How to Refill Ink Cartridges? Both Laser and Inkjet Printer

Are You Looking for the Guide about How to Refill Ink Cartridges of a laser or inkjet printer can be easily performed by the owner of the equipment independently at home with certain skills and knowledge? In this article, you will find instructions that will help you to properly fill the “consumables” yourself with your own hands without asking for paid help from specialists.

What type of cartridge do you want to refill?

Laser
Inkjet

It is also important to correctly insert the cartridge into the printer after replenishing the stock of “consumables”. Find practical tips here.

How to Refill Ink Cartridges myself

It is important for an inkjet cartridge that its surface, namely the nozzles and printhead nozzles, are not dry. You can try to restore them by soaking or rinsing. This should be done before the start of refueling, so that it is not in vain when it will not be possible to resume the operation of the steam generator.

There should be no problems with refilling any laser cartridge with toner. Rather, they can be with a selection of powder to replace the original, if you live in a small town. But this also comes down to several days of waiting, because the required substitute can always be ordered on the Internet.

The refilling process can be simple or complex, but virtually any cartridge is refillable.

If there is no hole on the body of the laser cartridge for filling the powder, then it can be made with a soldering iron or a drill.

In addition to the refueling itself, it may also be necessary to replace some parts that are included in the list of “consumables”: a cleaning blade, a photo drum, a rubber shaft. This statement applies to laser products.

A cartridge that has already reached the maximum number of refills cannot be refilled. How to Refill Ink Cartridges Complete Procedure. This indicator is individual for each model.

Read Also: Best Sublimation INK

How to charge a laser powder cartridge

Cartridge device

The cartridge in the printer is a consumable item, although it can be refilled many times, over time it will have to be replaced with a new one. To replenish its resource, a special powder called “toner” is used. It is a dry black mixture made from petroleum waste. The dye is transferred to the paper using electrostatics and special rollers and is fixed by melting at a high temperature inside the printer.

There are two types of cartridges: regular and AMD. In the first, the toner tube and drum unit are combined in one structure, and in the second, separate elements are collected into one whole. But they also have a different resource – the toner will last for 1000-2000 pages of printing, and the photocell is much longer – 15-30 thousand prints.

How to Refill Ink Cartridges (select toner)

Toner is a special, very fine black powder for use in technology that uses laser printing (for more details, see the link at the beginning of the sentence). In addition to printers, it can be copiers, MFPs, facsimile devices. The substance is fixed on the paper by being absorbed into its structure under the influence of high temperature. This allows for crisp, long-lasting prints.

Since different models of printers use different dyes, it is important to choose the right option for your device. There can be a real problem with this task. Therefore, it is worth adhering to these rules for choosing a toner:

Select the powder clearly by its labeling. As a rule, this is an alphanumeric designation indicated on the package. Find out which toner is suitable for your model, help in any computer store. The main requirement for the owner of the equipment will be knowledge of the exact model of his printer or original cartridge.

You can safely select substitutes for factory consumables, but only of high quality.

When buying, take an interest in the availability of containers of an increased resource. They are initially more expensive, but in practice the print is cheaper. Thus, with a slightly higher initial spending, you can save in the future.

Order a complete set of consumables right away. If the device uses several colors or cartridges, then at the end of one it is worth replenishing the supply in others.

Consider the storage requirements (the main thing is low humidity) of such goods so as not to buy a stitched or spoiled product. Check the tightness of the packaging, the date of production, the timing of implementation.

What are the types of toners:

The original is in the installed starter cartridge in the printer at the time of release from the factory. For each manufacturer, its composition is different, and therefore cannot be interchangeable. And also not for every brand you can easily purchase the required powder. Problems can be with Samsung equipment, but for Oki, Canon, HP everything is much simpler.

In order to save money and reduce the cost of printing, compatible dyes are often used. For each model, this option must be carefully selected together with a specialist. There are many substitutes on the market, but not all of them are of high quality. Be vigilant when purchasing, and do not consider compatible toner to be universal.

