I have been refilling ink-jet cartridges for a while now, sometimes for free. What's the secret? I fill with water!
First, this will only work with ink cartridges that hold the ink with foam/sponge inside. If the ink is held in a hollow chamber this won't work.
The trick is that this type of cartridge holds the ink with a spongy foam material and when the printer reports that it is out of ink there is still a great deal of ink left inside the cartridge. I think many people know or suspect this but it can be proved by simply filling with water. There is so much ink soaked into the foam that you can actually refill with water three times before seeing a serious drop in print quality. (Photo quality printing will of course show problems right away but for printing out driving directions or a recipe for Yankee Pot Roast, who cares about print quality!)
What I don't know is how many cartridge types use foam to hold the ink. From what I have seen, it looks like most printers are moving away from the foam filled cartridge system but since I haven't bought a printer in years I can't say. For myself I have been using a HP CP1160 like forever. (Why replace something that works right?) This model uses separate ink and print-head cartridges and the ink cartridges are the foam filled type. I purchase new ink cartridges once per year and then refill first with water until the printout starts looking washed out. Then I refill with cheap refill ink to re-saturate the foam then refill with water again. The only reason to buy replacement cartridges is that the F'ing printer eventually refuses to print when the cartridges pass the expiration date.
I wish I had a list of cartridges that use foam in the fill chamber but since the only other printer I have had besides the 1160 is a HP 800 series, that's all I am familier with. On that type, only the color cartridge uses foam, the black uses a Mylar bladder which doesn't hold much residual ink when empty.
If anyone wants to add a list of foam based cartridges to this thread then please do.
First, this will only work with ink cartridges that hold the ink with foam/sponge inside. If the ink is held in a hollow chamber this won't work.
The trick is that this type of cartridge holds the ink with a spongy foam material and when the printer reports that it is out of ink there is still a great deal of ink left inside the cartridge. I think many people know or suspect this but it can be proved by simply filling with water. There is so much ink soaked into the foam that you can actually refill with water three times before seeing a serious drop in print quality. (Photo quality printing will of course show problems right away but for printing out driving directions or a recipe for Yankee Pot Roast, who cares about print quality!)
What I don't know is how many cartridge types use foam to hold the ink. From what I have seen, it looks like most printers are moving away from the foam filled cartridge system but since I haven't bought a printer in years I can't say. For myself I have been using a HP CP1160 like forever. (Why replace something that works right?) This model uses separate ink and print-head cartridges and the ink cartridges are the foam filled type. I purchase new ink cartridges once per year and then refill first with water until the printout starts looking washed out. Then I refill with cheap refill ink to re-saturate the foam then refill with water again. The only reason to buy replacement cartridges is that the F'ing printer eventually refuses to print when the cartridges pass the expiration date.
I wish I had a list of cartridges that use foam in the fill chamber but since the only other printer I have had besides the 1160 is a HP 800 series, that's all I am familier with. On that type, only the color cartridge uses foam, the black uses a Mylar bladder which doesn't hold much residual ink when empty.
If anyone wants to add a list of foam based cartridges to this thread then please do.
