To Seal or Not - Air Vents On Refilled CLI-8 Cartridges In Storage

[Smile]

Oh and if you are paranoid then you can use a USB ozone ionizer with partially sealed bag prior to vacuuming it, then there will be germs of any kind left in the bag.

 

[Tudor]

Silica gel is a desiccant, it absorbs humidity. It is used when you want to keep something dry. If your cartridge is not perfectly sealed adding silica gel in its container will only help in evaporation of ink inside the cartridge.

I store my refilled cartridges with vent opened in this: http://www.curver.com/cur/products/grandchef/1407 . I had to drill a 1mm hole in the lid, because when you close it you get pressure inside the container and when you open it ink will sip through the vent. Maybe this could be avoided by just sealing the vent with hot glue or molding clay, but why go to all that trouble? I only store the cartridges for 1-4 weeks before using them and that 1mm hole is not enough for them to dry out.

I wonder how long do you plan on storing these refilled cartridges and why?

 

[ThrillaMozilla]

So I will have to seal the air vent using hot glue, and then use a silicon band to hold the clip, or buy one that does not need a rubber band.

Rubber bands are crap in that rubber deteriorate and this is even faster if there is ammonia present (like pharmacist's cleaning recipe) so I would avoid using rubber bands (they have very poor rubber, some even disintegrated into glue the last time I sealed them in airtight container).

So by making sure the cart is sealed as much as canon original, I would add a gram of silica gel to avoid problems and seal the outer bag. The seal must be a weld seal, not a zip lock, and there seems to be a need for aluminum (silver color) bags, as these do not let air in, the usual PE bags do let air in as stupid as it can sound.

Uh, where are you getting this stuff?

1. No hot glue necessary, and certainly not on the air vent (i.e., the maze), unless you are trying to ruin the cartridge.
2. Silicon band? What are you talking about? A plain rubber band is fine. I don't know where you could get something as exotic as a silicone band, but a silicon band is completely out of the question. Silicone is what they use for breast implants. Silicon is what runs your computer.
3. You'll never manage to get the cartridge sealed quite as much as Canon's, and it's pointless to try.
4. Silica gel is about the worst thing you could add.

You did get one thing kind of right. You could use a sealed aluminum foil bag if you want them to last three years in the Sahara. But for ordinary use, a ziplock bag is perfectly fine.

 

[fotofreek]

You did get one thing kind of right. You could use a sealed aluminum foil bag if you want them to last three years in the Sahara. But for ordinary use, a ziplock bag is perfectly fine.

---or place the refilled carts in a refrigerator food container with a tight, virtually airtight lid. Less plastic ziplock bags to go into the landfill.

 

[The Hat]

I am feeling quite out of this post completely because I found all of the ingnues methods discussed totally unnecessary.

I normally just refill the cartridges and store them on a shelf with the air maze uncovered with some 40 other cartridges and use them in turn when needed,
I have never had a problem with any of them drying out or failing to work properly, due to poor or in adequate storage.

I once had a leak in one of my cartridges some time ago when ironically I covered the air maze
which led to some ink oozing from the air maze itself, so I ended that practice..

 

[PeterBJ]

If and only if you refill your cartridges using the Freedom refill or traditional vacuum method, so there are no extra holes in the cartridge, you could try sealing both the outlet and the vent using these cartridge clips: http://www.octoink.co.uk/products/Cartridge-Clips{47}Holders-[Canon].html and this tape: http://www.octoink.co.uk/products/Aluminium-Tape-Strip.html . You could also make some of these clamp type storage clips that seal both the outlet and the vent, made by gigigogu: http://www.nifty-stuff.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=7603

But if the cartridges have been refilled using the top fill or the German method, I wouldn't even think of sealing the vent.

I see no reason to try to sterilize the storage bag, Bacteria and Fungi spores might already be present inside the cartridge, but I think good refill inks contain fungicides and germicides. I have never had microbial growth in any of my cartridges, neither new Canon OEM, refilled Canon OEM or single use third party cartridges. But Luer Lock sterile filters to attach to the syringe do exist, if you fear ink going bad.

I don't think a USB powered ozone generator will produce enough ozone to sterilize the storage bag, and if it were effective it would produce so much ozone that it would be dangerous. The allowable safety limits of ozone concentration in air are very low: http://www.understandingozone.com/limits.asp . Creating a much more efficient ozone generator would not be a good idea.

But how about this:

ghwellsjr wrote:

...The next best thing you can do is put your cartridges in a rigid pressure container that will not allow the ambient pressure changes to get in. In other words, it must have a hermetic seal on it. I doubt that you can do that unless you have professional equipment designed specifically for this job...

