I have been testing refillable cartridges and CIS to understand the difference in the performance between the two. Besides the cost difference and the fact that refillable cartridge looks like regular cartridge, the difference in performance is pretty big. I will only talk about Epson compatible cartridge for now. The no sponge Canon compatible is not reliable, only the sponge type refillable should be used. I will have a separate section on Canon cartridge.

No sponge Epson compatible refillable cartridges - things to watch

1. It is really easy to refill, if you have the 2 hole refillable that can be refilled while the cartridge is in the printer.
2. Lower cost compared to the CIS.
3. Because it is easy to refill, it appears to be easy to install. The cartridge looks similar to the OEM cartridge.

( This is really not true, even after using it for a year. someone new to refillable have a hard time with the cartridge because they cannot change the habit of running the cleaning cycle on the first installation. Often, the banding condition caused by air in the cartridge is interpreted as ink clog. The screen filter and the internal flow control passage will trap air during the initial set up. This is due to the fact that the holes in the screen is so tiny, it require a small amount of pressure to overcome the surface tension of the ink. It is critical to get rid of all the air from the cartridge before installing it in the printer. If the air is not removed, it is like a vapor lock, a passage full of air, not allowing the ink in the cartridge to pass through. The cleaning cycle probably does not generate enough force to remove the air. )

4. To make sure the ink can flow properly, fill the cartridge with ink, purge the air and ink through the poppet valve. Remove half of the ink from the cartridge to ensure all the air has been removed. Put this ink/foam back in the ink bottle. Refill the cartridge with only ink, check to see make sure there is no air/foam in the cartridge.

5. Once the cartridge is moisten, the ink will flow properly. Must still get reid of the air in the cartridge.

6. The pressure control works by controlling the air intake. The air intake plug needs to be removed, the second refill plug must be installed. If there is only one refill hole, this refill hole is the air intake hole. Air must pass this air hole into the bottom of the cartridge before it is released into the cartridge. The balance is achieved by the negative pressure created when ink is being depleated from printing. When the cartridge is refilled to full, the cartridge is NOT in the balanced state. The intake air passage is full of ink. This passage is separated from the main cavity where the ink is stored. This air passage has a small hole at the same level as the poppet valve. This relieve some of the pressure of the fluid by creating a slight negtive force within the cartridge to prevent the ink draining itself. I hope I did not make this too difficult to understand.

The refillable cartridge comes with the auto reset chip, the cartridge can be refilled while it is in the printer. It works great with dye ink. May be there is a difference in viscosity, dye ink works very well in the refillable cartridge. But pigment is not as easy to work with. May be the pigment printers are almost used exclusively for photo printing, the expectation is much higher. Banding in a document is not as visible as banding in a photo.
If you use it with pigment ink, the cartridge must be maintained half full. When it is less than half full, the pigment ink may start to print with a banding condition. This makes refilling more frequent.


Second disadvantage - This is observed expecially if you are printing photos. When you require absolutely no banding in your prints.
The refillable cannot maintain a steady internal pressure. The OEM sponge type cartridge has a relative steady internal pressure due to the sponge construction. As ink level changes, the internal pressure change with it. When the ink level is low, it adds to the problem when the ink moves with the cartridge during a print job, causing the pressure to change further.

The refillable cartridge is not as stable as the CIS. The change of ink level, the movement of the ink inside the cartridge when it is not full, the pressure change inside the catridge, air accidentally being injected into the cartridge, all contribute to the unpredictable behaviour of the cartridge. In my opinion, the refillable cartridge is good for testing a new ink you want to use, or just for dye pased printer. It is not the best solution for high volume user, especially if pigment ink is being used.

How is the CIS better?
The quality of the construction determines if the CIS will be reliable. A good ink refill is critical to not constantly having clogs or color change.

Advantage
The cartridge is always full, as long as you have ink in the system and not placing the ink bottles at a level to far below the printer cartridge. The ink bottle should be slightly below the cartridge, measured from the top of the ink level. This will maintain a slight negative pressure to balance the fluid pressure inside the cartridge. This allows the CIS to keep a steady fluid pressure inside the cartridge and guarantee more consistent print. If you do not want a pool of ink below your printer, never put the CIS tank at a level above the cartridge.
The CIS cartridge is always full, so the print head is maintained moist all the time. The refillable cartridge could run dry, if you are not paying attention. It is not a serious problem, but you may have to run a cleaning cartridge to clean up the dry ink in the print heads....this is more serious for the pigment printer.

It is not easy to inject air into the cartridge of a CIS because the ink bottles is so far away from it. But if one is not careful, air could be added into a refillable cartridge. The print quality will be immediately affected if the air bubbles gets into the cartridge internal passage. You may think there is a clog, but it is air getting into the print nozzle causing the "banding" condition. When this condition occur, you may have to wait for the air bubble to rise to the top or try to remove the air bubbles using a syringe. There is a greater chance for human error with the refillable cartridge.

One more thought. The CIS does not require removal of the cartridge for chip reset. The cartridge is kept full by ink ribbons feeding it as it print. There is very little cleaning activities. Once in a while, you will see the printer does a cleaning on its own. May be this is done at a chip reset, but the waste is minimal. When filling the refillable cartridge, the cartridge must be moved to the cartridge exchange position. The printer will always run an automatic cleaning cycle after you finish refilling before the cartridge is moved back to "park" opsition. In the long run, this will add up.