There are many types of counterfeit toner. Counterfeiting consists of an incorrect indication of applicability by model or poor quality of the powder itself. The second will immediately manifest itself in the form of poor print quality, and the first can even damage the printer itself. Shop only in trusted locations.

How to buy a quality product:

One of the benchmarks may be the price of a product. Too low should already alert you and you need to think about purchasing such a consumable several times. The ideal solution would be to ask other owners of a similar printer on the specialized forums about the brands of powder they use. For Samsung, many recommend a substitute from Profiline, for HP – Hi-black. The products of the American manufacturer AQC are often praised.

Correctly selected toner will not harm the printing device and will allow refilling the cartridge for a long time without losing the quality of prints.

Security

Toner powder is made from oil and therefore is dangerous for humans and nature in general if used improperly. Therefore, it is worth applying at least the simplest precautions.

The first step is to protect yourself and therefore wear a special robe or old clothes. Always wear rubber gloves on your hands. But you also first need to buy a household respirator or at least a gauze bandage.

The room in which the refueling will take place must be ventilated. Since the powder is very fine, parts of it can easily move through the air.

If you wish, you can cover the place where the manipulations will be carried out with newspapers or old papers. As a rule, a table is used for this.

How to Refill Ink Cartridges instructions:

We clean the mining

Unplug the printer, and then remove the cartridge from the printer. Place on the table.
Use a screwdriver to remove the bolts holding the side cover.
Set this plastic protection aside, and next to it and the bolts, so as not to lose or confuse them with others.
Now your task is to carefully get the photocell. It is a long, light green (sometimes blue) cylinder. Take this part by the edges – white gears.
Next, remove the magnetic shaft. To do this, move it over the edge from the wall and pull it up. Better to use a flat head screwdriver.
Now the cartridge needs to be divided into two parts: a hopper with waste and fresh toner. Together they are connected by pins. With little effort, we squeeze them out.
Also, notice the small spring that sits in the same area. It also needs to be removed.
Hold the cartridge with both hands on both sides parallel to the table above it. Divide it in two.
You will also need to remove the dispensing blade to access the waste toner container. you will need to remove the spring and unscrew two more bolts, as shown in the figure.
Now you have the opportunity to clean out the old toner from the hopper. It needs to be disposed of, and therefore ask who in the city or region is engaged in such things.
The cleaning blade should be wiped with napkins or a clean cloth to shine.
Feel free to assemble this part of the cartridge in reverse order. Don’t forget about springs and bolts.

Charging with new toner

We proceed directly to charging the cartridge with new toner.
We will work with another part of the consumable.
On one of the sides, after removing the protective cover, find a path for filling the powder.
Feel free to pull the plug with a smooth jerk towards you.
Take the prepared toner bottle and shake it several times. Be careful not to get dirty.
Use a special nozzle or watering can for falling asleep.
Slowly and carefully pour the required amount of powder into the tube, and then tightly close the hole with a stopper.
The cartridge can now be reassembled.
Connect both parts into one piece. Then insert the rubber shaft followed by the drum unit. Do not forget to return the springs to their place, tighten the bolts, adjust the side plastic cover.
Pay particular attention to the contact between the drum and the rubber roller.
When the cartridge is ready for installation, do the following: move the shutter, grasp the white gears of the photo roller with both hands and try to scroll with your thumbs. It should spin tightly, but smoothly.
Insert the consumable into the printer and try to print.

Features of color laser Printer

Increasingly, users are buying color laser devices for home use. In this technique, in addition to black toner, color shades are also used: pink, blue, yellow. Therefore, you need to replenish the supply of powder separately for each cartridge. The refueling process is no different from the above, but it must be performed not once, but 4 times.

