A caution about refillable ink cartridges

[Codebreaker]

I've been using refillable cartridges with Lyson Inks in my Epson R2400 for a couple of years now with very few problems. I find that the colour rendering is very good once you have a custom profile - it's noticeably off if you use the default Epson or Lyson Profile. The only problems I've had is that the heads seem to clog up more often than I used to have with the OEM inks.

I'm not a regular printer, but do many prints in batches from time to time. Not having done anything for 3-4 mths I thought that I would get some new refillable cartridges as the old ones were looking decidedly mucky and I'm not sure the ink flow was good on one or two.

I went to my usual source and got a new set but noticed on arrival that 7 cartridges appeared physically similar to my old set but one was different - Yellow for what its worth. The printer immediately flagged the Yellow cartridge as empty and nothing I could do would convince it otherwise. The supplier sent a replacement which did just the same.

They then sent a complete new set of all the same type but of the new design. In this set 3 other cartridges were immediately flagged as empty. But even worse was that when I took out the first new set to put these in, three cartridges had lost all the ink even though they had not been used and no cleaning cycles had been run.

In the end I got a complete refund and bought a set of OEM inks to keep me going.

So, a word of caution..... Some refillable ink cartridges just don't work and others leak ink rapidly.

The supplier was very helpful but in the end couldn't fix the problem.

[Donald]

Thnaks for the heads-up on that, Colin. Thankfully, I've never had any serious problem with the Permajet bulk ink system I use in my Epson R3000. The only irritation is that often, when switching on for the first time to begin a print session, I'll get a message saying it doesn't recognise one or more of the cartridge units. A quick shake about or, ulitmately, a clean of the contact sorts the problem.

[James G]

Hi Colin, I've had problems on occasion with refillable carts. When I replaced my older Epson R3000 I opted for a continuos ink system since it meant I do not have to remove carts to refill, just top up the Reservoir bottles.

A couple of points though do occur from your post, and I apologise if I'm covering things you may already have done...

as the old ones were looking decidedly mucky and I'm not sure the ink flow was good on one or two

Depending on how often the carts have been removed to refill, there can be a build up of 'old' ink in the connection socket.
It is particularly likely if the cart has started to leak slightly. I used to check the sockets in the cartridge carrier and clean out any build up of ink before reinserting the refilled cart. I also replaced any of the refillable carts that showed signs of leaking.

three cartridges had lost all the ink even though they had not been used and no cleaning cycles had been run.

If they have drained inside the printer, it means that the lost ink will now be in the waste ink tank and the pads where the print head rests, when the machine is off may be saturated. If you get streaking or blotching developing on prints the pads may need cleaning. It has never happened yet to me, but I understand that if the waste ink tank fills, you may get a maintenance erro, which will call for the tank to be replaced .

The only problems I've had is that the heads seem to clog up more often than I used to have with the OEM inks.

This may be due to use of non-OEM inks, but I also think it is an issue if the printer has not been used for some time (you said it could lie idle for up to 3 months). I'd suggest that it be exercised at least once a month. I run a print head check once a month because I found that clearing blocked jets was often much more of a hassle than doing a routine service/startup to avoid the problem. It does cost some ink though.

Yyou don't mention your ink supplier, but I have used Marrutt in the past and found them pretty good. More to the point, they do have some excellent 'do it yourself' cleaning and maintenance videos on their website.

[Codebreaker]

Donald.....

Yes, occasionally get the 'Your not using Epson' nag but you can just ignore this and carry on.

James......

I'm going to try and clean the old cartridges with distilled water.


I've cleaned out the pump cap, spit pad and wiper blade as well as the heads using Magic Bullet which I find very good. So far no message about waste tank, fortunately. I do have a maintenance manual for it and also the service utility from here....

http://www.ssclg.com/epsone.shtml


Yes, supplier was Marrutt/Specialist Inks. Very good supplier and yes the videos are good too. This was a bit of a wake up call for them. The R2400 being an old printer and I suspect they don't sell too many kits for that. They did tell me that they were going to check all their stock -which didn't seem a vast quantity I recall

[thetraveler]

I have been using refillable cartridges and 2nd party ink for a year or so. Since Canon Pro 100 'watches' the cartridge, I have a chip resetter that works and the cartridges have always worked fine, with the exception of yellow. I had to use a new unfilled cartridge with the second party yellow ink.

I see no difference from Canon inks and the cost is effectively trivial. Service is excellent, lots of how to videos on everyhting about ink. http://precisioncolors.com/

[dutyhog]

I use refillable 27ml cartridges in my 8-year old HP B8850. After a few years some started to leak at their seal that plugs into the printer, but eBay replacements were OK. I fill them mainly with ink syringed from much larger HP70 cartridges (cost far less £/ml), although I did buy a set of Farbenwerke bottles which get mixed in at times. The HP printers do a daily printhead check when connected but switched off, so the heads are kept clean and free of clogs. But not if you do what I did recently. Apart from a few coloured text pages I've not printed a photo image since October. I didn't look at the printer to notice that all the inks were low and two run dry. They seem to use about 1/10 ml per day on average for checking. So two printheads had also run dry and clogged. Fortunately the HP70 printheads are servicable, and they were de-clogged easily by leaving in a shallow pool of liquid for 30 minutes (I had deionised water plus methylated spirit plus white spirit handy yesterday).

[Inkanyezi]

I got very PO-ed when a refilled cartridge in my All In One HP printer decided to retire. Fact is, that the printer is signalling an error, and therefore I cannot use the scanner, because "it is occupied". And the only way to use the scanner is to put another cartridge in, and they actually cost too much. i once had an Agfa flatbed scanner that I gave away, which I now regret. I also did not retreive any of all scanners I saw in the recycle bin, which now could have come in handy. I'm not going to buy another "All In One", as it does not work, unless there are functional cartridges in them.