Advice please: Need smallest footprint AIO w/carts that refill easily

[dwlotter]

I'm going to Africa and need an AIO printer that must go in my carry-on bags on the flight. It also must have refillable carts. So far, my candidate is the very new HP Deskjet F4480 - dimensions: 17 x 11 x 6.4 inches. I can go a little bigger but not much. Cartridge: HP 60xl black and 60xl color.

There are no reviews of the F4480 on this forum, but there are several companies that sell refill kits for the 60xl carts.

My questions are:

1) Do you have any candidate printers of that size that would be better for refilling (small footprint and refillability are the priorities).

2) Does anyone have experience refilling the HP 60xl carts?

3) Can someone refer me to directions for plugging the hole after drilling and refilling? There is much discussion of screws and o-rings and rubber plugs but I can't find a beginner's guide with specific directions on the size of the drill, screw, and where to get o-rings.

4) What do I do if the printer refuses the refilled cart? How would I reset it? I have directions for the 3 cart method (putting in 3 carts in a row, causing the printer to reset for the 4th).

Thanks for any advice,

Don Lotter
Davis, CA

 

[ghwellsjr]

Sorry, I can't help you with a recommendation but I'm wondering if power is any consideration. Will you be able to use 117VAC?

 

[dwlotter]

Almost all electronics are now 110-240 volt. For those that aren't, we use 240 to 110 transformer.

No one seems to know anything about the HP F4480 or the HP 60 cartridges, so I guess I'll just go with that printer. It's tiny and fits along with a laptop into my carry-on bag.

 

[jasiiboss]

Hi from India,
Just stumbled on to this thread, hope I 'm in time to help our friend.

HP 60 is the std cart and HP 60XL Color (CC644WN),is the so called extra large cart that's supposed to print about 600 pages (at 5% coverage) HP sure has a task at hand cos the normal pages that we all printout are something close to 15%.

This cart is easily refillable The following points need to be taken into account:

*Refill as soon as the ink volume falls low.

*Black ink is pigment same as the widely available ink for HP 21no cart.

*Needle used for refill should not be > 26mm because the filter screen is at 27mm or you will puncture the screen and trx of ink from foam to pre firing chamber will be interrupted rendering the cart useless.

*Color ink is the same vivera ink used in HP 861/818. In this case the needle should not penetrate >25mm

*Refill real slow and you'll have no problems. (like .5ml in 1 sec)

*max ink that can be refilled safely is 13ml anything above and the cart leaks real bad

However the cause of concern is resetting the ink levels in these carts cos after refilling the printer will report low ink and the indicator stays lit. As of now there is no workaround this problem.

Rgds,

Jasii

 

[dwlotter]

Jasii- Thank you ever so much for the advice. You are the only replyer on this and it will be very helpful.

A question: What do I do if the printer (HP Deskjet F4480) does not accept the refilled cartridge? I believe that the new printers are more difficult to refill because of this feature.

Thanks for any advice.

Don Lotter
Davis, California, soon to be living in Tanzania helping to manage a widows and orphans center

 

[jasiiboss]

Hi Don,

Let's keep it simple.

1.HP printer 4480 is similar to 4488 that we have here in India.
2.The cartridges are refillable and use the same ink as widely used in HP 21 & 22 carts.
3. You will be able to work with the printer after refilling.
4. Printer will not recognise the ink levels of refilled carts. It will keep saying low ink,ignore this.
5. Remember to refill after about 100 pages of moderate work (not graphic intensive) if working with XL carts.
6. Buy 4 small bottles of ink 1 bottle for black ink (same as that of HP 21) & 1 each of cyan/magenta & yellow (same as HP 22 ink) also buy 4 syringes 10ml for 4 different inks keeping needle size 25mm.
7. refill real slow about .5ml per sec.
8. Also of use would be a small pocket digital weighing scale. Note the weight of a new cart and that of the empty and you have the weight of ink that needs to be refilled.
9. If you are going to be carrying more than 2 sets of cart which I presume you will be than a set of cart holders will come in handy, remember to put all open carts in a air tight bag.

No fear you should do OK.

Good luck with your project,

Rgds,

Jasii