shows low is replaced with a full reset one

Does this mean there is no ink purge if you reset and reinstall a cartridge before it is marked Low?

Is there a purge of any kind if you only take out a cartridge, do nothing to it, and then reinstall the same cartridge back into the print head triggered either by the print head move to center and then back to park or from the cartridge removal itself?

FYI - In my MP830 Service Manual it states there is an ink purge if power is turned off before the print head is in the parked position.

There’s no sponge in the Pro 9500 carts

Ahh. Good to know. Thanks.