If you are having trouble getting your cartridge to work after you refilled it you can try these tips to revitalise the stubborn brute. These tips basically refer to bulk ink refilling, rather than InkTec®'s refill kits. All are general in nature and may not apply to your particular cartridge or problem. Sometimes it may not be possible to get the cartridge to ever print again.

• Cartridge is dried out
  
  
• Leaking or cracked casing
  
  
• Ink reservoir filled with wrong color
  
  
• Cross-chamber ink contamination
  
  
• Burned out print-head
  
  
• Cartridge damaged your printer
  
  

Printer does not print after refilling:

1. NOZZLES OR PRINT-HEADS NEED PRIMING OR CLEANING

1. Possible solution 1 - pressurise the cartridge
   
   Inject air, using a syringe, through the top air vent to prime and clean the nozzles. A small amount of ink should come out. Clean any foreign matter from the nozzles using a soft tissue. Re-install the cartridge and try to print again. If ink does not come out, try some of the other possibilities in this section.
   



2. Possible solution 2 - soaking & flushing
   
   Flushing with hot cleaning solution through the print-head is usually the best way to clear stubborn blockages. There is equipment available to do this with price tags ranging from a few hundred to many thousands of dollars. For most people, soaking the print-head in distilled water or a distilled water / alcohol or ammonia solution works. There are also some proprietary cartridge flushing solutions specifically designed to clear print heads. Fill a dish with warm water to about 6mm (1/4 inch) and soak the nozzles for at least 10 minutes, ideally about 1 hour or overnight, depending on the degree of blockage. It has also been reported that you can clean the print head with an electronic toothbrush and cleaning solution for about 20 seconds with excellent results. Prime and clean the nozzles as in (a) above.
   



3. Possible solution 3 - steam cleaning
   
   Steam vaporizers are available from Chemists / Pharmacies. They work better than boiling the kettle and are perfect for cleaning print head nozzles since steam is released from a small vent about the same size as the print head. Steam for about 30 seconds to five minutes. Prime and clean the nozzles as in (a) above.
   



4. Cleaning removable print heads
   
   If your printer has a removable print head (such as the CANON BC-21e) simply fill the chamber over the print head with boiling distilled water and sit it on a clean cloth to drain. Prime the print head by running the printer's Cleaning routine a few times.
   

2. BURNT OUT CARTRIDGE

Many cartridges with built-in / internal print heads use electrical resistors to control the current to each nozzle. If the cartridge is allowed to "dry fire" too many times the tiny resistors will burn out resulting in low quality output, colour distortion or weak printing. The ink actually acts as a cooling agent to keep the resistors from burning up. If the cartridge runs out of ink and printing continues, over-heating occurs. If left too long this can burn out the cartridge. Each time this overheating occurs the life of the cartridge is shortened. The solution, of course, is to replace it, or buy another cartridge.

3. AIR IN CARTRIDGE

If you have done absolutely everything and the cartridge still won't print, there is a chance that air is trapped over the print head. Some sponge-filled cartridges will develop air pockets at the bottom of the cartridge, which can block the ink flow. HP and EPSON colour cartridges are notorious for this problem. Always inject the ink very SLOWLY so that it doesn't froth up or cause air locks in the cartridge. Air locks are trouble in any cartridge but particularly so in tri-colour (3 colour … or 4 or 5 colour ones too) cartridges since they can cause ink to migrate from one nozzle into another. If you have filled the cartridge too fast it may also be full of froth or foam. Foam is air!

1. Let the cartridge sit overnight and the problem may clear up on its own or try the "centrifugal force" method.



2. Using Centrifugal Force to Eliminate Air Pockets (Air Locks)
   
   This is a very good solution. Wrap the cartridge in a towel or cloth and then put it in a plastic bag (to prevent a mess). Hold it in your hand with the print head (HP) or exit port (EPSON) facing down. Extend your arm and rapidly swing the cartridge down towards the floor, as if you were going to throw it (but don't, even though you probably feel like it at this point). Snapping / flicking your wrist seems to help. Do this a few times. Remove the cloth and you should see a spot of ink from each of the chambers. If not, repeat the procedure.
   

4. BLOCKED AIR MAZE HOLES

You must remove all the ink from the cartridge before doing this. Fill the cartridge with very hot "solvent" - use distilled water and alcohol for the 51626A, a proprietary "Cartridge Flush" for the 51629A. Sit the cartridge in a dish of the solvent overnight.

5. DRIED OUT INTERNAL SPONGE

Inject 15 ml of pure ethanol into the cartridge, then withdraw as much of it as possible. The ethanol will evaporate very quickly so you might not get much back out. Re-ink the cartridge normally. (Personally, we would replace the cartridge).

