Canon Ink Cartridges - Non Use and Refill of BJC-620 Ink Cartridges

The people who talk about clogging, etc. must have never seen a BJC-620, in which the printhead and ink tanks are separate. I've had a 620 for about 16 months and having printed almost nothing on it (have a laser for most needs) have noticed that the ink tanks last about 5 months. My third set of cartridges at $40 per set have just recently gone dry. (Actually only the color ones are dry. The larger black one lasts longer.) I foolishly threw away the first set of empties, but I still have two sets. I decided that I've sent enough money to Canon and searched the web for a more economical solution. What I found was Bob Nedved and his re.ink.kit refill kit where, for $74.50 I got an amount of bulk ink equivalent to about $800 worth of new cartridges. Included also are 4 syringes and 4 small screws. The procedure is to make a small hole in each tank tank and seal it with a screw. To refill, you remove the screw, inject a few cc of ink, replace the screw, and clean the syringe with a little alcohol or distilled water. Filling the first cartridge was a little messy, but once you get the hang of it, it's a snap. The kit doesn't completely eliminate buying new tanks, because the tanks themselves eventually need to be replaced, but it sure does cut the annual maintenance cost, whether you only use the printer a little or if you use it a lot.
Epson uses a piezo-electric print head, and an alcohol-based ink. If you don't like paying for Epson's ink cartridges, use Pelikan's (I think that is the brand I use - it is certainly one of the old-fashioned ink manufacturers). They seem to use a higher molecular weight alcohol than Epson, so the cartridges last me more like six months than three in the old (1993) Epson Stylus Q800.

HP and Canon use a water-based ink, that is actually heated to boiling in the print-head to spit out droplets - so the print head corrodes rapidly, which is why their "ink cartridges" contain an new print-head and only about 15 ml ink, as much as the print-head can reliably spit out.

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