HP C309a w/CIS Review, Humbly Submitted by a Forum Newbie

[kgvickers]

Hi kgvickesrs the ink capacities in the 564 Xl carts is colors 10ml black pigment 22 good luck with your calculations.

Your CISS article very interesting. wish I could find something suitable in the UK apart from E-bay items. I have posted my
difficulties in re-fillling this 364/564 carts reliably. and keeping the M/C happy as well with its continous flashing lights, warning messages etc. your system seems to have got round all these problems.

Ignoring shipping charges, my cost for the ink was about 12.5 cents per ml (this kit also included the syringes which I've elected to ignore in my calculations). A Google search indicates that the color ink in cartridges costs about $1.50 per ml and the black ink in cartridges is about $1.14 per ml.

So, obviously the savings is significant, not to mention it's unlikely that all the ink in the factory carts can be used. For this amount of ink I would have had to purchase at least two sets of cartridges . . . one full set is about $85 per Google (prices vary wildly on ebay, from a low of about $65 to a high of over $100).

One final note - although the printer is printing fine, as of late it will pick up and spit out blank pages of the "Mexico" Costco 4x6 photo paper. Not sure what's up with that. I can re-feed the same sheets and they print fine. I'll probably have to address this problem soon within the original warranty period.

Cheers.

 

[kgvickers]

One final note - although the printer is printing fine, as of late it will pick up and spit out blank pages of the "Mexico" Costco 4x6 photo paper. Not sure what's up with that. I can re-feed the same sheets and they print fine. I'll probably have to address this problem soon within the original warranty period.

Since this last post I started to get some printer error messages. I think I found the cause - the feeder tube for the ink had come out of the little "T" shaped holder and it was blocking the full movement of the print head. Since correcting that I've not had any problems with it feeding multiple pages.

So it's a good idea to raise the lid occasionally and check for problems.

Keith

 

[ThrillaMozilla]

The most difficult part was getting the chips off the original HP cartridges . . . they were supposed to include a custom tool but it was not in the box. A bench vise and some dental floss did the trick.

Most people use a razor blade, you pervert.

One thing that is really annoying is that the printer will stop printing when it brings up that stupid low-ink warning. Now its telling me that use of non-HP cartridges will void the warranty.

You can just disable the frikkin ink monitoring system. The easiest way is on the front panel of the printer. Just go through the menus. The only catch is that if you want to re-enable it, you have to reset everything, and you lose all your settings.

Mine gives me low-ink warnings even with OEM cartridges, and even though it shows all cartridges are 80-90% full. And by the way, 80-90% full appears to be a rare condition for this printer. 0% is more common.

 

[ThrillaMozilla]

Hi kgvickesrs the ink capacities in the 564 Xl carts is colors 10ml black pigment 22 good luck with your calculations.

I found an old cartridge in the recycle bin at work. Since it has a transparent section, I can measure the wall thickness, which is 2 mm. This is also confirmed by pictures of a dissected cartridge that are posted on the Web. Since I can see the position of the dividing wall between the chambers by external inspection, I was able to measure the volume from external dimensions.

The volume of the ink chamber is approximately 14 mL for the XL size black pigment cartridge, and about 5.6 mL for the XL color cartridges. The sponge chamber is larger, but part of the volume is taken by the sponge material. From other reports on filling, I guess the net volume of the sponge chamber is about the same as for the ink chamber. HP also sells a smaller (non XL size) cartridge with an empty ink chamber. They're half the price, but I don't recommend them if you're buying them for their ink content.

Incidentally, HP has recently reduced the size of the cartridges, although they claim they have also reduced the price. http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/document?docname=c02435884&cc=us&dlc=en&lc=en


UPDATE 4/25/11
I made some further measurements, filling and weighing a 564 magenta (dye) cartridge. It had been empty (or nearly empty) and uncovered for a few weeks or months, so I don't know how dry it was. Using an Inktec fitting sold for that cartridge, I drew back on the syringe, but no ink was ejected. Then I closed the vent as best I could and injected 20% isopropyl alcohol in water. I withdrew liquid once or twice, and sucked back on it with the syringe a few times to saturate it and eliminate as much air as possible. (I did not attempt to clean the cartridge thoroughly.)

Then I sucked it about as empty as it would go, and injected about 4 mL of Inktec ink. I waited a few minutes, but no ink dripped out. Then I drained it overnight by placing the outlet in contact with a tissue. Finally, I filled with an additional 3.79 g of Inktec ink.

