Now Printer and scanner

[BigV]

Originally Posted by xoxoxoBruce

Big V, when you refill the cartriges, do you fill them or just put a small amount in? Like the equivalent of what they were suppose to come with.

Short answer: Both.

Longer answer: They only come with about 10 to 20 ml of ink in the larger tanks. Just checked. My printer, HP OfficeJet d145 takes a black cartridge #14. 26 milliters. not. very. much. ink. Unless you spill some then it's like the black plague. What makes my task easier is that the syringes that came with the refill kit are graduated. I can see how much I'm putting in. Plus, I only refill it til I can see the top of the packing material look wet. Then I stop. It's never the case that I can put another 26 mls back in the tank. By the way, my printer does use tanks of ink separate from the print heads. I like that. The color tank is the same size, but partitioned into three compartments for the different colors, making each one about 6-8 mls for each of the the cyan, magenta and yellow.

Plus, I do this on the table with lots of room to work, nothing close enough to spill and LOTS of handy paper towels. Fortunately, the ink is waterbased and if I get a mess, I can clean it up if I'm quick.

Further complicating the issue is that the printer keeps track of the cartridges and the ink levels. So I keep a rotating stock of three of each black and color tanks. It "remembers" the last two tanks it's seen and will treat it as though it's empty. But by the time I put the third one in, it thinks it's a new tank--full. I can also override the "fuel gauge" functionality, but I am reluctant to do that since running them dry is a bad idea. Better I should know they're low and refill than just run them into the ground. I risk damaging the print head and that's a lot more money. Not helpful in my quest for frugality.

Plus when I refill them, I work in a cleared area, newspaper down, nothing close enough to spill, and plenty of paper towels around. Fortunately, the ink is water based so it's possible to clean it up if I work fast. But not on cloth. Only on hard surfaces.