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94 95 96 97 99: MY INITIAL REFILLING & TESTS |
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When
a company releases a new refill kit there are two ways to do
it.
The first is to look up someone else's instructions and hope
for the best. The second is to actually refill the cartridges
over and over until you get it right and then sit down and write
out the instructions.
This article covers two different things:
1 . My refilling experiences made before we released the first
kit for these cartridges.
2. Tips on refilling your cartridges.
Initial purchase for this cartridge set:
1 HP Deskjet 5740 (included one 94 black cartridge and one 95
color cartridge.)
1 Double pack of HP 96 black cartridges
1 Double pack of HP 97 color cartridges
1 Double pack of HP 99 photo cartridges
Following HP's installation instructions I removed the tape
and plastic from the printer. I then installed the HP software
for the printer and then proceeded to install the cartridges.
After installing the cartridge the printer performed its initial
charge and test print. For testing purposes on these initial
tests I used a 96 bright 20lb Staples brand paper.
Once the printer was installed and ready to go I ran an internal
printer page test. I followed this with printing a set of our
Palette Test Pages and Primer Page on plain paper.
I then printed a series of 13 prints which included a couple
of photos and palette test pages on a variety of media including:
HP Premium Inkjet paper, HP Photo Paper Everyday Semi-Gloss,
Silver Reflective Film, Canvas Fabric, Inkjet transparency film,
Epson matte finish (which came with one of my C84s), Epson photo
paper (which came with one of my C84s), Premium Photo Glossy,
Radiant Frames Backlit film, Kodak +106 bright white paper,
& Kodak Ultima.
I removed the 94 black cartridge from the 5740 and replaced
with the 99 photo cartridge and repeated the print tests above.
At this point the best thing to do was to run the rest of the
ink out of the cartridges so I printed up some of our instruction
sheets. It only took a few pages before the ink level indicator
light come on.
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This is the point according to my ink level indicator I chose
to stop printing and get down to business. |
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When
refilling ink cartridges it is always helpful to know where
the ink is going to go. Since the cartridges by physical design
were very similar to the 56, 57 & 58 ink jet cartridges
I decided to simply remove the top label.
To determine where the individual colors go into the cartridge
I inserted a toothpick into each of the original fill holes.
I would like to mention at this point that it always pays to
test first. Though the cartridges were in essence near duplicates
to the 56, 57 & 58 the color locations were not.
In the case of the 99 photo cartridge the Photo Black and Photo
Magenta were reversed.
In the 95 the Yellow and Magenta were reversed. |
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I
performed my initial refill on the 95 first. I modified one
of my 57 cartridge clips to fit the 95 and inserted it into
place.
I filled my injector to 1.5cc of formulabs 95/97 yellow ink
and slowly injected the ink into the cartridge. now, as my first
refill I injected the ink painfully slow so as not to overfill
the cartridge.
Because I was still in "test mode" I repeated the
1.5cc refilling until I was confident that the cartridge was
full.
TIP: If you are using a 94 or 95 your
refills will hold more ink then is stated on the box by HP.
This is because these cartridges are physically identical to
the higher capacity 96 and 97. The only difference between them
is how much ink HP originally gives you and the ID's on them.
In my haste to make sure I documented the refill process I neglected
to remember a key element. I did not tape the fill holes that
were not in use.
TIP: Always tape over the fill holes you
are not using. This will prevent accidental contamination. |
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After each color refilled I taped over the top of the fill hole
making sure that air could still get into the cartridge from
the vent paths along the top of the cartridge.
After completing the 95 color cartridge I refilled the 99 Photo
cartridge in a painfully slow manner as well.
But you'll notice from the photo I once again neglected to remember
taping over the fill holes not in use.
TIP: Do as I say, not as I do.
When I had finished refilling all three colors I was
ready to reinsert the cartridges into the printer. |
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After inserting the cartridge into the printer there was a small
amount of available ink left on the ink level indicator so I
began my print test waiting for the printer to give me the message
that I was out of ink.
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I
printed two built in print test to get a quick comparison of
the ink.
I then began to repeat all of the print tests mentioned above
with the various papers.
After the eleventh page of printing I received a warning message
that I was out of ink and that a HP has new cartridges for sale.
More important, I received a message on screen that I could
remove one of the cartridges (the empty one of course) and that
the printer would continue to print with the remaining cartridge.
The printer would not stop using a cartridge if the cartridge
was in the printer.
Tip: If you are going to refill and have
delayed for one reason or another do not leave the cartridge
in the printer if the ILI shows empty. Your printer will still
head clean he cartridge on start up of the printer and during
cleaning cycles.
Tip:
When you remove one of the cartridges in this manner your printer
goes into INK BACK-UP MODE. There is additional documentation
on this in your owners manual.
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I
left both cartridges in the printer and continued to print.
I was able to print all of the reaming test prints without another
occurrence of the Ink-Out message reappearing.
I continued to print instruction sheets until I noticed a white
streak in my print. At the very first sign of a white streak
I knew the cartridge had again run out of ink.
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TIP:
If you printed a good deal of photos or documents that used
one particular color and you notice a white streak appear it
is best to refill or top off your cartridge and not perform
head cleanings. If you are out of ink, running head cleanings
can damage the print head.
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I repeated this process several times with my Black 94 and color
95 swapping the black now and then with the 99.
After the third cartridge rotation through I noticed something
odd occur. The ink level indicator for the already three time
refilled black went back to showing full.
This was not something I did deliberately or can duplicate.
It happened in this particular instance and tends to happen
at irregular intervals. |
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After
having refilled the color cartridge the third time I came across
my first need for extended head cleaning. After performing the
basic head cleaning I printed a diagnostic page which showed
my the printers nozzle check. It appeared that I had been missing
on the cyan.
Tip: Diagnostic pages are good for determining
what color are not firing and if a cross contamination has occurred.
In this particular case I performed the printers routine head
cleaning and still had a persistent missing in print. I performed
the next level head cleaning and followed it with the printer's
Prime Feature which resolved the problem.
This particular cartridge made it through one more complete
refill before finally failing. |
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After
three repeated days of refilling and printing I had enough
info to write down some instructions. By this time I had already
refilled each of the test cartridges a minimum of four times.
I wrote down several notes regarding the refill and took several
additional pictures and screen captures for the instructions.
Having had the success on this printer I went back to Staples
and purchased an HP Officejet 7310 and PhotoSmart 2710.
Three months later...
We are still running two of these machines at the time of
this article (three months after initial purchase) and the
third had to be retired. The 2710 just could not hold up to
the demand we needed for our testing which still continues
today.
One other tidbit.
Having multiple machines was nice as I was able to swap cartridges
between printers and the printers showed the cartridges as
new even though they had been refilled. This was achieved
by labeling a cartridge to what printer it was originally
in and then after the refill moving it to another printer.
Since the second, and eventually third printer had never seen
these cartridge before they were considered new by the printer.
This is also why remanufactured (recycled) cartridges appear
new to your printer as well.
4/24/05
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NOTE:
Before we released our 94, 95, 96, 97 & 99 refill kits we
took the sample prints on OEM ink and Sensient (Formulabs ink)
and brought them to one of our computer shows. Side by side
with only a letter A and B on the paper consumers were given
three choices as to what looked better, A, B, or can't tell
a difference.
This blind test resulted in a 98% stating that they could not
tell a difference when comparing the inks side by side.
Since then over 3,000 individuals have seen and compared the
inks on all of the media mentioned above with the same results.
What about the 2%? These were split and in half of the cases
Sensient (Formulabs) was by the consumer voted better quality. |
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