Refilled color cartridge won't print red color

We have a HP printer that we have been using for about a couple of
years now. I bought a ink refill kit (color) from Office Depot a few
months ago and refilled the color cartridge. It worked fine for a few
weeks. I noticed over the weekend that it quit printing red (any color
that needs magenta).

So, I refilled the cartridge one more time and tried, but no use. I
refilled it once again, still no use.

When I press a piece of paper against the print head, I do see all
three colors on the paper. I can actually see all three colors
slightly oozing out of the head. But the printer prints only colors
pertaining to yellow and blue, but nothing that involves magenta.

I started suspecting the printer. I went out and bought a brand new
color cartridge and tried in the printer. Now, everything works fine.

My question to you is, do you know the reason for the behavior of my
old cartridge?

Thank you very much for your time.

On 15-Oct-2007, skarkada@gmail.com wrote:

> I started suspecting the printer. I went out and bought a brand new
> color cartridge and tried in the printer. Now, everything works fine.

Could be the refill was the wrong formulation of ink, too viscous
for instance, or evaporating to leave a residue preventing the
nozzles operating correctly. May only affect one colour.
Or refilling could have created an airlock that worked through
the plumbing, reached the firing line, and lack of liquid
cooling caused that individual colours head to burn out.

Ink refill kits are generally generic and ink for an Epson,
might not suit a Lexmark, HP, Canon, and similar
mismatches.

<skarkada@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:1192484108.385097.297580@v29g2000prd.googlegr oups.com...
> We have a HP printer that we have been using for about a couple of
> years now. I bought a ink refill kit (color) from Office Depot a few
> months ago and refilled the color cartridge. It worked fine for a few
> weeks. I noticed over the weekend that it quit printing red (any color
> that needs magenta).
>
> So, I refilled the cartridge one more time and tried, but no use. I
> refilled it once again, still no use.
>
> When I press a piece of paper against the print head, I do see all
> three colors on the paper. I can actually see all three colors
> slightly oozing out of the head. But the printer prints only colors
> pertaining to yellow and blue, but nothing that involves magenta.
>
> I started suspecting the printer. I went out and bought a brand new
> color cartridge and tried in the printer. Now, everything works fine.
>
> My question to you is, do you know the reason for the behavior of my
> old cartridge?
>
> Thank you very much for your time.
>

Lessons learned:

1) Do not buy "refill kits" from O.D.
2) Refilled HP carts are unreliable, at best.

If you are serious about refilling HP carts, get a proper refill kit and
instructions from one of the online ink suppliers. I use AlotOfThings.com,
but there are several other good suppliers.

skark...@gmail.com wrote:
> We have a HP printer that we have been using for about a couple of
> years now. I bought a ink refill kit (color) from Office Depot a few
> months ago and refilled the color cartridge. It worked fine for a few
> weeks. I noticed over the weekend that it quit printing red (any color
> that needs magenta).
>
> So, I refilled the cartridge one more time and tried, but no use. I
> refilled it once again, still no use.
>
> When I press a piece of paper against the print head, I do see all
> three colors on the paper. I can actually see all three colors
> slightly oozing out of the head. But the printer prints only colors
> pertaining to yellow and blue, but nothing that involves magenta.
>
> I started suspecting the printer. I went out and bought a brand new
> color cartridge and tried in the printer. Now, everything works fine.
>
> My question to you is, do you know the reason for the behavior of my
> old cartridge?
>
> Thank you very much for your time.

You don't say what number cart you have. Several people here have
great information, but it is specific to your cart number.
There is an art to refilling regular HP color carts. I have some
little tricks and hints that are working for me, but they depend on
home made equipment. I think you proved that you did the refill
correctly since it worked for weeks. Since the new cart works, the old
cart must be bad. How many times had the former cart been refilled?

I have tried over filling, gravity filling, purging, and pressure
filling. Over the long run the best refill has been coming from a
deep fill with an especially long needle and maintaining very low
pressure on the ink reservoir. I also weigh the carts and refill only
to capacity as over filling causes problems.

There are a number of possibilities here. The fact that you see ink
from the nozzles when you press the paper on it probably either means
the head circuit has failed or that the contacts that connect the
cartridge to the printer electronically are damaged or dirty. Swab the
head itself gently with some warm water on a lintfree rag or quality
paper towel, or blot it with the same and also clean the contact
surfaces where the cartridge connects to the electronics of the printer.

It may be a failed head, however.

Art

skarkada@gmail.com wrote:

> We have a HP printer that we have been using for about a couple of
> years now. I bought a ink refill kit (color) from Office Depot a few
> months ago and refilled the color cartridge. It worked fine for a few
> weeks. I noticed over the weekend that it quit printing red (any color
> that needs magenta).
>
> So, I refilled the cartridge one more time and tried, but no use. I
> refilled it once again, still no use.
>
> When I press a piece of paper against the print head, I do see all
> three colors on the paper. I can actually see all three colors
> slightly oozing out of the head. But the printer prints only colors
> pertaining to yellow and blue, but nothing that involves magenta.
>
> I started suspecting the printer. I went out and bought a brand new
> color cartridge and tried in the printer. Now, everything works fine.
>
> My question to you is, do you know the reason for the behavior of my
> old cartridge?
>
> Thank you very much for your time.
>

Thank you all for your responses.

