Frequently Asked Questions

• What job does the cyan cartridge do in my prints?

  Cyan is a building-block color. Blended with magenta and yellow in varying proportions, it produces the full spectrum your printer can reproduce, and it does the heavy lifting for blues and greens — think skies, water and foliage in photographs and color documents.

• Which printers is the CLI-226C made for?

  Confirmed models include Canon PIXMA iP4820, Canon PIXMA iP4920, Canon PIXMA iX6520 and Canon PIXMA MG5120, and there are 10 more on the verified list. Scroll to the Compatible Printers section on this page and match your exact model before placing an order.

• The printer displayed a notice after I fitted this tank. What now?

  Accept the notice on the display, remove the tank and seat it again until it clicks into place, then restart the printer. If the notice will not clear, take the cartridge out and gently wipe the gold chip contacts with a dry lint-free cloth before putting it back.

• How long does a CLI-226C last?

  Up to 510 pages according to the supplier's rating; Canon itself never published an official yield table for this cartridge family. That rating assumes standard test pages at about 5% coverage, so real-world life depends on your pages — photo-dense printing drains a tank much faster than ordinary text.

• Does the CLI-226C come with a chip?

  It does — a newly made compatible chip, not a reset one. The chip passes ink-level information to the printer so the low-ink warnings behave as they should, and the tank itself is a fresh build rather than a refilled original shell.

• What happens if this cartridge turns out to be faulty?

  Do not keep printing with it — stop and contact us. Recognition failures, leaks and print-quality defects all fall under the lifetime warranty: we will replace the cartridge or refund your money, and returns are free throughout the first year.

• Can I run this cyan alongside genuine Canon tanks?

  Yes. Every slot is monitored independently, which means a compatible cyan prints happily next to genuine Canon cartridges, and vice versa. Swapping over one color at a time is perfectly fine.

• Is the CLI-226C a genuine Canon product?

  It is not. This is a Clever Supplies compatible cartridge produced to the CLI-226C specification and protected by our lifetime warranty. Canon is not the manufacturer; its name appears here only to identify the printers this cartridge fits.

• How should I store a spare CLI-226C until the day I fit it?

  Leave the tank sealed in its packaging in a cool, dry place away from direct sunlight and heat. Do not open it early or peel anything off ahead of time — the seal keeps the ink in the condition it was made in. Because one cyan tank serves the whole verified model list on this page, a single sealed spare covers whichever of those printers you run, and it waits on the shelf without any attention until the low-ink warning tells you it is needed.

• How do I judge a newly fitted cyan tank fairly?

  Do not form an opinion from the very first page. Print a few ordinary pages first and judge the output around the third or fourth one, once the new ink is flowing steadily. Look at the blues and greens — skies, water and foliage — because cyan carries those areas of a print. If those tones look even and clean by then, the CLI-226C has settled in properly and you can retire the old empty tank with confidence.