Banded print or white streaks in the print:

1. INK HAS NOT REACHED PRINT-HEAD

Place the cartridge nozzle down on a soft tissue and allow a small amount of ink to come out. Wait 2 minutes and wipe away any foreign material on the nozzles. Re-install the cartridge in the printer.

2. DRIED OUT NOZZLES

The biggest problem with refilling some HP, CANON and LEXMARK printers is a dried out cartridge. Typically, if HP cartridges are left empty for more than 30 minutes, the ink will dry and clog the small holes in the print-head. When refilled, the results will be streaked or banded output. If you don't plan to refill your cartridge right away, put it in a zip lock bag with a damp cloth until you are ready to refill it. If the nozzles are blocked or dried out you will need to dissolve the dried ink.

Try filling a dish with warm water to about 6mm (1/4 inch) and soak the nozzles for about 1 hour. Prime and clean any foreign matter from the nozzles using a soft tissue. Re-install the cartridge and try to print again.

Leaking or ink continuously flows from the nozzle?

1. REFILL HOLE NOT SEALED

Ensure the seal or rubber stopper is completely seated in the refill hole.

2. CARTRIDGE INTERNAL BAG DAMAGED

If (1) above has not fixed the problem and ink still flows from the nozzle, this could be an indication that the bag inside the cartridge (if that cartridge has one) has been damaged. The cartridge may still be used temporarily by covering the air vent at the top with sticky tape. It is advisable to purchase a new cartridge at this point.

3. CRACKED AIR MAZE (HP 51629A Cartridges)

These cartridges tend to leak from the bottom maze plate on the bottom of the cartridge. The maze plate is extremely brittle and can develop cracks. Use a thin smear of waterproof silicon gel like the sealer used to fix aquariums. Be careful not to seal over the maze hole.

Poor print quality:

1. FOREIGN MATTER ON PRINT-HEAD OR NOZZLE

Clean ink and foreign matter from the nozzle using a soft tissue. Re-install, run the print-head cleaning utility and compare the print results of before and after this cleaning.

2. NO INK AT PRINT-HEAD

Check that there is ink at the print-head. You should see ink at the print head when you dab it with a tissue. If not, consider some of the various options in this section.

3. CARTRIDGE PRESSURE INCORRECT

If the cartridge uses internal pressure, it might be over or under-pressurised.

1. Using Pressure to Prime Print Heads
   
   Many cartridges such as the CANON BC-20 may need to be primed before they start working. To prime the cartridge, obtain a small piece of fish tank tubing or similar. Put the tubing in the top central vent hole and gently blow through it until ink comes out of the print head. This procedure can be used on other cartridges with equal success. Remove or add pressure accordingly with the air pressure syringe.



2. Using Suction to Prime Print Heads
   
   Some cartridges that do not respond to any other method may start working after this procedure. Obtain a grommet from a CANON BJI type cartridge or something similar - you may have to be "inventive". Attach the grommet to a syringe with a hot glue gun. The grommet should fit over most tri-colour cartridge print-heads and you can then gently suck the ink down to the print-heads.



3. You may have to let the cartridge sit for a few hours until the internal pressure stabilizes on its own.

4. PRINT-HEAD BURNT OUT

The resistors that comprise the print head are burned out. Discard the cartridge. You will not be able to refill it.

5. CONTAMINATED COLOURS

1. INK IN WRONG RESERVOIR
   
   Check which colour is in reservoir with the Toothpick Test. Before refilling any colour cartridge it's a good idea to get toothpicks and insert one into each fill hole to sample the colour of ink in the chamber. Mixing up ink colours is very BAD NEWS.



2. CROSS-CHAMBER CONTAMINATION
   
   If there is air in any of the nozzles, ink from one of the other nozzles can, by capillary action, be drawn across to the empty nozzle and contaminate the chamber. Also overfilling certain cartridges can cause cross-chamber contamination.
   
   
   1. Slight contamination. You can try letting the cartridge sit on a damp cloth or paper towel overnight. The contaminated ink will be drawn out of the print-head by capillary action. Run the printer cleaning routine a few times to prime the cartridge.
   
   
   
   2. Serious contamination. The only solution we have heard of, apart from discarding the cartridge, is to remove the internal sponges (if this can be done) and wash them in alcohol followed by hot distilled water, then allow to dry thoroughly before replacing them. Wash out the cartridge cavity with boiling hot distilled water. Fill the cartridge with boiling water and sit it, print-head down, in a small container to allow the old ink to seep out through the print head. (To us it sounds like more trouble than it's worth … ???)
   
   
   
   3. Severe contamination. The cartridge may not be able to be saved and probably should be discarded.

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