Refill and Reuse a Printer Cartridge

How to Refill and Reuse a Printer Cartridge(1)

Printer ink is one of the most expensive things that you'll run into when you set up your home office. You start out taking dozens of pictures with your new digital camera, download them onto your computer, print a few and then suddenly: the print cartridge runs out of ink.
If you follow this how-to guide and refill your print cartridge instead of buying a new one, you can save literally hundreds of dollars in printer ink.

Steps

1.Purchase an ink refill kit at an office supply store. (Staples, Walmart, and Costco all carry this inexpensive kit. It usually costs about half the price of an average printer cartridge.)

2.Gather your kit, a roll of paper towels, and some clear scotch tape together on a large flat working surface, a table or desk.

3.Remove the empty cartridge from your printer. (Remember to close your printer lid or door while you are working.)

4.Cover your hands with a pair of disposable plastic gloves while you work with the messy ink.

5.Take a paper towel and fold it in half twice. Work over the paper towel to catch any leaking ink.

6.Place the empty cartridge on it.

7.Read the instruction manual included with the refill kit to learn how to refill your particular type of cartridge. (The following instructions are just a general guide).

8.Locate the fill holes on the top of the cartridge. The depressions can be felt by rubbing your finger across the label.

9.Use a sharp pencil to pierce the refill holes in the top of the ink cartridge. (Correct places can also be found in the kit instructions).

10.In addition to black, there are three colors of ink: magenta, cyan, and yellow. Follow the kit instructions on which hole to insert each color OR push a toothpick into the holes to identify the colours as markings on the printer cartridge are sometimes there to fool you into putting the wrong colours into the cartridge ink chambers.

11.Insert the long needle on the refill ink bottle into the correct hole.

12.Slowly, add the ink. Carefully watch to be sure that you do not over-fill.

13.Stop quickly as soon as you see a bit of ink oozing out of the hole. Without letting go of the bottle, slowly release the air, sucking a little ink back out of the ink cartridge, before you remove the needle completely.

14.Carefully daub the cartridge contacts on the paper towel, you should see a splotch of the ink leaking out onto the paper towel.

15.Cover the hole with a small piece of clear scotch tape. (This works better than the seal dots included in the kit.) Make sure that no ink is leaking out of the top holes. (That's where the clear tape comes in handy.) Be careful not to cross contaminate the colors.

16.Repeat steps 11-15 for each ink color.

17.After you have refilled all three colors, carefully blot (don't wipe or rub) the cartridge printhead on a folded piece of paper towel. You may need to do this several times. Do this until it stops bleeding and you see an even stripe of three colors showing up on the towel.

18.If the blot shows the colors either faded or not at all, blot on wet paper towel and again on dry, to get the ink flowing.

19.Replace the ink cartridge into the printer. Never, ever install a leaking print cartridge.

20.Immediately print something, anything, just to get the ink flowing. Print several test pages, preferable photos with a lot of different colors.

21.Follow the cleaning or priming cycles for your specific printer.

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