HP Inkjet Refills . . .

Years ago I had an Epson printer, an ink jet printer.  I had terrible experience with that piece of crap.  So the next ink jet printer I got was an HP.  It was mostly plastic but worked fine.  The only thing was the ink refills were expensive.  And with time I found a secondary source of ink cartridges that saved me about 50% over HP prices.

The old HP finally wore out and I replaced with a new super duper HP.  It is connected to the computer via a 2.4 gigabyte electronic connection.  No more wires.  Well I had one wire at first, the same old printer cable from a USB port over to the printer.  Now that cable sits fallow in the back of everything sitting there just in case.

I had bought one set of secondary market replace cartridges, the infamous "564" cartridge.  A newer design but been around long enough for the secondary market to come up with refills and refill kits.

So I ordered up a refill kit.  Cost about $35 and came with four bottles of ink and two syringes with needles and set screw plugs.  The plugs are threaded and it also has a little Allen wrench to install the new threaded plugs.  Of course, it had the appropriate instructions which were dated and not quite the way to do the job.

I went on the Internet and there are several home brew videos on how to do it yourself.  There are some good tips like make sure the top of the reservoir is well sealed, not vent but the ink installation port needs to be air tight or the cartridge will seep ink.

I had one cartridge, cyan or blue, that was reporting empty.  The printer lets you know when you need to refill or reload an ink cartridge.  It will go so far as to even order one for you from HP (at an unbelievable price plus the ever present shipping cost).

I opened up the printer, removed the cartridge.  I carefully peeled back the plastic tape on top and it revealed a small hole in the top.  The syringe needle passed through the hole into the reservoir.  So I loaded up the syringe with 10 milliliters of blue ink and shove the needle and emptied the syringe.  No overflow or back flow, so I added 19 more milliliters.  Then I carefully wiped off the top and resealed the port of the cartridge.  I washed out the syringe with water, about three or four flushes with water cleared the needle and syringe for the next job.

I figure I have enough ink for the next two years.  In round numbers I ought to save about $100 or more over the refill cartridges at Staples or Walmart.

What gets me is that HP asks you to send the cartridges back as an environmental recycling thing.  All they are doing is reloading and resell the cartridges.  Staples takes the empty cartridges too.  I am sure they also recycle them with new ink.

No matter, I enjoy doing those kinds of things.  And if I can save a dollar or two at doing, well that's all the better for me.  I have time and inclination to do it.

One of the great benefits of retirement.