Where are best sites for U.K. refilling HP Cartridges?
Russ
cheapest ink to use, & any idea how many times you can refill a
cartridge before its no good ?
Thanks Russ
Steve Bradshaw
is as good as HP's for photos on glossy paper, but their black is Epson
quality, i.e. not very good as it feathers on plain paper. I'm told
http://www.inky-fingers.co.uk/ sell good black ink but I've not tried it
yet. I'm on my fourth colour refill on the same 930 original cart, still as
new results - I always print the same photo as a test after a refill to make
sure the quality hasn't dropped. Some people have said you should get 3-5
refills out of a C6578D cart, but others don't seem to be able to get 1 to
go right. I believe the likelihood of success is all down to the refill
method used, so I'm reposting my method as posted last year with a few
updates:-
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Success. I've just (Dec 2000) refilled my HP930C colour cartridge, a C6578D
using a refill kit from www.dcps.co.uk and it performs really well. It's up
to HP standard but about 1 notch lighter which seems to bring out more
detail in very dark areas. It's still capable of a good solid black though.
Cost for a refill of 7.5cc per chamber (standard C6578D is 6.33cc) is about
£3, a bit different to £30 for a cartridge.
I had read information about refilling this cartridge for some weeks and
been a bit concerned about peoples' failed attempts to refill the C6578D,
but gradually more info became available which gave me further thoughts on
how best to tackle the job. The consensus seemed to be that the following
things were bad news :-
1. Overfilling. You may get away with one measured refill but there is
always the chance of topping up a colour that is still half-full. If
overfilled then the resistance of the sponge becomes excessive and air can't
get in fast enough, so ink flow stops. Air may even be drawn up through the
nozzles - disaster.
2. Running dry. Nozzle firing elements burn out double-quick if the
cartridge runs dry and you carry on even for a minute as the ink is the main
coolant.
3. Unsuitable ink. Only use ink formulated for the 9xx series printers.
4. Air locks. Filling from too high in the cartridge can leave a void above
the heads which can be almost impossible to get rid of once you've printed
and the air moves down into the head's pre-chamber.
5. Dried up jets during refill. Evidently the heads can block if the
cartridge is left exposed for even just a minute or so.
So, armed with this info, I waited for my C6578D to run out, or rather I
waited until a warning message came up on-screen that it was time to
consider buying a new replacement cartridge. (You may just get a flashing
printer LED warning you though) . The ink status showed a minuscule amount
left. It is very important that ink is still left in the cartridge and the
cartridge is working perfectly before attempting a refill. If you've got
patchy printouts then it's a bit iffy using the cart for refills as nozzles
may have burnt out The steps to a successful refill were:-
1. Prepare a large mug/cup/soup bowl or something flat bottomed with a few
layers of tissue flat on the bottom for the cartridge to rest on being
supported upright by the sides between operations, being 'wicked' slowly so
as to stop the head drying and/or inks leaking underneath and crossing over
into another colour chamber. The cartridge will be frequently returned to
this vessel throughout, bearing in mind 5 above. It will get very
ink-stained but ignore it.
(My hypodermic needles were only 1.5" long from www.dcps.com and people were
saying you need 3" ones to reach the bottom but there again some of them had
damaged something at the bottom of the cartridge causing excessive ink flow,
so....)
2. Drill 3 holes (3/32" diameter) at the front, 1 3/8" from the top surface,
one hole for each colour chamber. This was on the barcode side on mine, away
from the head side. Once the drill has bitten into the plastic, angle the
hole downwards about 45deg, aiming to about halfway along the bottom
surface. The drill will bite into the internal sponge (it's actually a
fibrous wadding) so try not to get the drill caught up in it too much and
withdraw the drill as soon as you're through the thin plastic. These holes
serve a dual purpose:- to be able to refill with short needles and to stop
overfilling.
3. Double check which chamber is which colour by inspecting the tissue in
the mug. It should be from left to right as the cartridge would normally
face you in the printer, Yellow - Magenta - Cyan.
Inject 7.5cc slowly into the correct hole at a 45deg angle towards the
middle bottom of the chamber with the 1 1/2" needle fully inserted but then
pulled back 1/16". Take about a minute or so to expel each 7.5cc. Tape
over each hole afterwards with a small piece of quality sellotape. Ink
should not come out of these holes at all, if it does then stop as that
chamber couldn't have been nearly empty. It's not a problem if ink does
come out though, this is the benefit of this overflow hole method, you can't
overfill.
4. Place cartridge on the tissue to promote wicking. You may need to renew
the tissue, probably not. The ink flow should slow down rapidly. It should
be ready to reinsert in the printer after about 10 minutes. Don't put it
back if drips are forming, wait a few more minutes.
5. DON'T PRINT ANYTHING! Apart from a couple of test pages (with
realignment) which have little colour on them anyway, I wouldn't print
anything for about 6 hours to give any air bubbles the chance to rise out of
harms way. It's unlikely you will need to run a Toolbox cleaning cycle but
you may have to, that's what it's there for, but if the printout looks
patchy then I prefer to take the cartridge out and wick it on tissue till
the ink flows good rather than run a cleaning cycle at this stage.
6. The printer will still think it's low on ink so the status needs
resetting. If you've got 2 other old cartridges you can rotate them as it
can only remember two cartridges and the third one will then show full. I
found that the taping over contacts method I had used successfully for the
black cartridge needed to be amended slightly. With the contacts facing you,
it seems to be just the top right hand vertical column of 4 that create the
signature. The left side column doesn't seem to do anything. I had to tape
up all 4 top right contacts, then the top 2, then none, reinserting the
cartridge at each stage to eventually get a 100% full indication. The
printer will do a realignment (with the blue light inside) when it thinks
you've put another cartridge in.
As I said at the beginning, the results are excellent, and can recommend the
dcps C6578 refill inks. No idea how they fade though, we'll see.
(Update.......after 8 months, absolutely no fade on loose photos kept in a
folder, sorry I don't display any in direct light.) The above process
sounds complicated but in practice it's quite quick and I found it a lot
easier than refilling Epsons with their sponge filling that seems more prone
to airlocks.
The best papers I've used so far are HP's own and Imation which seems
identical to me in results. I tried one waterproof paper, Imagepro Photo
Weight, and it is waterproof but the prints are terribly faded.
I also used dcps black 51645 ink and it's O.K. but not as good as HP ink as
it feathers a little like an Epson on cheap paper but not as bad, so I'm
still looking for a better black ink, no-one in the U.K. seems to
categorically state that they supply pigmented black ink for HPs. People in
the U.S. seem to recommend Reinkit and MIPS, I can't comment. Update -
someone e-mailed me recommending inky-fingers black ink.
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--
Steve B
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