CARTRIDGES SHOULD BE REFILLED PRIOR TO RUNNING OUT OF INK
Damage to the print heads could result from running a dry cartridge.


INK LEVEL INDICATORS:
Ink Level Indicators do not always work.  This means that even on brand new cartridges the ink level indicators may be wrong.  Users of HP cartridges commonly have issues with erroneous ink level indicators showing ink available when there is none in the cartridge.  This can be a result of several things;
1. HP ink level indicators are designed to fail so close that erroneous information is given if printer is shut off and turned on too many times.
2. This is accidental and that HP ink level indicators are inefficient.
3. Ink determined available for use contains ink that can not actually be used by the cartridge.  The filter screen placement as shown on the image to the right displays that the screen sits slightly higher than bottom of the cartridge.  Therefore though there is "X" amount of ink in the cartridge this does not mean all of the ink is used.   It is recommended for this reason that you refill when ink level indicators first come on--or before they come on at regular intervals.  This is something we call "topping off" a cartridge.


INK LEVEL INDICATORS:  WHEN TO REFILL
HP printers that use the 94 95 96 97 & 99 cartridges do not stop printing when ink level indicators show that ink is missing from the cartridge.  This is both a benefit and a disadvantage in refilling ink cartridges.
The advantage is that you do not have to reset the ILI every time you refill.  The disadvantage is that you never really know how much ink is in a cartridge.
What we can determine and advise on is when to initially pull a cartridge for refilling.   HP printers using the 94 85 96 97 & 99 will display a pop-up dialog box that ink levels are getting low.  This is a good time to refill your cartridge.  If you can not refill your cartridge at this time remove the cartridge from the printer.  Your printer will continue to use the cartridge during cleanings, priming when the printer is turned on and when printing.  It will use the cartridge even if there is no ink in the cartridge.





VIEWING YOUR INK LEVELS
There are two ways to view your ink levels.
The first is to monitor your ink levels when printing.  A dialog box automatically appears when you start a print job. 
If you disabled your pop-up dialog box at any time you can always view your ILI by accessing your printer Properties and clicking on the SERVICES TAB of the dialog box.  Click on SERVICE THIS DEVICE button and then ESTIMATED INK LEVEL tab to see the 3-D view show above.

MONITOR YOUR USAGE
Since the ink level indicators will not be useful after the first refill it is recommended that you monitor your print to determine when a good refill time is.  Since you will need to refill before the cartridge completely runs out of ink to avoid print head burn up it is recommended that you refill in regular intervals.  We call this "topping off" a cartridge.  If you normally use up a cartridge every two weeks then top off your cartridge once a week or once every ten days.  It is better to refill often and refill less each time then it is to burn up the cartridge.
You can also monitor for white streaks or missing print.  This is a good indication that ink levels are beginning to run low.

NUMBER OF TIMES A CARTRIDGE CAN BE REFILLED.
There are several factors involved in how many times a cartridge can be refilled.  These include how many times a printer has been turned on and off, how long it takes to go through (use up) a cartridge, how well the cartridges are handled during the refill, how the cartridges are stored if not in printer and several other factors will sway the number of refills.  Of our initial batch of 18 cartridges (94-3 95-3 96-4 97-5 99-3) the average number of refills was four per cartridge.


LOCATING YOUR PRINTER SERVICES.




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My initial refill of these cartridges.