10 Tips for Cartridge Care

Posted in: Tips & Tricks, blog by Jack on 31 December 2008

Here are a few suggestions to help you get the most out of your inkjet cartridge, OEM or refilled.

1. Before installing the cartridge, make sure the plastic clip covering the print head (usually only on color cartridges) and the tape have been removed.
2. Keep the contacts at the back of the cartridge slot on the printer clean. Ink and dust may cause the printer to lose contact with the cartridge resulting in the printer indicating an error. These can be cleaned with a cotton swab dampened with alcohol or distilled water. Allow them to dry completely before installing the cartridge.
3. Be sure to print something, anything, at least once every two weeks. Allowing inkjet cartridges to sit unused for longer than that is to risk the print head drying out.
4. If you know you won’t be using your inkjet printer for several weeks, remove the cartridges, put the clip on the color cartridge, put each cartridge in a baggie and store them in a cool, dark location.
5.  Keep your printer clean. Printers need good ventalation just like computers do. Use canned air to keep the covering over fans clear and don’t sit your printer on carpeting or a similar surface. This applies to both inkjet and laser printers. 
6. Keep printing until you notice an obvious degredation degradation to the print quality.*
7. As soon as possible after the cartridge runs out of ink bring it in for refilling. The longer a cartridge sits empty, the more likely ink will dry in the print head and reusing the cartridge will be made more difficult.
8. Do not attempt to clean the print head of an ink cartridge with alcohol or any substance other than distilled water. 
9. Do not leave cartridges, especially those just refilled, sitting in direct sunlight or anywhere the temperature is high. Ink expands as it warms, and if the cartridge is heated too much the ink will force its way out of the cartridge. Laser cartridges should be stored where it’s cool, dark and the humidity low.
10. Make sure you don’t force cartridges into printers. Cartridges have keys on them to prevent the black cartridge from being installed in the color cartridge slot, for example. Forcing a cartridge into place will most likely damage both the cartridge and the printer. Cartridges should install as easily as they came out. Consult your printer’s manual if replacing the cartridge proves difficult.

*Many printers will indicate a low ink level even though there’s plenty of ink left in the cartridge. They do this because printers cannot measure the actual level of ink in a cartridge. Instead, the number of pages a cartridge should be able to print, according to the manufacturer, is stored in the printer’s memory. Each time a new cartridge is installed, the counter resets and counts out pages as they pass through the machine. However, a page is not a page. Manufacturers use an algorithym to decide what constitutes a page. Generally the standard is 5% page coverage. In other words, if all the printed portion of a page were gathered together in one corner it should cover 5% of an 8½”x11″ page. In many cases, the page count method isn’t an accurate way to assess the amount of ink left in a cartridge. This is why we urge our customers to keep printing until the quality of the printing begins to degrade. That way you get the full use of all the ink in the cartridge.

HP CC364A/X

Posted in: Conservation, blog, laser by Jack on 29 December 2008

We are now able to remanufacture the HP CC364A (low yield, est. 10,000 pgs.) and the CC364X (high yield, est. 24,000 pgs.). We now have a supplier for the toner and replacement parts we need to fully remanufacture these cartridges.

What we do not yet have are empty cores. If you need a remanufactured 64A or 64X we will need your empty cartridge. Please note that we cannot convert a 64A into a 64X and the cores are physically different.

Our pricing will be $99.99 for the 64A and $179.99 for the 64X.

Please contact us if you have any questions at all about our work or our products.

These cartridges are empty!

Posted in: blog by Jack on 26 December 2008

Here’s an excerpt of an email we recently recieved that brings up an important point.

A few days ago I bought “02″ cartidges for my HP Photosmart 8250.  When I returned home,   I immediately needed to install one of the black cartridges and one of the magenta cartridges.  The computer immediately indicated that these two cartridges were close to empty and needed to be replaced.  I checked the other cartridges I had just bought.  The  black and magenta cartridges were emply and the remaining were about half filled.

Evidently we failed to let the customer know to expect his printer to report the cartridges as being empty. We try to make sure anyone buying the HP 02 cartridges knows that they can expect this.

Why?

Because the small chip on the bottom of the cartridge is what resets the printer’s ink level indicator. When a new cartridge is first installed, the chip clears the memory of the indicator then burns out. We can buy and install replacement chips, but they cost $5 each. When that is added to our refill price for those cartridges, you might as well buy brand new ones since there’s only a few cents difference in price. To keep the cost down for our refilled cartridges, we don’t change the chip. The customer will have to judge based on print quality when the cartridge is out of ink.

Some people are uncomfortable with this. They depend on the printer’s ink level indicator (as inaccurate as it is) to let them know when to replace a cartridge. For these folks, buying new cartridges is currently the best solution.

If the price of these chips fall to a price point that will allow us to provide our customers with a less expensive alternative to new cartridges while still providing us with a bit of profit we’ll be purchasing them and rechipping all of our HP 02s.

Happy Holidays and Best Wishes for 2009

Posted in: General by Jack on 23 December 2008

Please accept our warmest wishes for a joyous holiday season and a great New Year.

We thank you for your business in this past year and look forward to serving you again in 2009.

Just a reminder, we’ll be open our normal hours on December 26th and 27th and again on January 2nd and 3rd.

Donations to help Don Yoon

Posted in: San Diego by Jack on 11 December 2008

Mr. Yoon’s family suffered terrible losses in the plane crash in University City this week. If you’d like to make a donation to help Mr. Yoon, who needs just about any donation you can make, please see our blog for information on where you can drop off items or send cash donations.

HP Photosmart error codes

Posted in: Tips & Tricks, blog by Jack on 3 December 2008

If you own an HP Photosmart or Photosmart all-in-one and receive an 0xc18xxxxx or 0xc19xxxxx ink system error code displayed on the front panel, you’ll find the printer cannot copy, receive faxes, or print.Here’s a possible solution to the problem.