Precision Ink Refill options for Pro 100

Hi. I recently purchased a Canon Pro 100 after browsing all the threads about it here. I know there is a lot of information regarding aftermarket refills, but I haven't found any one succinct thread as to how to get started.

Right now I just have the printer and the initial cartridges for it. I would like to use the PC refill options.

Is it best to have a second set of cartridges always available (to swap as needed) or just to refill the original carts as needed? My primary printing purpose is scrapbook pages which will be stored in albums, so not really subject to much light. As long as the PC ink matches color and durability, I am not inherently worried about mixing the inks (unless I need to be?).

From the PC ordering page, would I be best to order the 32oz ICC Squezy Ultimate Refill Kit with Resetter, 8 Ready to Fill Canon Cartridges? Do these carts need to be flushed? If so, do you have to flush them every time, or just the first time?


Will the OEM carts that I have right now need to be drilled? And then I use the same chip from these over and over, swapping back and forth between this set and the new set? Do they ever break or wear out?

I am in love with the $40 ink only price once I get the second set of cart thing sorted.

Basically I am just looking for a step by step of what I need to buy and the order in which I operate, and then I am happy to watch the requisite videos for more detailed instructions. I'd just like to buy the necessary parts upfront and be prepared.

Thank you.

Read up and/or watch Jtoolman's posts on this subject and his videos on youtube. Personally, I don't print enough to worry about wasting too much ink and I only have the PC replacement cartridges and things seem to work fine. I do refill as many as I can at a time so I don't waste too much ink when I swap out carts. Some people have two sets and top them all up every time they need to swap....

PC sells refill kits that contain everything you need to get started, minus the OEM chips that you need to move to the empty/flushed carts PC will send you.

They also sell aftermarket carts with re-settable chips, but I have not tried those as the recommendation is to use OEM carts (either CLI-8 or CLI-42). The carts are identical from what I understand, but the chips are not.

When I converted my PRO-100 to PC inks, I used their "32oz ICC Squezy Ultimate Refill Kit
with Resetter, 8 Ready to Fill Canon Cartridges". I moved the chips from my original Canon OEM CLI-42 carts to the ones I receive as part of the refill kit.

I still have the original CLI-42 OEM carts (minus chips) that I haven't done anything with yet. I have found that refilling with a single set of refillable carts is not problematic and can be done in 15 minutes or so, faster if you don't mind getting ink everywhere...

I'm sure you have read that when one or more carts are low on ink, you should just top them all off as opposed to refilling those single carts that were low.

If you have a 2nd set ready to go, you can easily swap them out at once, but it really doesn't take a lot of down time to top off all 8 carts if you're only using one set of refillable carts IMHO.

I think the PC inks are a tremendous value and I can't personally tell the difference in tonality or vibrancy of colors.

Jtoolman has been testing print permanence with PC inks with the Aardenburg institute and should have results in a few weeks, it will be interesting to see how PC inks hold up compared to OEM.

Good luck!

+2

Be sure to get the Squezy Caps. Makes everything much, much easier. But make sure they are tightened well and I still always work over a sink when refilling a cart.

Enjoy your new printer.

I can tell you, based on my experience with Black and White images, that image permanence is a huge issue with PC inks. I won't go into the details here you can read my other post from a couple of months ago but I used PC inks on a variety of papers from Canon to Red River to cheap Costco papers and they varied in fading but all were significantly faded in a matter of a couple of weeks. I only print color with my Pro-100 now and print BW on my Epson r2880 (which I tested alongside the PC inks and had absolutely no fading). These were not scientific tests by any means but then most people are not keeping their prints under ideal conditions...

farmersteve, I do recall reading your other lengthy thread and the print permanence issues you had after only a few days IIRC.

I don't believe I ever contributed to that thread, because I had nothing to add, but my experience with PC inks has been better than yours. I use primarily Canon papers and have had no issues at all with PC inks, but certainly don't doubt what you reported in that other thread.

I am looking forward to the results from jtoolman's efforts with Aardenburg, but until those results/conclusions are in, any print that I need to ensure longevity will get printed with my P800 using OEM inks.