More Related to Printer:

The nuances of different manufacturers

Brother

The cover that presses and holds the photo vale must be removed. It will be enough to unscrew the two bolts on the left side.
There are gears under it, all but one of them should be disconnected. To remove the rubber shaft on the left, you need to remove the circlip.
To completely disassemble the cartridge, you will need to unscrew the bolts on the other side.
It is recommended to lubricate the transfer roller with special conductive grease.

Kyocera

Some Kyocera cartridges do not have a toner drop hole. This was done on purpose so that the owners of the equipment did not have the opportunity to independently replenish the supply of powder in the containers. Everyone is expected to buy new genuine ink cartridges to continue printing.

But the way out of the situation will be to make a hole yourself on your own using a soldering iron or drill. After refueling, this hole in the housing must be sealed to prevent toner from spilling into the inside of the printer.

Samsung and Xerox

The side cover can be fastened to the overall structure with latches rather than bolts. Therefore, you need to be careful and careful so as not to damage them when performing work.
All internal contacts must be cleaned with tissue.
Remember to renew the grease on the photocell axis.
The gears should not be removed separately, but it is better to do this immediately in a block. They can also be cleaned with a special vacuum cleaner at low power.
The drum is wiped with a clean cloth without force.
Also, do not forget about the cleanliness of other parts: the development roller, the metering blade and other elements.

Pantum

Devices of this Chinese brand mostly use the “pc 211e” or “211ev” cartridge.

Replacing and zeroing the chip

In addition to directly replenishing the toner supply inside the hopper, many models may require replacement or zero of the chip.

A chip is a special small-sized microboard that is located on the cartridge body and automatically counts the number of printed sheets. This data is transferred to the technology control program, and when the value reaches the maximum level, printing is blocked.

Zeroing or resetting can be done in two ways: hardware or manual. In the first case, the user needs to make some settings in the printer menu, in the second – some manipulations with the device or cartridge. There is no universal way to reset the counter. Each model has its own individual instruction.

How to pour paint into an inkjet cartridge

The inkjet tanks are filled with liquid ink. Those, in turn, may have different chemical compositions for certain models, even from the same manufacturer. Therefore, it is also important to choose the right paints for your technique. The ideal solution would be to buy original consumable fluids, but in order to save money, high-quality substitutes will do.

For refueling, you will need a certain set of tools: syringes with thin needles and preferably a rubber plunger up to 5 ml, napkins or cotton pads, a clerical knife, rubber gloves, old newspapers or papers to protect the table or surface on which you will carry out the refueling itself. All this is not a problem to purchase in stores, but it is more convenient to buy a ready-made set for refueling right away. It will contain all the necessary materials. In some cases, the set may include specific accessories: a drill, stickers, plugs, and other trifles.

Refueling should be carried out when the absence of one of the colors or their difference from the original began to be noticed on the printouts.
Another sign that you need to refill ink is white blanks on the sheets.

Removing the ink tanks from the printer is an important part of preparing ink tanks for a refill. Be sure to clarify how to perform this procedure in the instructions or manual for the device. You can find it in a box from the equipment or download it from the Internet on the manufacturer’s website.

Several important recommendations:

Do not touch the contacts on the cartridge with your hands.
If necessary, the holes in the body can be enlarged with an awl or drill.
The needle should sink easily into the fluid fill path.

How to Refill Ink Cartridges in Black

Proceed as follows to refill the black ink tank:

Place the cartridge on a table where a piece of paper or old newspaper is spread out.
It must be in the position with the filler holes facing up.
Those are in most cases hidden behind stickers, which should be carefully removed with a knife. Set them aside, they will come in handy for a while.
Draw 5 to 8 ml of paint into the syringe.
Insert the needle into the threading path at a 45-degree angle. Insert no deeper than 2/3 of the cartridge height. There is a washcloth inside, so there will be little resistance.
The hole should be at least one millimeter wider than the diameter of the needle so that air can escape from the compartment during refueling. Bubbles from the paint can occur precisely because of it.
Begin to slowly push the plunger.
Make sure that paint does not leak out. As soon as this happens, stop filling. Pump the excess back into the syringe.
Now you can blot the nozzles into the tissue to check the print quality. It should be clear and rich.
The top can also be wiped clean to keep the surface completely clean.
Remember to put the sticker back in place, but don’t glue the air passages. This is an important point – watch it.

