Re: Cleaing inkjec printer cartridge?

In alt.comp.hardware, on Mon, 3 Jan 2022 19:25:00 -0600, VanguardLH
<[email protected]> wrote:

>micky <[email protected]> wrote:
>
>> Does anyone clean printer cartridges anymore?   I haven't even tried
>> refilling the color cartridge for my new sidewalk-printer, 
>
>You leave your printer outside on the sidewalk?

No.  :-)  Maybe I didn't post before about this one, but I found it on
the sidewalk a half-mile from where I live!
>
>> abut while
>> looking into it I found this page with video. 3 or 4 methods. 
>> 
>> Hot water
>> Special cleaner
>> Special jig and suck out dirt with syringe. 
>> (Moderately) high pressure spraying with something
>>   but the one that impressed me: 
>> Taping the cartridge to your vacuum cleaner and sucking out the dried
>> ink.   Should I use the upright vacuum, or the Shopvac? 
>> 
>> Bottom video is about cleaning: 
>> https://support.bchtechnologies.com/hc/en-us/articles/200545279-How-to-refill-HP-60-61-62-63-64-65-74-75-901-OEM-Cartridges
>
>You never mentioned brand and model of your printer.  You say you refill
>which hints your unidentified printer (typical of you not to identify)
>has ink wells.  You also mention cartridges.  Until you actually
>identify your printer, expect responses to be vague and varied (or maybe
>that was your intent to waste the time of respondents).

This post was not meant to seak advice but to tell you all about the
clever ways this guy from bchtechnologies suggests cleaing an old
cartidge.  I especially liked usign a vacuum cleaner. 

>My suggestion if you're using cartridges:
>- Don't refill them.
>- Use lintless paper towel and isopropyl alcohol to clean the heads.

I found a refill kit I bought 20 years ago, made by NCR (which doens't
seem to make them anymore) and the ink was liquid and there were no
solids sitting in the bottom, so I figured the ink was good. 

But refilling didn't make the level indicator change from "empty".  Now
HP itself says if you refill a cartridge the level indicator won't still
work, but in this casee it wasn't just empty, it was grey and there was
a yellow trianngle with an exclaimation mark at the top.  (And that
explains why he threw it away.)

It meant either that something was broken or I needed a whole new
cartridge. 

Also it wouldn't align, although it doesn't seem to need much alignment.

So since I already have another fully funcctional all-in-one, and 95% of
my printing is in black and white, I'm not going to work on it any more.

It's an HP OfficeJet 4630, does two sided printing, did a nice job on
the two pages I did print, and has more options for scanning than the
one I  use now, so it's worth keeping just for printing in black and
color scanning. 

If the other printer ever breaks, I'll let you know if a new cartridge
fixes this one.