Last edited by easyrefill on Fri Sep 15, 2006 3:58 am; edited 3 times in total
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Printers: Epson R1800, R800, 2200, R300, R200, C88, C84, CX3200, easyrefill cartridge, Ink System Pro Bulk Ink System

http://www.efillink.com
http://www.inkfillshop.com

Actually, of the few different styles of refillable carts I've seen, they have a system built-in to regulate ink pressure. It is limited in its efficacy, and the ink refill seal absolutely -must- make an airtight seal for it to work.

As someone who doesn't really use Refills all that much anyway I can't really comment too much but just a small note for completeness... It's worth specifying which systems and/or manufacturers you are referring to when you talk about cartridges as I am very aware of instances where generalisations cause a lot of confusion..

eg: Epson spongeless cartridges vs' Canon spongeless carts...

The two are completely different in terms of reliability, design and structural limitations...


So please could you edit your posts to be more specific to avoid confusion... Thanks


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Printers: (Canon) MP500/830, MX700, iP4000/4200/4300/4500/5200, iX4000(A3) (Epson) C84/86, D88, CX6600, R285/800/1900 (HP) K550, K850, K5400, L7680

Easyrefill, the newer Epson OEM cartridge are not spongebased. It has a complex internal design to maintain the same characteristics as sponge but with no sponge and it's patented by Epson. Epson discarded the sponge years ago and I can only suspect it's because sponges break down and causes serious clogging or blockage of the internal filters.
So your banding issue may very well be the limitations of the compatible design.

I think sponge breakdown is only an issue if you are refilling. I can't recall every seeing someone say the sponge fell apart in their OEM cartridge before it was empty.

Co-incidentally the new design is tricky to refill where the old sponged type was extremely easy to refill, you could even refill it without removing it from the printer.

I came up with a method to fill the Epson non-sponged OEM cartridges 100%, I'm sure I'm not the first. It does require a vacuum pump of some kind, I use a (very well scrubbed) thrift-store aspirator pump. 2 or 3 seconds from empty to full.

AlienSteve wrote:

Actually, of the few different styles of refillable carts I've seen, they have a system built-in to regulate ink pressure. It is limited in its efficacy, and the ink refill seal absolutely -must- make an airtight seal for it to work.

Looks like I have missed the party. I did not get email notification on the post lately.

Just about all Epson compatible refillable are the no sponge type now. Canon no sponge does not work well. I have not tested HP refillable.

I have used many different Epson compatible refillable cartridge. The design are very similar. If the cartridge is completely air tight, the ink will not be able to come out. It must have a way to supply air into the cartridge.

The refillable seems to work much better with dye ink. It could be due to the lower viscosity. Or it could be because dye ink printer are not used by professional photographers and the expectation is not as high. For office printing, like R200/R300/R340/RX500/RX600...., refillable with dye ink works very well. Still the auto cleaning after each refill is wasteful.


_________________
Printers: Epson R1800, R800, 2200, R300, R200, C88, C84, CX3200, easyrefill cartridge, Ink System Pro Bulk Ink System

http://www.efillink.com
http://www.inkfillshop.com

grey wrote:

Easyrefill, the newer Epson OEM cartridge are not spongebased. It has a complex internal design to maintain the same characteristics as sponge but with no sponge and it's patented by Epson. Epson discarded the sponge years ago and I can only suspect it's because sponges break down and causes serious clogging or blockage of the internal filters.
So your banding issue may very well be the limitations of the compatible design.

I have not taken apart an Epson cartridge. But Epson has a patend on the sponge type cartridge. If the new Epson cartridge has a no sponge design, it will also be patended. Third party cartridge copies each other. But as soon as they copy Epson, they get sued.

But right now we are comparing third party refillable and CIS. This web site focus on CIS and this is the reason I am sharing my test observations.


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Printers: Epson R1800, R800, 2200, R300, R200, C88, C84, CX3200, easyrefill cartridge, Ink System Pro Bulk Ink System

http://www.efillink.com
http://www.inkfillshop.com

easyrefill wrote:

AlienSteve wrote:

Actually, of the few different styles of refillable carts I've seen, they have a system built-in to regulate ink pressure. It is limited in its efficacy, and the ink refill seal absolutely -must- make an airtight seal for it to work.

...

I have used many different Epson compatible refillable cartridge. The design are very similar. If the cartridge is completely air tight, the ink will not be able to come out. It must have a way to supply air into the cartridge.

I didn't say that clearly.

The ink refill seal absolutely -must- make an airtight seal for it to work. This is -not- the same as the air inlet hole, which is located elsewhere on the cartridge.

AlienSteve, if you go to http://www.precisioncolors.com you will see a method of refilling the OEM that is also 100% and requires no extra equipment other than an adapter for the syringe. I've used it umpteen times and it is as easy as it gets for an OEM cartridge and you never have to worry about air bubbles etc.
I think the sponge issue may be due to refills but when people like myself used to refill from the bottom for the sponge cartridge, Epson could never tell we were doing it. My original carts lasted five years
As for the CIS, I have two systems sitting retired because I kept getting air leaks around the seal plus they never fit snug with a distinct click. They were always wobbly. just gave up when the refilling on that site above showed the way.plus I don't print uber amounts anymore.

Mine is better, cleaner, and faster. ;') Thought I had photos of it, but can't locate them.