Color

The refilling process for a color ink cartridge is the same as for a black ink cartridge. The Complete Guide with Instructions of How to Refill Ink Cartridges are Listed. But there are a few important differences worth noting:

You need to fill in not one, but three different colors at once: pink, blue and yellow.
You will need three syringes for each shade.
The capacity of the colored hoppers is much smaller – only 2-4 ml.
It is important not to confuse the holes for filling, and therefore you need to know the scheme of their placement even before starting filling.

Features of different manufacturers

HP

The color “consumable” can be refilled up to 5 times, black and white – 8-10.
Refueling kits are recommended.
In the process of refueling, you need to monitor the absence of foam and air in the syringe.
The needle may be hard to enter the cartridge, but this is normal.
The fluid injection rate should be no more than 4 ml per minute.
HP color cartridges can be filled with one syringe by flushing with distilled water after each shade.
Instead of a standard sticker, you can use scotch tape.

Canon

Not all Canon inkjet cartridge models have the correct fill holes. Have an awl, screwdriver or utility knife handy to enlarge the path.

Before starting work, the sticker must be removed. If it is damaged, you can replace it with tape.

A certain amount of ink must be entered for different brands of cartridges. Focus on the following numbers: PG-440 – 8-10 ml, PG-440XL (enlarged) – 15-20 ml, CL-441 – 3-4 ml of each color, CL-441XL – 6-8 ml. These are only approximate data, but in practice it is different, but more than the indicated volumes will not be included.

Links to instructions for Canon pg 445 and cl 446, as well as common for any Canon inkjet printer, are at the end of the article in the “More on the topic” section.

Epson

All modern models of “inkjet” machines of this manufacturer use a continuous ink supply system (CISS), and therefore refueling of such a printer is reduced to pouring ink into special containers. All you need to do is open the inkwell, pour paint from the purchased can, and close the container tightly. Problems arise very rarely and boil down to the banal ingress of air into the system. In this case, it simply needs to be pumped out of there.

Lexmark

The hole in the black Lexmark cartridge is at the top left.
The location in color is as follows: top – red, bottom left – yellow, right – blue.
Draw 15 ml of black ink, and 5 ml of color ink in each syringe separately.
Insert the needle inside very slightly. It is better not to exceed 6-7 mm – this is quite enough.
Maintain an injection rate of 1 ml for 20-30 seconds. When the liquid comes out, immediately put it back into the syringe.

Refurbishment of inkjet cartridges

Remanufacturing of inkjet cartridges may vary depending on printhead placement.
If the steam generator is located directly on the body, then the method of soaking or programmed cleaning is used.
When the head is a separate part of the device, it should be rinsed by hand when it dries.

How to Refill Ink Cartridges of LED or dot matrix

Refilling an LED printer is no different from a similar procedure for a laser. In fact, these are one and the same technique, and the difference between them is only in the method of changing the charge on the drum, which has nothing to do with the toner replenishment process.

Dot Matrix Printer Refilling Instructions:

Take a picture of the position of the old tape inside the cartridge, and only then proceed to remove it.
We put a new skein according to the marks, as it was.
We leave the coil outside and close the lid.
With a special knob, we tighten the entire skein of tape inward.
Everything is ready – the dot matrix printer is filled with new consumables.
Makeup paint may be required on some models.
We use a screwdriver to remove the cartridge cover. Pay attention if there are any latches that can hold the structure.

How to Refill Ink Cartridges? Both Laser and Inkjet Printer – Complete Guide