Inktec refilling combicarts HP21 and 22 (Deskjet F4100)

[inkoholic]

I want to refill combicarts from a Deskjet F4100 printer, those are the popular HP21 and 22. I want to use Inktec's refilling kit. I've seen the brand show up a couple of times in tests on druckerchannel.de and it appears to be quality stuff. Not the absolute best but they offer very easy to use refill tools. What about refilling combicartridges in general, is the quality OK? I hope the cartridge won't wear out already after 1-2 refills. You have to pierce the cartridge once with a needle but after that you can inject the ink straight away.

Any help/opinions are appreciated, thank you

 

[ThrillaMozilla]

My tests indicate that the InkTec ink I tested for HP (but not for your cartridge) is very good for light fade resistance, but not quite as good as HP ink. I don't have experience with it under extended use, or with your type of cartridge, but I think you will find this refill kit to be very good.

All refill methods have some possible problems. One problem you may have is determining how much ink to inject. You should not overfill the cartridge. You can weigh the black cartridge when it is new, to determine how full to fill it. In the U.S. you can buy a small scale that will weigh to 0.01 g, for $10 to $20. However, with the color cartridge, there are three separate compartments, and you cannot weigh them separately. I don't know how to avoid that problem.

If you do overfill one of the chambers, you will see one color contaminating the others. If this happens, you can probably solve the problem by removing some ink from the overfilled chamber, then printing some pages with a lot of color on them to clean up the other colors.


EDIT: Oh, I see who you are now. I didn't notice the name, and I was replying as if you were a newbie. I don't know whether there is a serpentine vent, but if there is, I don't think you have to worry about it, as you have just punched a new pinhole in the top. I can think of one way of topping up the color cartridges correctly, and that is to remove the label, then you can see the sponges directly. I suppose you could just fill each color until it's saturated (i.e., overfilled), then just remove some ink.

There are conflicting reports on fade resistance of InkTec ink. Some say it's the worst. But there's one other report that it's the best, and my own (unposted) tests are consistent with it being very good. My tests for HP564 indicate that cyan and yellow are very good, and magenta is good. But it's easy to do your own test. You will get an idea in a month or two, and you can post the results.

 

[inkoholic]

Well I am kind of a newbie .

About overfilling the cartridge. The Inktec tutorial is very clear on the amount of ink to inject. It says to suck 1ml of ink from the bottom of the cartridge afterwards.
http://www.inktec.com/english/movie/HPI-0005D_eg.wmv
http://www.inktec.com/english/movie/HPI-0006C.wmv

Any idea on how many times you can refill a combicartridge? Now I need to find a vendor of these refill kits in the Netherlands...

 

[ThrillaMozilla]

The InkTec tutorial says the amount is for a completely empty cartridge, but your cartridge may not be completely empty when you refill. After all, the color cartridge has all three colors, and they won't all empty at the same time. On the bright side, they apparently will take much more ink than HP puts in them.

There's more information about those cartridges here:
http://freedomtoprint.com/2010/06/22/review-inside-the-hp-21-c9351a-ink-cartridge-cracked-open/
http://freedomtoprint.com/2010/06/21/review-inside-the-hp-22-c9352a-ink-cartridge-cracked-open/ .

I think the issue with the cartridges is that with time, the heads can wear out or get damaged or clogged. On the other hand, I think that means you are somewhat free to experiment, since you get a new print head with each cartridge. I think they last for several (or many?) refillings.