First Timer's Guide to refill HP’s 67 and 67 XL cartridges

Refilling your ink cartridges rather than going out and buying new ones is a convenient, climate-friendly way to save money. Almost anyone can easily refill HP cartridges, but this was not always the case. Some years ago, HP lost a lawsuit that determined consumers have the right to repair and modify whatever items they purchase. As a result, HP began letting up on the firmware and restrictions it had previously used to prevent customers from refilling their ink cartridges.

This blog will walk you through the process of refilling HP’s 67 and 67 XL cartridges. Note that you do NOT need to reset the chip on your cartridge. Once the pre-filled ink has run out and your printer asks if you want to continue using that cartridge, just hit yes, and HP should let you keep printing with that cartridge forever. You can purchase theEZ30-T ink refill kit from BCH Technologies, which contains all of the materials you’ll need to refill your cartridge:

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

When getting started, it’s helpful to understand the various components within your cartridge and how they function to hold and distribute ink. Inside each cartridge is a sponge, and underneath this sponge is a little box normally filled with ink and supplies the nozzle with ink. When refilling a cartridge, you inject additional ink into the sponge, dispersing that ink to the rest of the cartridge.

Using a toothpick, poke a hole through the rounded indent on the front of your black cartridge—on HP cartridges, this is typically found near the center of the label. Align your ink bottle with the cartridge and insert the nozzle at an angle. You don’t want to jab straight down, as this will cause the ink to regurgitate. Push the nozzle into the cartridge until you hit the back wall, and squeeze. Essentially, this creates a gap between the sponge and the wall, allowing for additional ink to be injected.

Give the bottle five to seven squeezes, and then place the silicone pad with the longer slit on the priming clip. To align the cartridge over the priming clip and pad, simply place it in the middle and press down and forward. It will be pretty tight, so you will need to use some force to click it into place. Now remove your cartridge from the priming clip and press it against a paper towel to see whether or not it’s leaking ink.

Refill your Color Cartridge

The process is similar to the black cartridge one, but note that there will be three holes on this cartridge instead of one. Poke a toothpick into each one to determine where each chamber (cyan, magenta, and yellow) is located. Insert the ink nozzles into the corresponding holes, sliding back at an angle until you hit the wall and squeeze three times. If, after testing the cartridge on a paper towel, you notice that some colors show up brighter than others—or not at all—you will need to adjust the ink pressure level. Do this by putting the cartridge on the priming clip and pressing down and forward.

Sometimes your printer will display an error code after you reinsert the cartridge. E0, E1, and E3 are common messages that might appear. An E3 error, for example, indicates a cartridge jam, meaning that you will need to clear the cartridge path of any jammed paper or reset the printer if the cartridge has no jammed paper.

If one of the colors is pouring over the other colors, that means you overfilled the cartridge chamber. In that case, you can just let the cartridge sit out for a while, allowing the excess ink to drain from the section, or you can put the cartridge back in the printer and wait overnight for the ink to balance itself out.

At this point, the printer will not show an accurate ink level. It will show your ink level as low to entirely depleted, and this is because it isn’t able to recognize and read the refilled cartridge the same way it did before. Dismiss these low ink warnings and just keep printing, checking to make sure your colors are balanced.

Since you can no longer rely on your printer to give you an accurate ink level reading, you’ll have to find another way to monitor it. You can use a small scale to weigh the cartridge before use, noting how its weight decreases over time. You can also remove the cartridge from the printer and give it a few shakes. If your ink levels are low, it will produce more of a hollow sound; if they are still fairly full, then you should hear the ink sloshing around in the cartridge.