I did have some problem with a few drops of liquid coming from the poorly sealed vent. I simply washed it externally and drew a few drops of distilled water back through the vent to clean it.

Results

Weight "dry" 17.509 g
Weight with ink 21.737
Drained overnight 16.061

Thus, I was able to add 4.23 g of ink (1 g is 1 mL, or very close to that) after wetting it with cleaning solution and emptying it. I also drained 5.68 g of liquid from the full cartridge. Thus, the NET capacity of the sponge chamber is at least 5.68 g, which is about what I estimated. (Although when I refilled it, it took only 3.79 g before overflowing.) The size of the HP564XL cartridges is the same, except that the ink chamber is blocked off and only the sponge chamber is filled.


Caveat: The only problem worth mentioning here is that after a few days of storage in a moist, sealed bag, there is a little seepage from some of the vents. Possibly filled a little too generously, or maybe I didn't clean the vent thoroughly after my slightly messy fill jobs.

 

[ThrillaMozilla]

So, obviously the savings is significant, not to mention it's unlikely that all the ink in the factory carts can be used. For this amount of ink I would have had to purchase at least two sets of cartridges . . . one full set is about $85 per Google (prices vary wildly on ebay, from a low of about $65 to a high of over $100).

Careful. Some of those lower prices may be for used (i.e., refilled) cartridges.

In my hands the actual ink use by this printer is horrendous. The original cartridges lasted about 50 to 64 pages, or a little longer if I waited until they were totally empty -- and this was mostly text. Realistically, about 70 to 80 cents/page. Maybe more for pictures. Details here: http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1615776&page=4 , message 40. My best suggestion is to buy ONE and only one set of XL cartridges (about $100) and refill, or maybe get a CIS if those prove to be good.

 

[PsyckoSama]

Two years later, hows it workin' out for you?

 

[kgvickers]

Two years later, hows it workin' out for you?

For the most part my experience is good but there have been some rocky times. I've found that it's a good idea to print something with a fair amount of color at least weekly to keep the ink from drying in the print head. Also, if I go too long without printing, air bubbles will begin to appear in the ink tubes right where they go into the cartridges - obviously air slowly leaks in somewhere.

The refill ink I've gotten from the original vendor is fine but I did a price comparison with MIS (www.inksupply.com) and MIS is significantly less expensive. However, I've been hesitant to blend ink from different vendors.

I had some problems with the ink tube "ribbon" travel. I trimmed away much of the plastic "hood" that covers the head/cartridges when they are parked in the off position. If you look at the second picture from my 12/08/2009 posting, the "hood" is the part over to the right with the cartridge replacement instruction pictures. For some reason the tube-ribbon would hang on that and interfere with the head travel. The trimming fixed that problem.

Despite my problems and hassles, I remain firmly committed to only buying printers for which a CIS is available. I refuse to pay the excessive prices for new print cartridges and refilling is a big pain in the butt. Like most folks on this forum, I'm a serious DIY guy - I maintain everything I own (boats, jetskis, cars, lawn equipment, computers, plumbing, pool, HVAC . . . the list goes on and on). I've come to realize that having "the knack" for repairing anything under the sun is actually a curse . . . I spend much of my free time working on something around the house every weekend. I decided that refilling ink cartridges was something I could give up as long as a good CIS is available.

If you have any other questions I'm happy to answer.

Keith

 

[ThrillaMozilla]

I had some problems with the ink tube "ribbon" travel. I trimmed away much of the plastic "hood" that covers the head/cartridges when they are parked in the off position. If you look at the second picture from my 12/08/2009 posting, the "hood" is the part over to the right with the cartridge replacement instruction pictures.

That doesn't look right. I have to wonder if the ribbon shouldn't come in from the right instead of the left.

 

[kgvickers]

That doesn't look right. I have to wonder if the ribbon shouldn't come in from the right instead of the left.

You're probably right but it seems to be working now and I've got the printer shoved against the wall on the right. I'd have to rearrange my computer nook to make a change.

 

[jyoung4]

Hello,

I've got the same printer and am looking at either a CIS setup or possibly refillable cartridges. I'd prefer the CIS setup but the space around the priter is somewhat constrained. Can someone give me approximate measurements for the footprint of the ink reservoir bottles? (I have some space but not a lot.) Also, would there be ennough slack in the tubing to allow them to sit in front of the printer rather than at the side? From the pics, it looks like there would be but I'd just like to confirm that.

On the question of refillable cartridges for this printer - anybody have any experience with them? Are they about as good as the CIS? (Other than having to fill them more often.)

Thanks

Jim Y.