Cartridge number is 28.

I don't think the problem is with the ink. Ink kit box says it is for
HP #28 and other colors work fine. Also, all the colors worked fine
before.

I have tried wiping the print head, but didn't bother cleaning the
contacts. I have looked at them and they looked fine. I will try that
and respond if I see any improvements. Otherwise, I am comfortable in
assuming "It may be a failed head, however." and forget about it

Thanks again to all of you.

<skarkada@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:1192540786.783132.226130@y27g2000pre.googlegr oups.com...
> Thank you all for your responses.
>
> Cartridge number is 28.
>
> I don't think the problem is with the ink. Ink kit box says it is for
> HP #28 and other colors work fine. Also, all the colors worked fine
> before.
>
> I have tried wiping the print head, but didn't bother cleaning the
> contacts. I have looked at them and they looked fine. I will try that
> and respond if I see any improvements. Otherwise, I am comfortable in
> assuming "It may be a failed head, however." and forget about it

More likely it is air or a clog in the printhead than an electrical failure
(either in the printhead or the contacts). An electrical issue that took
out the whole color would result in an error message and probably the
printer refusing to print at all.

Regards,
Bob Headrick, MS MVP Printing/Imaging

On Oct 15, 5:35 pm, skark...@gmail.com wrote:
> We have a HP printer that we have been using for about a couple of
> years now. I bought a ink refill kit (color) from Office Depot a few
> months ago and refilled the color cartridge. It worked fine for a few
> weeks. I noticed over the weekend that it quit printing red (any color
> that needs magenta).
>
> So, I refilled the cartridge one more time and tried, but no use. I
> refilled it once again, still no use.
>
> When I press a piece of paper against the print head, I do see all
> three colors on the paper. I can actually see all three colors
> slightly oozing out of the head. But the printer prints only colors
> pertaining to yellow and blue, but nothing that involves magenta.
>
> I started suspecting the printer. I went out and bought a brand new
> color cartridge and tried in the printer. Now, everything works fine.
>
> My question to you is, do you know the reason for the behavior of my
> old cartridge?
>
> Thank you very much for your time.

You probably overfilled the magenta chamber of the cartridge. If you
break a new cartridge open you will find that the top half inch of
each of the sponges in the cartridge is white and dry. I don't know
why this is, but if the sponge is completely saturated the ink will
not flow out properly.

On Oct 15, 5:35 pm, skark...@gmail.com wrote:
> We have a HP printer that we have been using for about a couple of
> years now. I bought a ink refill kit (color) from Office Depot a few
> months ago and refilled the color cartridge. It worked fine for a few
> weeks. I noticed over the weekend that it quit printing red (any color
> that needs magenta).
>
> So, I refilled the cartridge one more time and tried, but no use. I
> refilled it once again, still no use.
>
> When I press a piece of paper against the print head, I do see all
> three colors on the paper. I can actually see all three colors
> slightly oozing out of the head. But the printer prints only colors
> pertaining to yellow and blue, but nothing that involves magenta.
>
> I started suspecting the printer. I went out and bought a brand new
> color cartridge and tried in the printer. Now, everything works fine.
>
> My question to you is, do you know the reason for the behavior of my
> old cartridge?
>
> Thank you very much for your time.

I don't know what the 28 cartridge looks like but I refill the 78
color three chamber cartridges. This requires drilling or "poking
out" the markings on the top of the cartridge and refilling with each
color.

One of the ink kits I purchased (can't recall brand) came with a small
squeeze bulb which I use in the exact situation you are complaining
of. I insert the squeeze bulb tip into the non-working color (in your
case red) and place the cartridge right side up over a tissue to catch
the ink which will leak out when squeezing the squeeze bulb. I wait
until the color stops dripping and reinsert the cartridge.

This technique almost always cures the problem for me.

P.S.: I have used a syringe in a pinch at a friend's house where no
squeeze bulb was readily available and this worked okay too. Just
draw some air into the chamber (about 1/3 of it) and place carefully
into the seal hole, then steadily "blow" the air into the chamber
until ink leaks out onto a tissue.

The reason you are having a problem is because you did not buy genuine
HP factory ink. Sorry to say but you chose junk generic ink.

skarkada@gmail.com wrote:
> We have a HP printer that we have been using for about a couple of
> years now. I bought a ink refill kit (color) from Office Depot a few
> months ago and refilled the color cartridge. It worked fine for a few
> weeks. I noticed over the weekend that it quit printing red (any color
> that needs magenta).
>
> So, I refilled the cartridge one more time and tried, but no use. I
> refilled it once again, still no use.
>
> When I press a piece of paper against the print head, I do see all
> three colors on the paper. I can actually see all three colors
> slightly oozing out of the head. But the printer prints only colors
> pertaining to yellow and blue, but nothing that involves magenta.
>
> I started suspecting the printer. I went out and bought a brand new
> color cartridge and tried in the printer. Now, everything works fine.
>
> My question to you is, do you know the reason for the behavior of my
> old cartridge?
>
> Thank you very much for your time.
>
>