Precision Color ink refillers - Post your experiences and advice please

I'm looking into the precision color ink refills as a more cost effective (and for me space saving) option. I've gotten by upgrading printers buying whatever is on Craigslist for the cost of set of branded ink refills and more recently jumped on that free paper deal. Now I have too many unused printers in the basement that I need to get rid of and several boxes of paper.

I'm on the Precision Color website and I'll probably just get the 32 oz kit with a full set of cartridges... what do you think?

Advice? What should I know?

For example, what does "purge" mean? I don't understand the process and reasons for it below.

05Xrunner wrote in post #18224623
Dont replace 1 cart at a time if your refilling. everytime you replace a cart the printer will purge all 8 carts. So then you are wasting alot of ink then you will be on a cycle of replacing one cart every week cause of it and purging all 8 each time. Then once the pads in the printer are 100 saturated they cannot take anymore from purges or cleaning the printer is basically dead. I have 2 sets so when 1 ink cart is low and about to run out i swap all 8 out. so its only 1 purge cycle and then refill all the ones i pulled ready to go in the next time 1 goes low. so you are doing ALOT less ink purges and saving alot of ink

Nathan wrote in post #18382090
I'm looking into the precision color ink refills as a more cost effective (and for me space saving) option. I've gotten by upgrading printers buying whatever is on Craigslist for the cost of set of branded ink refills and more recently jumped on that free paper deal. Now I have too many unused printers in the basement that I need to get rid of and several boxes of paper.

I'm on the Precision Color website and I'll probably just get the 32 oz kit with a full set of cartridges... what do you think?

Advice? What should I know?

first thing I did when I bought my Canon printer was to get the 32 oz, I refused to pay that much for there's (canon). all that been say, i am happy with the results. take note I am not an expert in photo printer.

Refillers gather here:

https://www.printerkno​wledge.com/

Purging, in that context, means priming the cartridges (with some ink wasting).

Nathan wrote in post #18382090
For example, what does "purge" mean? I don't understand the process and reasons for it below.

You have one cartridge that is empty, one that is an eighth full, one a qtr full, and five half full.

When you replace the one empty cartridge the system has to flush out the residue from the old cart so that you only have the new ink (to avoid any colour differences in the two causing problems). However they don't just flush the one ink they flush all 8 (which uses up ink meaning you will have to replace them sooner).

Two weeks later the second cartridge (that was an eighth full) runs out, so you replace that and the whole system gets purged again wasting more ink. Then three weeks later again and again. Each time you replace one cart all eight get purged.

The solution is to not just replace the one empty cart but also all the partially empty carts at the same time. That way the system will do a purge of all 8 as usual but now all the carts are full, so in two weeks you won't have to replace another cart (with another purge) and then do the same again in three weeks (with another purge).

Oh, okay. So, something like this. Nothing's ever really 100% full due to the purge.

Ink Levels
Full    3.99   LGY             C       PC       BK
        3.00   LGY   GY        C   M   PC       BK
Half    2.00   LGY   GY        C   M   PC       BK
        1.00   LGY   GY   PM   C   M   PC       BK
Empty   0.00   LGY   GY   PM   C   M   PC   Y   BK

Ink Levels
Full
        3.98   LGY             C       PC   Y   BK
        2.99   LGY   GY        C   M   PC   Y   BK
Half    1.99   LGY   GY        C   M   PC   Y   BK
        0.99   LGY   GY   PM   C   M   PC   Y   BK
Empty   0.00   LGY   GY   PM   C   M   PC   Y   BK

Nathan wrote in post #18382900
So with the example above, when one cartridge needs replacing, you actually pull out all 8 and replace with the fresh set.

Yes, that's general practice among refillers and I've never heard of problems fom topping up partly used cartridges with fresh ink .

The reason for adopting that practice isn't only wasted ink cost (not that high with refill ink) but also to keep the waste ink absorbing pads from filling up too soon, consequently requiring an expensive service repair that can exceed a new printer's price.

But do visit the site I linked to above. There are things to watch out with refilling, like absolutely avoiding refilling the more recent original Canon yellow dye cartridges due to the gelling phenomenon.

This is just a sample thread on that issue:
https://www.printerkno​wledge.com …ellow-gelling-issue.9593/

Thanks, I read about that and Precision Color basically reminds you over and over again on their site as you're checking out. But I will look at the rest.

So I'm about to order some Precision Ink. I have two sets of old OEM cartridges that I haven't thrown out. Should I flush these and re-use or should I purchase the refurbs from Precision Color?

I got my ink, but I'm a bit unclear about what to do with my existing cartridges.

Can I just reset and refill my 1/2 full OEM cartridges with Precision color ink? Would there be a problem with the Precision Color and OEM ink mixing? I know I should replace the entire yellow cartridge.

I may be wrong but I don't think mixing is a good idea. The PC inks will have their own color profiles as well so I don't think the chemical formulation is the same.

If you want to go down the Inkjet rabbit hole then subscribe to this guys YouTube channel...

https://www.youtube.co​m …/UCz9YXaSulpM90​vC24lmAeZA

Already watched a couple of his videos. Informative, but the guy talks a lot. I was looking for a quick answer. I have an event coming up where I'm printing on the spot. Just wanted to know what's the best way to go about it. I think I'm going to run through the OEM until one of them runs out. Then, I'll pop in the Precision Color inks I bought. If I run out again during the event, I'll just squeeze more into the Precision Colors. Figure out what to do with the OEM later... flush, etc. Would be nice just to be able to mix the inks, though (except for yellow. I know not to do that).

Nathan wrote in post #18415011
Can I just reset and refill my 1/2 full OEM cartridges with Precision color ink? Would there be a problem with the Precision Color and OEM ink mixing? I know I should replace the entire yellow cartridge.

You need to replace all the OEM inks with the new ones and then you will most likely need to create a new profile for the new printer/ink/paper combination because the OEM ink profile you are using now won't be valid any more.

Mixing them would almost certainly be a bad idea. No way of knowing if the inks would actually mix properly or what the Frankinkstein Monster creation would look like.

Here is an email I sent to PC and their reply
---------------

Can your ink be mixed with Canon OEM ink ?
Does your CLI 42 chip re-setter work on the Canon OEM carts ?
---------------

Yes, it can be mixed with OEM ink. (not yellow)
The re-setter is guaranteed to work with OEM carts and chips. Over 10,000 in the field.
 
Mike

Interesting. CAN be mixed... but does it yield correct colors?

I found another board that discussed it and it seems to be what people do. They top off their OEM and little to no issues.