The rocket science needed to clean sponge of refillable CLI-220

[fotofreek]

You've got it right. The air displaced has to have an outlet when refilling, and air has to come itno the cart when printing to replace ink used in the printing process. The maze is covered, I would guess, to slow evaporation in the sponge area. I have refilled empty aftermarket bci-6 carts (high quality from MIS) that had an air vent over the sponge but did not have a maze or cover. Worked just fine.

 

[ThrillaMozilla]

ThrillaMozilla,

I believe that the HP vent is irrelevant to this discussion. The "vent hole complex" above the foam/sponge of the Canon cart ain't just to retard evaporation. Ain't ... ain't ... ain't ...

I don't know what the Canon engineers had in mind, but I've never seen an explanation I believed. The HP cartridges are virtually identical in other respects, but they simplified the vent, to a configuration that does make sense to me.

 

[ghwellsjr]

ThrillaMozilla,

I believe that the HP vent is irrelevant to this discussion. The "vent hole complex" above the foam/sponge of the Canon cart ain't just to retard evaporation. Ain't ... ain't ... ain't ...

I don't know what the Canon engineers had in mind, but I've never seen an explanation I believed. The HP cartridges are virtually identical in other respects, but they simplified the vent, to a configuration that does make sense to me.

You don't believe the explanations you linked to at the end of this thread? Why not?

 

[ThrillaMozilla]

You don't believe the explanations you linked to at the end of this thread? Why not?

I don't understand what the hemispheres or the air space above the sponge are for, since HP manages quite well without either. I suppose they are there to catch ink that's blown out by expansion of air in the ink chamber, but that doesn't seem like a good solution, because you don't know what orientation they're going to be in until they're installed.

 

[ghwellsjr]

If you're talking about the air space between the top of the sponge and the top of the cartridge, I suppose it's just to allow the air to get exposed to the entire upper surface of the sponge.

If by hemispheres you mean what I call the "wells", didn't you like my explanation?

I have never seen the inside of an HP cartridge, but I don't understand why what they do has any bearing on what Canon does and I don't understand your explanation having to do with the orientation of the cartridge prior to being installed in a printer.

 

[ThrillaMozilla]

If you're talking about the air space between the top of the sponge and the top of the cartridge, I suppose it's just to allow the air to get exposed to the entire upper surface of the sponge.

Not needed. Sponges aren't air-tight. Even if they were, 0.1 mm would be more than sufficient, but this looks more like 1 cm.

If by hemispheres you mean what I call the "wells", didn't you like my explanation?

I don't remember your explanation? Was it to "allow for expansion"? If so, no, I didn't like it. There are other, much larger spaces.

I have never seen the inside of an HP cartridge, but I don't understand why what they do has any bearing on what Canon does

HP cartridges are otherwise virtually identical.

...and I don't understand your explanation having to do with the orientation of the cartridge prior to being installed in a printer.

Well, what's it supposed to catch, if not ink? The wrong orientation means it probably won't catch ink, so it's lousy for that. And you certain don't need it to hold air, since it's at atmospheric pressure anyway. And you don't prevent drying by creating large spaces. So it's unneeded for any kind of pressure or moisture regulation.

 

[Geklingel]

Well I'm back. Sorry I haven't responded sooner but as some of you know golf IS more important than just about everything except the wife!
The cart I was referring to was the PGI-220 the Pigment black cartridge
I have been refilling with Hobbicolor ink
All these posts have good info in them. I want to thank all of you who took the time to help me with my dilemma I will give the solutions in stratman,s post a try. But if worse comes to worse I can buy new empty carts for $8 plus shipping.

My experience with PC printers only goes back 14 years although I have been involved with computers since the days of magnetic drum memory IBM 650 in 1957. My 1st printer was hp722C and I refilled the carts on that printer. Had been using it as a b&w printer for some time when it began to have problems and I needed an AIO printer so I looked for the printer that was easiest to refill and decided on a Brother MFC-290C.
Then I got involved with a non-profit Organization and began doing a lot of printing for them.(they pay for paper I pay for the ink.). I wanted a duplex printer that I could refill easily, and was cheap so I got the IP4700 The HP passed away only recently. The print quality for the Canon is better than the Brother but when this one dies I will not buy another Canon. All this thing wants to do is clean the cartridges! My MFC-290 is barely 2 years old, I recently had a clogged print head and even though I told Brothers that I was not using their ink they replaced the print head free of charge. That printer had over 40,000 pages on the counter when they replaced the head in March. I have since purchased another Brother printer AIO (because thats all they make in an inkjet) ($67) and it is sitting in the box unopened, waiting for its chance to go to work.

If I had pitched the MFC-290 when the print head clogged I would have gotten my moneys worth out of it as it was a mere $99.
I can buy a set of refillable cartridges to replace the four LC-61 cartridges for $8.88
Ink costs me $3 per 100ml bottle. The nice thing about it is you dont have to babysit it while it is printing like you do the Canon printer. When it runs out of ink it stops. Refilling the cartridges is as simple as remove the cartridge, pull out the plug, put in the ink, replace the plug, reinstall the cartridge and press start. And the cartridges hold 4 5 times the amount of ink in the Canon cartridges. If you are not real choosey about print quality I would highly recommend the Brother inkjet printers.

Again, I would like to thank you for all your input. This is a great place to get printer questions answered.

 

[inkadinkado]

Stratman:

Thank you for reposting this. However, now that I've flushed and dried about 12 OEM virgin carts with about 18 to go would you recommend that I use this sponge revival recipe of pharmacists on the 12 that I've already cleaned (and on the remaining 18 as well)?
Do you do this?
What is your method of getting the sponge to accept inks after becoming completely dry from flushing and drying/wicking the carts?

It seems I've gone from being extremely concerned about an overfilled sponge and the horrors that can cause, to being just as concerned with a dry one that will starve the print head of needed ink moisture and ruin the print head as well. This must be what an overdose of estrogen feels like on a minute to minute basis. No thank you.

Thanks in advance for your help.

 

[websnail]

Hi Sue,

Martin here... If I'm right, you have only just completed the flushing/drying process so there's really nothing too horrendous to worry about. Simplest solution now is to start refilling them with ink, taking care not to overfill, as previously discussed.

I wouldn't refill them all in one go right now... just start with a small batch, learn the ropes and review progress here as required.

 

[inkadinkado]

Thanks Martin. I will definitely take your advice and not refill all of them at once.

I may have never even needed the 30 carts from Ebay, but I wanted to learn how to flush, dry, refill etc. And, they were not very expensive, they seem to be in good shape, and I figured it never hurts to have extra carts, right. I plan to flush/dry them all and store them in sets of six, rubberbanded, and in a zip loc bag.

Since I bought 2 of the MP990 refurbs giving me 12 usable OEM carts, what I will most likely end up doing is just replacing the carts in the installed machine with the carts still in the box from the other unit, and as I take the empty carts out of the machine just refill those and store them waiting for re-use later. This has all been very educational indeed, but with a bit more of a learning curve than anticipated. About the time I think I have mastered the refill concept enough to do systematic refills, I learn something new and often not anticipated.

You and the posters on this forum are so knowledgeable. It's been a kick learning about refilling from the inkjet masters here at nifty-stuff. Thanks to all.