Thoughts on the Canon iP7250?

[Lumi]

Hmmm.... seems like some carts were dry after one paper towel, others have managed to moisten the second paper towel as well, but not by much.

Another thing I've noticed --- some carts had a rather large droplet of water in the ink reservoir chamber. I couldn't get it into the foam so I turned the cart upside down and tapped it against the table to disperse the droplet into smaller droplets, and hopefully that will evaporate quicker. I estimate it was about 0.2-0.5ml worth of water, so I am hesitant to "dilute" my ink with that much water. I want the cart to be visibly dry; I am willing to deal with the "invisible moisture" in the foam but not with the visible droplets in the chamber. Is there any way to speed up the evaporation process? I'm thinking of putting it in a large sealed container with a moisture-absorber product.

 

[The Hat]

some carts had a rather large droplet of water in the ink reservoir chamber. I couldn't get it into the foam so I turned the cart upside down and tapped it against the table to disperse the droplet into smaller droplets, and hopefully that will evaporate quicker. I estimate it was about 0.2-0.5ml worth of water, so I am hesitant to "dilute" my ink with that much water. .

Just add one drop of alcohol into the reservoir and your water droplet is gone, and no it wont dilute you ink colour.

 

[Lumi]

Finally refilled the carts tonight! The cyan cart still had a bit of moisture on the reservoir chamber but I decided to go on.

Firstly, I must say I really like the soft plastic bottles! Very easy to refill the carts! I thought I would have to resort to my syringes but after the first refill, I never bothered! I may do so again later on just to track my ink usage though.

While refilling, I followed Milking's advice about filling halfway, letting it absorb into the sponge, then covering the air vent and refilling all the way and only releasing the air vent once the reservoir hole has been sealed. I'm not sure if this is the normal result though:

I also noticed that the rate of absorption is different, very different. Some needed to sit for about 3-5 minutes before that half-full chamber was empty, others seemed to soak it up almost as fast as I could push the ink out of the bottle! Also, the way the sponges absorbed the ink....

Spider-webby pattern for the cyan cart, soak-through for the yellow, and spotty on the magenta:

The green cart worried me as it soaked up the ink quite fast, and after refilling, the sponge looks over-saturated, but removing the cart from the clip and I didn't have any drips so I guess the seal is good. Of all my carts, this one just looks wet. The red cart is what I expected the carts to look like:

The top foam on the black cart looks spotty as well:

I guess considering all the other carts, these photo-cyan and photo-magenta carts look alright:

I wonder if I should let these carts sit overnight? Or maybe in a different position (ie, vertical, with the ink reservoir on top)? I also noticed that the sponge on the exit port would have white patches in it, meaning it was not saturated with ink. On a few carts, I tried blowing on the air maze vent and that forced a bit of the ink into the port and saturated the foam, but I'm hesitant to do this because of all the concern about pressure equilibrium in both the sponge chamber and the reservoir. Maybe if I install the carts and do a few head cleaning runs, it'll "prime" the sponge properly?

 

[Lumi]

I've not loaded the carts to the printer yet.

With my green cart, whenever I take it off the clip, I notice a small blob of ink on the white silicon plug. I wipe it off, a few hours later when I recheck, there's some ink on the plug again. Does this mean my seal isn't too good? Or have I overfilled the cart?

 

[Tudor]

Don't worry about that. Sometimes the silicone disc is not seated properly in the clip and it touches the sponge from the exit port. Or maybe you squeeze the cart when you take it out of the clip... Let the cartridge sit for a couple of minutes with no clip on and, if it does not drip, it's ok.

 

[Lumi]

Nope, it doesn't drip when the clip isn't on. Thanks!