While I'm not an expert on any of this stuff, I have learned a lot and it would seem the experts would all agree that discussing print permanence of dye based inks is a waste of time compared to pigment based inks...

jefftee said:

When I converted my PRO-100 to PC inks, I used their "32oz ICC Squezy Ultimate Refill Kit
with Resetter, 8 Ready to Fill Canon Cartridges". I moved the chips from my original Canon OEM CLI-42 carts to the ones I receive as part of the refill kit.

Good luck!

Click to expand...

Thank you (to everyone here). So do those carts have to be flushed first? Or are they literally ready to be filled? I was thinking I'd have to swap the chips from set to set, but I don't mind having only one set and then just refilling. Are the cartridges that come with that set already drilled for filling?

As I said earlier, I am primarily printing pages for albums, so they really won't see a ton of light; I am sure I will print the odd print for framing or display, but I've been using an HP multifunction the past few years and the ink from it has held up okay, so I don't think I need to worry about the PC inks. I'm not selling prints, and I have to say that this printer matches my monitor way better than some of the pro labs (including WHCC). I'm in love with the prints I've done so far.

Oh, I also wanted to ask about the difference between lustre and glossy paper. I always order prints on lustre and there was a sample of 5 sheets of the Canon lustre paper in with the printer. The prints are so lovely. But does lustre use more ink than glossy paper? I have a bunch of glossy Costo paper to use first but want to stock up on the Canon paper the next time they have one of their sales. I feel like glossy paper uses less, but if it isn't substantially less, I'd prefer to buy the lustre.

Remember this was only BW prints and fade resistance is the worst on the black inks for the PRO-100 so color prints should last longer especially if you keep them behind glass and put into an album.

I've been using the refillable PC cartridges for more than 2 years with my PRO-100 and never an issue. I'm not sure I would bother flushing the carts since the product you are replacing them with is supposed to be a substitute for the OEM product and is supposed to be almost identical.

mollyc said:

Oh, I also wanted to ask about the difference between lustre and glossy paper. I always order prints on lustre and there was a sample of 5 sheets of the Canon lustre paper in with the printer. The prints are so lovely. But does lustre use more ink than glossy paper? I have a bunch of glossy Costo paper to use first but want to stock up on the Canon paper the next time they have one of their sales. I feel like glossy paper uses less, but if it isn't substantially less, I'd prefer to buy the lustre.

Click to expand...

Sorry I responded to the wrong post with my previous reply...

In regards to the paper using less ink, it's my understanding that Glossy uses less, then lustre, then matte uses the most.

farmersteve said:

I'm not sure I would bother flushing the carts since the product you are replacing them with is supposed to be a substitute for the OEM product and is supposed to be almost identical.

Click to expand...

Sorry, I wasn't clear - do they have to be flushed before the initial use? Or are they literally ready to be filled when you receive them? (I'm not sure if the pads need to be wet, etc. before adding in the ink).

mollyc said:

farmersteve said:

I'm not sure I would bother flushing the carts since the product you are replacing them with is supposed to be a substitute for the OEM product and is supposed to be almost identical.

Click to expand...

Sorry, I wasn't clear - do they have to be flushed before the initial use? Or are they literally ready to be filled when you receive them? (I'm not sure if the pads need to be wet, etc. before adding in the ink).

Click to expand...

Molly you seem to need a ton of information.

Please go to my channel below, then go to my PRO-100 playlist.

If you need to speak with me, please pm me and we can arrange a time to talk.

I will answer all your questions and lead in the correct direction.

Joe



VIDEO CHANNEL. PRINTING and personal videos.

Micromachining and Miniature Cabinetmaking channel
JTOOLMAN1949 https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCFPD5beoll9TvvW2u_dR0hQ

I just filled mine up when I got them and haven't had any problems. But go watch jtoolman's videos, they are a bit wordy but full of information.

farmersteve said:

I just filled mine up when I got them and haven't had any problems. But go watch jtoolman's videos, they are a bit wordy but full of information.

Click to expand...

