Hp photosmart c4480 - Refill

[Metallo]

Hi all,

a friend of mine gave me his HP C4480, I am not new to refill as I have been doing this for years with my Canon i865, so I just need a tip on the methodology and a reliable ink supplier.

Thank you
Alex

 

[Metallo]

Anybody?

 

[Metallo]

Hi guys,

Today I refilled the original cart HP74 with 15ml of black pigmented ink (fist time with HP Printer), I waited 8h before running two cleaning cycles and finally tried to print: a total mess.
The ink has spilled everywhere in the printer.

Now the only different thing I did from what the refilling instructions I saw on a YouYube video is that I applied some tape above the label because I was afraid the original label did no longer seal as before.
Looking at the cart carefully I have noticed some tiny gaps in the plastic at the end of the label, are they supposed to be for the air?
If so, is this the reason why the ink was spilling? I mean even when I removed the cartridge the ink kept on spilling.

I wouldn't know what else could cause this, honestly.

Now, I have to open the printer to clean everything, the ink is everywhere in the cart location... what a mess... I feel embarrassed, I have been refilling my Canon carts directly in the printer since since 2005, never a problem.

Thanks for your advice.

Alex

 

[PeterBJ]

Here you find another refill instruction for the HP 74 cartridge: http://www.printerfillingstation.com/Refill-Instructions/HP/H34.htm .

I think the reason for the leakage is that the cartridge was overfilled. Even if this instruction says 20 ml of ink should be injected, you should keep an eye on the top of the sponge seen through one of the other holes. Inject ink very slowly and when the sponge surface turns dark from ink, stop immediately and suck 1 ml of ink back into the syringe.

The purpose of the label is to minimize evaporation from the cartridge. The label doesn't and must not seal the cartridge airtight. Some fine grooves in the top of the cartridges plus the tiny gaps act as a maze to minimize evaporation while still allowing the cartridge to "breathe", so the the grooves should be covered but the the tiny gaps must not be covered completely. If the label doesn't stick well, a piece of tape of the same dimensions as the label is a good substitute.

Even without the label/tape applied the cartridge should not leak. I think overfilling is the cause of the leakage, so you could try and suck out 5 ml of ink with the syringe and clean the cartridge. Now place the cartridge in a shallow tray and observe if it still leaks. If it doesn't leak after half an hour, it might be OK to use.

 

[PeterBJ]

I think the refill instructions might be wrong and the cause of the overflow. Normally an ink amount of 80% of the nominal capacity will be suitable, so 15 or 20 ml of ink might be too much. I found more info about the HP 74 and HP 74 XL cartridges here: http://freedomtoprint.com/2010/07/2...5w-black-inkjet-print-cartridge-cracked-open/ and here: http://freedomtoprint.com/2010/07/2...-xl-full-inkjet-print-cartridge-cracked-open/ , but I have not been able to find the nominal capacities in ml of these cartridges.

 

[Tudor]

HP74, HP74XL:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=PX7eqiQPxJk#!

HP75, HP75XL:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=k2s6wuLMXGc

InkTec recommends 8ml for HP74 and 15 for HP74XL. But, since you don't know how much ink is still in the cartridge, the only way you can inject the proper amount is to peel carefully the label, slowly inject ink until the sponge is saturated, suck about 1-2ml from the top of the sponge and put the label back on. You'll have to execute a head cleaning after you reinsert the cartridge in the printer.

 

[Metallo]

Hi all,

I do apologize for coming back so late.

The day after, the cart had stopped to drop, so after having cleaned the printer inside, I put the cart in and tried to print: printing was fine, no leakage.

So, I'd say too much ink.

I have been mis-leaded by some instructions that were saying that although the cart can be a reduce ink one (74), the sponge inside is the same as 74XL and therefore I could fill with 20ml.
I filled 15ml and I did it because the cart did no longer print so the old ink was finished, but eventually it was too much.
Next time I will go for 5 or 7ml as I don't see how to know when the sponge is saturated

Thank you!
Alex

 

[PeterBJ]

To see when the sponge is saturated: While slowly injecting the ink into the sponge, keep an eye on the surface of the sponge seen through the refill hole.

As soon as the surface of the sponge becomes moist from ink the sponge is saturated. Then use the syringe to extract 1-2 ml of ink from the top of the sponge as instructed by Tudor in post #6. You can use the same procedure for the tri-color cartridges, but be careful that the ink does not overflow and enter one of the other ink chambers. This would ruin the other color.

I hope this helps.

 

[Metallo]

Hi,

I ended up to buy the ink from inksupply and refilled both color XL75 cart as well as a regular 74.
They printed fine for some months ( I only refilled them twice) but now they both stopped, like there is no ink, but there is.

I cannot understand what happened, I began to see printing problems with the black, then I began to use the color one for a week or so, but now, that also shows printing problems.
The carts I refilled are the genuine HP ones.

At this point, I need to buy new carts, but cannot see where to buy empty carts, I'd prefer to go for the XL but really very difficult to find them.

Can you help?

Thanks
Alex

 

[PeterBJ]

These HP 74 cartridges and similar cartridges with sponge(s) and print head combined in one cartridge are difficult to refill and get working reliably. Often a cartridge fails after a few refills. One cause of problems is air trapped in the nozzle chambers. In that case the use of a priming tool like one of these can sometimes bring the cartridge back to life: http://www.ausjetinks.com.au/p/Prim...27-28-74-HP/Cartridge-Primers/INK-30-EZ-F5657 . As you also own a Canon i865, I think you have found out why Canon's single ink tanks are popular among refillers.

The only source for new HP 74 XL cartridges is HP. No or at least very few 3'rd party combined cartridges exist *. You could also try remanufactured cartridges, but they are a gamble, some work well, others don't. If you get a good cartridge you may even be able to refill it successfully. In my opinion the price of a remanufactured cartridge should not be more than 50% of a new OEM cartridge.

* I have actually had a couple of HP 78 cartridges, that were not made by HP. It became evident when I cut open the cartridges after giving up refilling them.