Refill Your Printer Cartridge

Printer Cartridges are surprisingly costly. As an alternative, you can get it refilled at a store. The cheapest and effective alternative though is to refill it yourself. All it takes is a bottle of printer-ink and a syringe.

Step 1: What You Need

1. Printer-ink. You can buy it from a computer store. In Bangalore, you can buy it from an ink-refill shop at the entrance of SP Road, near City market.
2. A 1ml disposable syringe. The smaller the needle, the better.
3. Your printer cartridge. My printer uses a HP56 cartridge. But the refill method is same for most inkjet cartridges.

Step 2: The Cartridge

There is a black spot on the white-sticker covering the top-cover of the cartridge. Underneath the black spot is a hole through which ink can be injected into the cartridge. You can peel off the sticker to locate the hole. Or simply pierce the black spot with a needle ( as shown in the figure ).

Step 3: Refill Your Printer Cartridge

Draw ink into the syringe slowly and inject it into the hole. That's it!
Some important tips:
1. The needle size is very small. If you draw ink into the syringe too quickly, you can create air-gaps. Air gaps can block your ink cartridge. So make sure that there are no air bubbles, before you inject ink through the hole.
2. Refilling is a messy job. Make sure you have a piece of paper/waste cloth. The image has a clean background only to make it look good!
3. I was advised to fill the cartridge to near-capacity and not full. i.e., my cartridge's capacity is 19ml. So I filled it to about 13ml. Probably this is to prevent leakage.
4. Once, the cartridge is filled, it should be allowed to set for a few hours. This lets the ink to settle at the bottom of the sponge. The sponge is located inside the cartridge & cannot be seen.

P.S. Sorry for the poor image quality in this instructable. I ruined it by putting the camera too close to the objects.

Acknowledgement: I was "taught" to fill ink by my neighbor Sridhar. Thanks very much!

Comments

[Okuhle]

How many times can you refil one cartridge

[UltriconConvoy]

I got some oil-based printing press ink the other day.
Would this ink work???

BTW, where do you buy syringes?

[malachi0328]

I have some left over from my cat I had to give him insulin everyday , he has since passed but I used to get them from a pharmacy

[orrosta]

syringes can be found in medical supply stores or farm supply stores.

[malachi0328]

I have a cannon printer and the cartridge looks different from what is shown where can I find the hole for my cartridge ?????

[malachi0328]

OOPS ! the ink cartridge # is 245 XL

[malachi0328]

I looked at the ink cartridge and I cant find a place to put the ink , I have a cheap cannon printer the cartridge # is 254XL PLEASE HELP !

[malachi0328]

I appreciate your info

[malachi0328]

if this works for me it will save me a lot of money

[malachi0328]

does this apply to all ink cartridges I have a cheap cannon printer

[Digitalnock]

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[pradipnandy79]

Where do I find the cartridge inside the printer

[JeanJacquesRou9]

If you have a recent model, they are not inside the printer. Latest models use wifi ink, sho you need to go yupp the store where you bought it, to purchase more ink network.

[franceschicaleb]

Awesome thanks

[taylorrogue5]

How do I remove old cartridges and install new ? ( HP7760)

[MichaelM1465]

Could ink used in the Offset printing industry be used in domestic inkjet printers.

[LisaB410]

Do you think you could use homemade ink for this? I'm wanting to use eco-friendly ink for my business labels.

[gen-os]

Did you ever find out if this was possible?

[LauraS380]

Does this article apply only to HP ink cartridges? My Brother cartridges appear to be a whole different trip.

[DeepakM71]

For hp 678 cartridge see video total information