My black HP14 ink cartrige is supposed to hold 23ml. On my third refill I could only get it to take 9ml. After printing a few pages and letting it sit overnigtht, I was able to put 3 more ml in.

Does the sponge somehow get filled up with solids? The cartrige is only about a year old.

The first time I refilled from the bottom, and it sucked it up real fast. On the second refill it didn't absorb very fast or much from the bottom. Now I refill from the top with the needle deep into the sponge.

According to HP, they can't be refilled at all... ;)

They are definitely supposed to have a limited lifespan for refilling even among people who refill regularly... I don't know the details of what happens inside the cartridge, but I know the printing mechanism built into the cartridge is supposed to wear out eventually...

This one is just a plastic box with a sponge inside and a piece of filter paper between the sponge and the exit hole. The printhead is completely separate.

This one is just a plastic box with a sponge inside and a piece of filter paper between the sponge and the exit hole. The printhead is completely separate.
It is built into the cartridge and it wears out...

NO! It really is just a plastic box with a hole in the bottom.


The black and color cartriges are mounted on top of a manifold that draws the ink from them and feeds it to 4 separate printheads mounted below. HP calls it their TIJ 3 technology.

Officejet 7130

You can refill any catridge no issues, but the only prob is you will be considered as OOW if you call the tech support even if ur printer is in warranty. I have personally refilled the same catridges 3 times, i could have refilled it more but somehow the the catridge started leaking ink so i went and picked up a new catridge :).

NO! It really is just a plastic box with a hole in the bottom.


The black and color cartriges are mounted on top of a manifold that draws the ink from them and feeds it to 4 separate printheads mounted below. HP calls it their TIJ 3 technology.

Officejet 7130
That seems to be inconsistent with the discussion in your earlier topic:

http://www.pcguide.com/vb/showthread.php?p=276728#post276728

That seems to be inconsistent with the discussion in your earlier topic:

http://www.pcguide.com/vb/showthrea...6728#post276728
__________________
Budfred ..... Caveat Emptor....
I don't think it is. I think it was clearly stated by me and others many times that the printheads and cartriges are completely separate. Can you quote anything I said that would imply otherwise?

you will be considered as OOW
I know. As soon as they know I refilled they stop offering information and just tell me all the dangers of not using genuine HP cartriges. Several times they have just hung-up.

the catridge started leaking
Mine leaks out the vent holes almost every time. I stuff a small piece of folded-up paper towel over the vent holes as part of my refill procedure.

I started this thread because this should apply to anyone wanting to refill any cartrige that uses a sponge, whether there is a built-in printhead or not.

Either the cartrige stops allowing ink to exit before it is really empty or the sponge somehow doesn't hold as much liquid after a few refills. I really don't understand what's happening. Seems like I should be able to refill the same amount of ink over and over.

Perhaps you should try flushing out a cartridge with a suitable solvent.
Perhaps "Cartridge Flush" cleaning fluid?
Is the refill ink water soluble? Mine is.
I think the manufacturers ink isn't water soluble, and have often wondered what happens when you put in water-based ink on top of non water-based.
Rather like trying to mix emulsion paint with oil-based paint; it just wont mix well.
I once tried rinsing a cartridge with water and it seemed to work. :)

I add ink to my 14s often just to make sure that they are topped-off. Since I have the ink monitoring turned off this is absolutely necessary to insure they don't dry up and damage the printheads in the process.

I suspect that you must also be shutting off the ink monitoring in order to be refilling them. Even if you don't shut it off and yet begin to refill the carts they don't make the adjustment and show more ink available. I have refilled mine when still within the expiration date and the additional ink did not affect the ink monitoring levels at the time I refilled them. In other words, if they were showing half full, they remained showing half full, even though refilled (i.e., topped-off)...