Wordy?????? What???? You must mean "verbally complete"

Long winded Joe

farmersteve said:

I just filled mine up when I got them and haven't had any problems. But go watch jtoolman's videos, they are a bit wordy but full of information.

Click to expand...

WOW - I think the only person who would call Joe's videos "wordy" is somebody already thoroughly familiar with the process he is describing.

As somebody who has been introduced to new concepts through these videos I think he strikes the correct balance of information and detail of content, and it is all very clearly illustrated in hires video.

Not forgetting the most important factor which is his expertise in the procedures he is describing.

I am looking forward to more of his informative videos. Especially because this is a field with lots of misinformation and "snake oil" solutions.

Thanks for the videos Joe.

rs

I was wondering if you'd pick up on that!

mollyc said:

jefftee said:

When I converted my PRO-100 to PC inks, I used their "32oz ICC Squezy Ultimate Refill Kit
with Resetter, 8 Ready to Fill Canon Cartridges". I moved the chips from my original Canon OEM CLI-42 carts to the ones I receive as part of the refill kit.

Good luck!

Click to expand...

Thank you (to everyone here). So do those carts have to be flushed first? Or are they literally ready to be filled? I was thinking I'd have to swap the chips from set to set, but I don't mind having only one set and then just refilling. Are the cartridges that come with that set already drilled for filling?

As I said earlier, I am primarily printing pages for albums, so they really won't see a ton of light; I am sure I will print the odd print for framing or display, but I've been using an HP multifunction the past few years and the ink from it has held up okay, so I don't think I need to worry about the PC inks. I'm not selling prints, and I have to say that this printer matches my monitor way better than some of the pro labs (including WHCC). I'm in love with the prints I've done so far.

Click to expand...

The kit I described above come ready to fill, the only thing you have to do is install the OEM chip to the new carts you receive from PC, reset them, then fill.

I hear that you can swap one cart out at a time as you run out of OEM ink, but I wound up switching all 8 at once and immediately started using the PC ICC profiles they provide, which were available for all of my favorite papers.

I have since started creating my own ICC profiles, but that's another long story...

jefftee said:

mollyc said:

jefftee said:

When I converted my PRO-100 to PC inks, I used their "32oz ICC Squezy Ultimate Refill Kit
with Resetter, 8 Ready to Fill Canon Cartridges". I moved the chips from my original Canon OEM CLI-42 carts to the ones I receive as part of the refill kit.

Good luck!

Click to expand...

Thank you (to everyone here). So do those carts have to be flushed first? Or are they literally ready to be filled? I was thinking I'd have to swap the chips from set to set, but I don't mind having only one set and then just refilling. Are the cartridges that come with that set already drilled for filling?

As I said earlier, I am primarily printing pages for albums, so they really won't see a ton of light; I am sure I will print the odd print for framing or display, but I've been using an HP multifunction the past few years and the ink from it has held up okay, so I don't think I need to worry about the PC inks. I'm not selling prints, and I have to say that this printer matches my monitor way better than some of the pro labs (including WHCC). I'm in love with the prints I've done so far.

Click to expand...

The kit I described above come ready to fill, the only thing you have to do is install the OEM chip to the new carts you receive from PC, reset them, then fill.

I hear that you can swap one cart out at a time as you run out of OEM ink, but I wound up switching all 8 at once and immediately started using the PC ICC profiles they provide, which were available for all of my favorite papers.

I have since started creating my own ICC profiles, but that's another long story...

Click to expand...

Ideally you really need two complete and chipped car sets.

You really want to have to swop chips every time between carts?

If u are using one the converted set, can you reset and fill that fast? You only have a few minutes to bet the job done.

Joe

While I agree that a 2nd set of chipped and filled carts would make it easier, it's really not a big deal to pull all 8 carts, reset them, and top them all off when one needs refilling.

jefftee said:

While I agree that a 2nd set of chipped and filled carts would make it easier, it's really not a big deal to pull all 8 carts, reset them, and top them all off when one needs refilling.

Click to expand...

If you can do them all at once before the head carriage automatically moves back to the right then go for it.

I prefer the safer two set method. But hey, both will work.

Joe