charlie1939
Newbie to Printing
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- Mar 9, 2006
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I found this device, a home vacuum refill device, see it on the CompuBiz website at:
http://www.inkjetsaver.com/prounits.html
Even though it looks kind of lightweight, the guy who designed it told me that only one of about 250 units has failed (by a crack in the cover) and that was easily replaced. For the person like myself who will refill one HP "78" cartridge about once a month, it really looks like a clever, economical and very good approach to vacuum refilling of the nearly impossible to refill three color cartridges like the HP "78". I have three printers using these cartridges. Everything I have found to date to do this is ridiculously expensive ($thousands) and is aimed at the professional refiller business. This unit is obviously directed to the individual with a cost on the order of the replacement cost ($50-60) of a full OEM tri-color cartridge. It even looks like a good first unit for a person starting out on a shoestring as a professional refiller. You could buy one for each type of ink, since the entire unit cost is on the order of the cost of the custom cradles that some of the commercial refilling machine manufacturers sell!
Personally, I have tried to refill about 5-8 of my HP "78" cartridges. I usually can get one or two colors to print, but never all three for any length of time. I have tried following the directions with my refill kit, tried to use the "slow fill" allowing the ink to wick in with open syringes, used the "down under process" refill by "Jack", see the website:
http://home.arcor.de/jackspage/rat78ne.html
for the process, with some degree of success and used a Snap-n-Prime and syringe tool to try to remove air from the chambers between the sieve and the nozzles. NOTHING worked well enough to meet my standards of a cartidge that would print reliably and continually until it ran low on ink again.
With the addition of a hand operated vacuum pump (brake bleeder type) for about $20 to the device I am asking about, I think this would be the best solution for the difficult to refill tricolor cartirdge. With it we can really evacuate the ink chamber sponges as well as the chamber between the nozzle plate and the sieve. We can then allow the ink to slowly fill the sponges while the cartridge is under vacuum and then when the vacuum is released the ink should fill the chamber between the nozzle plate and the sieve. This seems to pretty much duplicate the OEM fill process and to be the ideal way to refill these difficult to refill cartridges.
Just for the record, I am working through a gallon of black pigmented ink for my Hp "45" cartridges, which fill like champs through the bottom. Up to 6-7 refills before they fail for one reason or another!! At this point , I have refilled about 16-20 times at about $1 worth of ink per fill. Not a bad return on my investment, Snap-n-Fill, syringe and a gallon of ink about $100 vs. new OEM cartridges at $25-30 or commercial refills at $10 or so! Saved about $350 vs. OEM or $110 vs. refilled cartridges! Plus I have about 75-80 refills to go if my printers don't wear out!
My questions to anyone and everyone:
1. Has anyone tried this particular refilling device? What was your experience?
2. Is(are) there a similiar low cost refilling device(s) on the market? Anyone tried it(them)? Your experience?
3. Any advice would be appreciated...
Thanks for your patience reading through this long post and for any advice you can give...
Charlie1939
http://www.inkjetsaver.com/prounits.html
Even though it looks kind of lightweight, the guy who designed it told me that only one of about 250 units has failed (by a crack in the cover) and that was easily replaced. For the person like myself who will refill one HP "78" cartridge about once a month, it really looks like a clever, economical and very good approach to vacuum refilling of the nearly impossible to refill three color cartridges like the HP "78". I have three printers using these cartridges. Everything I have found to date to do this is ridiculously expensive ($thousands) and is aimed at the professional refiller business. This unit is obviously directed to the individual with a cost on the order of the replacement cost ($50-60) of a full OEM tri-color cartridge. It even looks like a good first unit for a person starting out on a shoestring as a professional refiller. You could buy one for each type of ink, since the entire unit cost is on the order of the cost of the custom cradles that some of the commercial refilling machine manufacturers sell!
Personally, I have tried to refill about 5-8 of my HP "78" cartridges. I usually can get one or two colors to print, but never all three for any length of time. I have tried following the directions with my refill kit, tried to use the "slow fill" allowing the ink to wick in with open syringes, used the "down under process" refill by "Jack", see the website:
http://home.arcor.de/jackspage/rat78ne.html
for the process, with some degree of success and used a Snap-n-Prime and syringe tool to try to remove air from the chambers between the sieve and the nozzles. NOTHING worked well enough to meet my standards of a cartidge that would print reliably and continually until it ran low on ink again.
With the addition of a hand operated vacuum pump (brake bleeder type) for about $20 to the device I am asking about, I think this would be the best solution for the difficult to refill tricolor cartirdge. With it we can really evacuate the ink chamber sponges as well as the chamber between the nozzle plate and the sieve. We can then allow the ink to slowly fill the sponges while the cartridge is under vacuum and then when the vacuum is released the ink should fill the chamber between the nozzle plate and the sieve. This seems to pretty much duplicate the OEM fill process and to be the ideal way to refill these difficult to refill cartridges.
Just for the record, I am working through a gallon of black pigmented ink for my Hp "45" cartridges, which fill like champs through the bottom. Up to 6-7 refills before they fail for one reason or another!! At this point , I have refilled about 16-20 times at about $1 worth of ink per fill. Not a bad return on my investment, Snap-n-Fill, syringe and a gallon of ink about $100 vs. new OEM cartridges at $25-30 or commercial refills at $10 or so! Saved about $350 vs. OEM or $110 vs. refilled cartridges! Plus I have about 75-80 refills to go if my printers don't wear out!
My questions to anyone and everyone:
1. Has anyone tried this particular refilling device? What was your experience?
2. Is(are) there a similiar low cost refilling device(s) on the market? Anyone tried it(them)? Your experience?
3. Any advice would be appreciated...
Thanks for your patience reading through this long post and for any advice you can give...
Charlie1939