I suspect that your carts are actually full if you are getting a bubble of ink in the sponge hole and it doesn't draw down within a minute or so. I don't know that I would consider it critical to get a certain ml of ink into the cart if it visibly won't take any more. As far as I can determine, there's nothing other than the sponge in the ink cart and I have had no printing problems adding until the bubble appears.

It would appear that you're not using as much ink as you may think you are if you fill until the cart will not absorb any more...

I would say that your best bet is to fill them from the sponge side. I put a napkin folded up under the topside just in case I over fill and it leaks out. I inject the ink into the sponge slowly and continue with each color until I get a bubble of ink in the sponge hole. When this bubble does not get absorbed I use the syringe to suck it back up until I can see the spong and then reinsert into the printer.

I do this after printing a number of large color photos just to make sure I'm topped-off since I have no way of monitoring through the HP program.

I have created 4 "printing circles," as I call them, one for each of the ink colors. They are approximately 4" in diameter and solid color. After refilling, I will print one of each color to slightly draw the ink down in the cartridge.

Before I began the routine of making sure I was using my d135 on a regular basis (I also have the HP LaserJet5), I would use the "printing circles" to ensure I was getting good coverage before doing photos. I've not used this procedure for over a year now, as I routinely print something of color at least every other day to ensure that the printheads are flowing...

Oh, in direct answer to your question, I believe you can refill the carts in this manner "forever!" They are simply an ink reservoir and have no moving parts. I can see why HP would possibly want to take these out of the equation and limit their use... The printheads, well that's another question. I believe, just as with the carts I've had with the integrated printheads, they will wear out because they are in contact with the paper...albeit marginally...

Sylvander:
I remember that the OEM ink was very water soluble. I first tried using alcohol to clean things up to no avail. With distilled water the inks dissolved very quickly, except for the black where it had dried hard. When I sat the black head in a tray of water the ink flowed out and dispersed quickly. The refill ink is water soluble too, and they (Atlantic Inkjet) said it was formulated specifically for my printer.

I remember once mixing two different brands of paint. They were both oil base. A few minutes later I had a gallon of very colorful jello. I wonder if this is happening in my cartrige, or maybe there is an air bubble in the sponge that doesn't want to come out, or maybe the pigment in the ink is clogging up the filter paper under the sponge (stopping the ink flow before it is really empty). It should have been empty - I ran it until the printhead ran dry too (not intentionally!).

If I find that it runs out of ink quicker with each refill, I will assume it is gumming-up and try flushing as you suggest. Dish soap should work, it takes the dried ink off my hands pretty good. I don't expect to have any problems with the color inks because they are much thinner.

Whyzman:
I created a Paint document to flush out the nozzles for the four colors. Mine are "printing rectangles". I noticed a while ago that the cleaning cycle creates a real mess inside the printer. I would much rather spray the ink onto a sheet of paper. I think this does the same thing?????

I saw on one of the sites that sells refill kits that cartriges can typically only be refilled about 4 to 6 times, but they didn't say why. It's just a box with a sponge inside, so my common sense says you are right - it "should" be possible to go on refilling "forever" (but see above).

With regards to the printheads, I think the HP whitepaper said the black printhead was good for 16,000 pages, and that the printer will warn you when the printhead is starting to wear out. So my assumption is that when you want to print page number 16,001 your printer will tell you that the printhead has expired and needs to be replaced.

An interesting small aside...

My HP cartridges have built-in heads and fill from the underside [which I like because...]
I always store my tins of paint upside-down...
This way, the paint sits right on the lid and the paint runs against or into the tiny gap between lid and tin and forms a good seal as it makes contact with incoming air. This prevents any further ingress of air and so the contents do not form a skin on the underside.
The upper surface of the paint has an air-gap above it, but once the oxygen [or whatever] reacts with the paint and is all used up, no further reaction takes place and in practice no skin is formed here either.

I imagine a similar thing is happening inside the ink cartridge.

Theres a limit in refilling because the cartrige worn-out try to use bottomless ink system and a epson printer

I have heard that before about the paint cans, but I hadn't heard yet from someone who had tried it. :cool: I will start storing my paint upside down.

