To mix carts or flush original ink out?

[Redbrickman]

This started off as a question about the MP640 but applies to the Pro 9000 I own also.

I expect some of the tanks on my MP640 will show empty soon.

They are the OEM's supplied with the printer and I am set up to refill with Octoink.

I don't use it much for photo work as I have the Pro 9000 for that. I am wondering if I refill say the Cyan cart with Octoink will it throw all the colours off dramatically, or will they be close? Colour is not over critical as most output is newsletter or brohure type prints, or just plain text.


My Pro 900 although still on the OEM first carts will soon have one empty cart. The same question is in my mind for it, but this time I am more concerned as the output is photo prints only.

I'm not too thrilled about dumping the OEM ink in either printer if I can get by until all the carts are refilled with Octoink, but reading about the Red and Green in the 9000 that might be a long time

 

[ghwellsjr]

I never bother to flush empty OEM carts when I refill with Inktec inks (but then I'm color blind) but I've never had a complaint from the people I refill for.

 

[l_d_allan]

This refilling newbie wonders if "flush" is equivalent to "purge"?

It does seem that if you were fussy enough to make printer profiles for images that mattered, this would be an issue. It would be interesting to make profiles and compare numbers:

* All Canon from OEM inks (before any have gotten empty so it was a 'pure' Canon OEM ink situation)
* From carts that have been flushed/purged and refilled with non-oem ink (expect these to be different)
* From carts where a cart was refilled and not flushed/purged (very soon after swapping so the ink was mixed)
* From carts that weren't flushed/purged, but after a lot of printing has been done so there is a miniscule amount of oem-ink left

All my carts (about 25 due to ignorance that 2 sets is probably preferred) were never flushed/purged, and now have OCP ink in them. I'm considering flushing/purging, but that is perhaps "water under the bridge" as by now the OEM ink should be pretty much gone.

The refilling newbie wonders that "if I were doing it over again from scratch", whether I would have been better off to buy a complete set of empty Canon OEM carts from a vendor, refilled those, and purged the original Canon OEM carts as they became empty. Seems like you would want these to all the way to "Empty" rather than "Low" to get the sponge as empty as possible.

But of course it isn't that simple because the carts don't become empty at the same time. So far, I prefer to refill in batches, rather than one at a time as each becomes empty. Maybe "best practices" would be to have three complete sets (one original and two purchased empty).

I've never done flushing/purging, but it looks to be a potentially messy, time-consuming hassle. If I were going to do flush/purge, I think I would want to do a complete set at a time. But what about the Red and Green, which are used up so much more slowly? That could take a while.

 

[paulcroft]

Redbrickman

I currently have mixed inks in my Pro9000 MkII. The OEM inks still in use are black, red and green. The other 5 (C, PC, M, PM and Y) are all Octoinks which are Precision Colours ink iirc.

For accurate print colours the theory is that I should re-profile the printer. In practice I haven't. I profiled the printer when I first got it for the OEM inks and the non-Canon papers I use and then printed a reference photo to check. Everything was excellent. I printed the same reference photo the other night and I can't tell the difference between the two even after three days or so.

Once all the inks are Octoinks I'll probably make some more profiles but this tells me all I need to know - if you get your inks from a reputable source they're a surprisingly good match for the OEMs.

I never bothered to purge the OEM inks before refilling but I did wait until the printer told me the cartridges were empty, so there isn't a lot of mixed ink in the cartridges themselves.

HTH
Paul

 

[ghwellsjr]

Yes, I meant the same as purge when I said flush.

Of course, the best practice would be to purge a complete set of OEM cartridges and refill them with ink from the same vendor, no doubt about it.

But, my goal has always been to use bulk ink that is the best match to OEM so that I don't have to do that. I may be blissfully ignorant of my results since, as I said, I'm color blind, but I have never had any complaints from the many people I refill for.

 

[ThrillaMozilla]

But, my goal has always been to use bulk ink that is the best match to OEM

I've heard that InkTec matches colors well. Do you have any thoughts on fading by InkTec ink (especially for HP)? I've seen conflicting information about that.

 

[ghwellsjr]

Years ago, I selected Inktec based on this study of Canon refill inks but since it is no longer available in bulk, I am looking for another good supplier. I don't know about ink for other brands of printers.

 

[l_d_allan]

ghwellsjr,

If you print a lot, this printing newbie has been very satisfied with OCP. The North American distributor is located in Colorado Springs where I live. I've been to their facility several times. Note they aren't oriented to individual hobbyists, and don't offer "hand holding" or much of any training. Their customers seem to typically be mom-and-pop commercial refilling operations, who are assumed to know what they are doing.

Some people have a problem because the minimum quantity for all colors is 16oz (at least it was for my CLI-8 carts). But at $13-$15 or so per bottle, that seems like not such a bad problem to have.

I suppose if you are a professional selling prints, there would be a legitimate concern about unknown longevity. My impression from reading many of your great posts is that you refill for several other people in your area. Are you aware if any of them sell prints, and, if so, whether they take that into account? Just curious.

 

[ThrillaMozilla]

Years ago, I selected Inktec based on this study of Canon refill inks but since it is no longer available in bulk, I am looking for another good supplier.

Huh? Do you need larger than 1 liter bottles?
http://www.inktec-usa.com/catalogsearch/result/index/?p=5&q=Canon

I found conflicting data about fading, so I was interested in your experience, if you had anything to add. The post you mentioned is highly favorable; one other is highly unfavorable. I summarized the information here:
http://www.nifty-stuff.com/forum/post.php?tid=6273&qid=40925 (message 2).

 

[ghwellsjr]

Hey, thanks for pointing out the link for inktec-usa now has an order form. They are the ones I have purchased from in the past but they didn't have an order form on their website back then. I had to make a phone call and aside from the language barrier, it was very difficult to get them to take my order. The last time I tried over a year ago, I got nowhere. But this is a very welcome addition to their website. Now let's just hope they will actually take an order and deliver it.

Thanks again.