How many pages can a HP cartridge print? Regular refill vs. Refillable Sponge vs. Refillable Spongeless Cartridges.

In a few previous videos, we showed how to refill the original HP cartridge, as well as how to make a sponge and a spongeless refillable cartridge.  Today, we are going to explain how we tested how many pages each method can print after each refill.

Before we get into detail, we have to mention that we used the BCH test page.  You might have seen that HP says how many pages a cartridge can print.  The HP number is based on a test page called ISO IEC 24712 2007 test page.   If you've seen this test page, it simulates a regular document and thus doesn't use much ink. BCH developed its test page, and each page's ink consumption is about 1.9 ISO per page.  For example, if our cartridge prints 100 pages, then it can print 190 HP test pages, which is based on the ISO test.  

For the first method, we will refilled a regular HP (non-XL) cartridge.  We printed 97 pages, which is equivalent to about 185 ISO pages.  When we checked the HP's specification, a regular HP 63 cartridge was expected to yield 165 to 190 ISO pages.  Therefore, if we refilled a regular cartridge, the cartridge's page yield was similar to a new cartridge.

For the second experiment, we did some surgery.  We made a refillable sponge cartridge by cutting open the cartridge and replaced the small sponge with a bigger one.   Our refillable sponge cartridge printed 269 pages, which is equivalent to 511 ISO pages.  HP's specification for the XL cartridge is 480 pages.  Therefore, the refillable sponge cartridge performed similarly to XL cartridges.

Finally, we got rid of the sponge and installed a special cover with an air pressure regulator.  The cartridge was spongeless, and we could use the whole cartridge to hold ink.  We were able to print 407 pages (equivalent to about 770 ISO pages).  

In conclusion

1) Drill-n-Fill: If we only refill the starter or regular (non-XL) cartridges, we can print as many pages as the new starter or regular cartridge.

2) Refillable Sponge Cartridge:  If we take out the small sponge from a starter or regular cartridges and insert a larger sponge, we can print as many pages (or a little more) as the XL version of the cartridge.

3) Refillable Spongeless Cartridge:  If we take out the sponge completely and install a pressure regulated cover, then the cartridge can print 60% more than the XL cartridge and 300% more than a starter or regular cartridge.