Rather than going out to buy a new ink cartridge the moment you start to notice your current one running dry, you might consider a simple refill. But you may ask, why bother? First and most obviously, it saves you money. It’s also better for the environment. Minimizing the number of plastic cartridges you buy is a climate-conscious choice that anyone can make.

Refilling Your Cartridge

This short guide will walk you through the process of how to refill HP 67 and 67 XL cartridges. We recommend using the First-Timer Ink Refill Kit for HP Inkjet Printer Cartridges: 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 EZ30-T, which can be purchased atbchtechnologies.com for $17.99. This kit includes the following items:

• Black, cyan, magenta, and yellow ink (30 ml per bottle)
• Hand drill
• Priming clip
• Silicone pads
• Gloves
• Toothpicks
• 10 ml syringe

Step 1

Run a toothpick across the top of the cartridge on the manufacturer’s label to locate the refill holes. These can be found by locating the rounded dent near the middle of the cartridge. Carefully pierce these holes without removing the label, as this will make the refill process easier.

Step 2

Attach a needle to the syringe and load the syringe with the correct ink color. Note, however, that you cannot refill regular cartridges to XL capacity, as the two are configured differently inside. For regular-sized cartridges, use 1.5 ml of colored ink, or 4 ml of black ink. XL cartridges take 2.5 ml of colored ink, and 7 ml of black.

Step 3

Insert the needle into the correct refill hole until you feel the sponge, but don’t go too deep. Press down on the sponge and begin injecting your ink — about seven squeezes of the bottle should do it.

Step 4

Slowly inject the ink into the cartridge. Stop if the ink starts to well up from the fill hole.

Step 5

Clean the top of the cartridge and place a piece of transparent scotch tape on the hole (optional).

Step 6

Reinstall the ink into the printer and run one or two cleaning cycles until the cartridge begins to print correctly. Do not exceed three cleaning cycles.

Step 7

If the cartridge does not print correctly, the refill process may have introduced air bubbles on the bottom of the cartridge. Allow the cartridge to sit in the printer overnight, and the bubbles should be gone the next day.

Step 8

If the printer displays a “low ink” or “ink depleted” message, you can hit “ok” or “yes” to dismiss these warnings and keep printing. Note that the printer will not track the ink level after being refilled, so you will need to keep an eye on it yourself.

Step 9

If you receive an error message stating “the cartridge cannot be found” or “take the cartridge out,” then remove the cartridge, clean the contact ribbon, and re-insert it. If your printer still displays an error, that means the cartridge is damaged and needs to be replaced.

Post-Refill Ink Levels

As mentioned previously, your printer will not show the updated refilled ink level, instead displaying the old amount. You can simply keep printing until the ink level on your computer reaches zero. Then, one of the following will happen:

1. The printer may keep printing with the ink level at zero. In that case, just keep using the printer and ignore the ink level on your computer. Remember to refill the cartridge before it empties.
2. The printer will display an “E1” error. If this happens, your cartridge is not refillable and you will have to try a different one. HP makes more refillable cartridges for XL, as well as standard cartridges. However, be aware that most starter cartridges—about 76%—are NOT refillable.
3. If you find that the cartridge empties too quickly, you may have a sponge problem. You can either switch to BCH’s larger sponge, or make a spongeless cartridge with this kit.

How to Unclog Your Printhead

You may run into additional problems when trying to refill or reinstall your ink cartridge, and these are often caused by a clogged printhead. Thankfully, there’s an easy way to fix this. First, fill a bowl with a quarter-inch of water and heat it in the microwave for one minute. Then, put the clogged cartridge in the bowl for 10 minutes. This will loosen the dirt and make the cleaning solutions more effective.

Re-insert your cartridge in the printer and do a test run to see whether or not it works. If the ink has failed to pass through to the paper, or the text is blurry, then it’s likely that dried ink and debris is still clogging the cartridge. Add a quarter-inch of BCH’s Triple Action CleaningSolution to the bowl of water.

Soak the cartridges in this solution overnight, and run another test print the next day. The result might not look much different than the first attempt, but the solution should have helped soften the clog. Now you’ll need to remove the air bubbles and sludge out of the bottom of the cartridge using one of the following methods:

Method 1

For the black cartridge, you can seal the four holes and blow air into the remaining hole. The pressure will push the sludge and air bubbles out of the bottom. The color cartridge has three chambers. The top chamber has one hole, and the bottom two chambers each have two holes. Do the same to this cartridge as you did with the black: seal four of the holes, leaving one open to blow air through.

Canon’s black cartridges only have one hole, and its color cartridges only have three holes, which makes them easier to work with than HP’s cartridges. Use a piece of duct tape to cover the bottom four holes. Then, use a syringe to push in each hole and make sure they are sealed. You can use a hot glue gun or two-millimeter plug to seal those holes too. The plug can be purchased frombchtechnologies.com under the accessories tab. Use a priming syringe to blow air into the hole. The priming syringe is also available on BCH’s website, but you can also modify a regular syringe to do this.

At this point you should see sludge blown out from the bottom. Print another test page, and if the result is similar to or worse than the prior page, try blowing your cartridge once more. Now you should be able to see the air bubbles blown out of the bottom. Repeat this process as many times as necessary.

Method 2

Use a priming clip with a plastic holder and silicone pad. You’ll use the silicone pad to suck ink out of the printhead. Put your cartridge in the clip cradle and push in until it locks. Once you see the air bubble has gone, then stop. Take the cartridge off the clip, clean the electronic contact points, and re-insert into the printer.

Method 3

Duct-tape the cartridge on the hose and use a household vacuum cleaner to suck air from the printhead. You will not have a good view of the printhead while doing this, so vacuum for a few seconds at a time, check your printhead, and keep vacuuming as needed.

Visitbchtechnologies.com to learn more about how to refill ink cartridges and find tools and resources to help you get started with the process.