And the lids never pop off from internal pressure??? Stored upright, there is potential for the can to breath (and ruin the paint). Stored upside down air can potentially enter under vacuum (in winter), but it can never leave. Hence why I had not tried before.

You may be right about the air causing a film to form. The black ink seems to cling to the sponge in a thick film, possibly trapping air pockets inside. The sponge is continually exposed to fresh air coming in through the vent holes as the ink is drawn from the bottom of the cartrige.

fill from the underside
Could you explain?

"And the lids never pop off from internal pressure?"
No, never.

"Stored upside down air can potentially enter under vacuum (in winter)"
I've never seen any sign of air ingress.

"fill from the underside...Could you explain?"
Well, my HP cartridges have the fill hole on the underside [wonderful!], which to my mind is very smart of Hewlett Packard.
The refill kit includes a Nylon bung to plug the hole [after pressing the ball-bearing hole sealer into the cartridge and then filling with ink].

"Nylon bung to plug the hole [after pressing the ball-bearing hole sealer into the cartridge and then filling with ink]"

Sounds earily familiar to the procedure for refilling my printheads! I have the HP14 - completely separate - cartriges and printheads. I think the HP10, HP11 and a few others are this way too. The cartrige is a plastic box with a sponge and a hole in the bottom. It fills from the top. The printhead has to be refilled too if you make the mistake of letting the cartrige run out. It gets filled from the bottom after punching in the ball bearing seal - and the InkTek refill kit had a neoprene plug to replace the ball (bouncing around inside the head now). Are we talking apples and oranges?

Interesting to note that everywhere I look (HP docs, InkTek instructions) it is described as a ball bearing, but I was able to stab it with a knife to try and pry it out. I got it to come a little, then it slipped and popped inside the head. It was clearly NOT metallic!


"very smart of Hewlett Packard"

I am surprised they allowed this design "loophole" that allows us to so easily reseal the hole after refilling, considering the effort they went to make refilling difficult in so many other ways.

I am an 82-year-old computer illiterate and need all the assistance I can amass. I have an HP DeskJet 930C. I do not see a refill hole in the cartridges. Am I overlooking it. I have lots of ink (all colors) left from when I was filling cartridges for a Canon S450. Never had any trouble with the Canon and would like to have the same results with the HP -- if I could only find the refill hole.

Also, could you reccommend a cartridge cleaning fluid?

Thanks in advance for your help.

Bill in Dallas

When refilling cartridges for my Canon S450 printer ( a top loader) I would just push the "ball bearing" sealer into the tank. After refilling I would put a drop from my hot glue gun in the hole and it would seal very well, then removing the seal for the next refilling could be done very easily by just rolling the wad with my finger. If the hot glue gun was not turned on, I would just seal the hole with a piece of black electrical tape.

I hope this helps:

http://www.printersupplyco.com/4inkjetsrefill_C1823A.html

Also, Welcome tohttp://www.pcguide.com/ubb/pcgubb.gif Forums!

My cartriges had no visible hole. There is a label on top of the cartrige. If you rub this hard with your thumb it will sink in where the refill holes are. Then just cut the label out around the hole with a razor knife. I read that some cartriges have no hole, then you have to drill one. There is a filter under the sponge, so you don't need to worry about drill shavings getting into the cartrige.

The printhead cleaner from Atlantic Inkjet (http://www.atlanticinkjet.com/) saved my printhead after weeks of struggling with HP procedures, and being told over and over by HP support that I would have to replace it. See my other thread Hewlett Packard Officejet 7130 Runaround.

You need to be certain the Canon ink is compatible! I read the HP ink is a more acidic formulation than others, and HP uses different formulations in different printers. However, if you can render some of the HP ink from your cartrige and mix it with and equal amount of the Canon ink --- then if it does'nt turn to cottage chese, I would say go-for-it (even though HP says this will ruin your printer).