I think a pressure cooker will be perfect for this kind of storage. But unnecessary I think.

 

[ThrillaMozilla]

I don't know why everyone is so obsessed over sealing or not sealing. The topfill plugs must be completely, hermetically sealed. An external bag and the German fill hole can be completely sealed if you want. The vent must not be sealed completely, but ideally should be almost sealed during storage. Nothing else should be completely sealed, and indeed, it is quite difficult to do so unless you weld it or glue it. If you ever worked on a vacuum instrument, you will quickly find out about air-tight seals.

When you open a sealed container you will usually hear a poof of air. If you don't hear that poof, it probably wasn't sealed. Tell me, have any of you ever heard that poof when you open a cartridge? I thought not. Neither have I. Some of you go to the ends of the earth to buy "absolutely sealed" plastic containers and then drill holes in them. Why? It wasn't sealed in the first place, and you don't need to seal it. If you have ever used freedom filling you may discover that it's rather difficult to make a vacuum seal with tape. There's always a little channel for air at the edge of the label (and maybe other leaks as well), and air will make its way through that channel. So forget about sealing. With the exception of the topfill hole, it's neither necessary nor easy to do.

 

[Smile]

@Tudor

I don't drill any holes and tried to store my carts in similar container, but pressure builds up over time and cartridges leak, so I gave up no hard containers. Also it's impossible to keep a proper seal on anything but welded bag.

Silica gel is a desiccant, but have you noted that since canon carts a proper sealed they don't need this, since I doubt my seal will be perfect I need this to keep the moisture content in a sealed bag to controlled level. If you would try to store a cart like CLI-41 with paper label in a container for long periods of time you would see that moisture built up causes the label to fall apart.

This goes not noticed in cli-8 since label is plastic.

@ThrillaMozilla

1.The cheap hot glue EVA type will be removed easily, a glue gun of 170C celsius 50W is perfect for this costs few $ on ebay. Does not damage the carts labels at least for me. But yes you should be careful not to inject the hot glue into maze, only to cover the maze.
2. Any good brands that keep for a while stretched? The ones I have tried crack in a few months. I had some other type looks like silicone to me. Sorry if I spelled it wrong. My native language is obviously not English.
3. EVA hot glue seals air inlet perfect, I confirmed it by filling with vacuum in freedom method with 60cc syringe, any tape I tried does not even come close to sealing with hot glue.
The outled can be sealed with ink clip like on http://www.octoink.co.uk
4. You don't need to add many, and you need to seal the cart right. Then it should be added to keep moisture outside the cart where the fungicides and germicides in the ink work far worse than inside the cartridge.

@The Hat

I want to store these for up to 1 max 2 years. I'm not talking about months. With the soon defunct Pro 9000 since canon replaced it with pro 100 you will not be able to get CLI-8 carts. So I try to buy them in bulk from where ever I can. Mostly on auctions.

@PeterBJ

Yes I refill with traditional and freedom methods only.

Considering these clips cost 0.05$ from china the 0.45 is expensive, at least if you buy a hundred or so.
If a seller could offer discount for big orders that would be awesome.

Hmm, the USB ozonator might be a long shot but a simple 20$ ozone sterilizer would be nice to use. Ozone is bad for long term exposure, a short term exposure while you pack some carts is not dangerous, you will not try to breath the ozone from the outlet port of the ozonator out of curiosity will you?

 

[ThrillaMozilla]

pressure builds up over time and cartridges leak, so I gave up no hard containers.

No it doesn't. They leak because you overfill them, or you get ink in the vent system. I've had it happen too. But it doesn't matter. Just clean the vent before you use the cartridge, by blowing a little air into it, or suck a drop of distilled water into it.

And seriously, forget about silica gel. It has nothing to do with inkjet cartridges.

 

[Tudor]

Smile, I understand what you are trying to accomplish, but I think you are complicating things. If you want to make a stock of cli-8s just purge, dry and put them in a vacuumed welded bag. That way they will last for years and you can refill them when you need to.
I don't think it's a good idea to buy more ink than you will use in, say, one year. When you unseal a bottle that has an expiration date of 2015 you already bring that expiration date closer. Then you handle the ink and expose it to a sum of factors that may damage it. (Have you ever seen how an electronics factory looks like? It is cleaner than a hospital's operating room! I doubt you will achieve the same conditions when you handle your ink...) The longer the path from bottle to paper (both in time and handling) more things can go wrong. This is only my opinion, I could be wrong. But I doubt it...