Many people think that the ink cartridge is no more than a vessel to hold the ink. It can be refilled with ink as long as its surface is not broken. In fact, this is a wrong idea.

Firstly, the sponge inside the ink cartridge has a certain lifespan. When the sponge repeats the process of “taking-in and giving-out” ink for many times, or when the sponge is used over certain time, the ink-holding capacity of the sponge will be lowered to some degree. This way, the ink refilled inside the ink cartridgecannot be fully taken in by the sponge. The pressure of the ink on the nozzle inside the ink cartridge will increase so as to make the ink flow out of the nozzle. This is also the reason why the printing amount of refill ink is not as much as that of the original ink.

More seriously, the printercannot monitor the ink flowing to the waste ink pad so that the actual waste ink amount of the ink pad is far more than the waste ink amount monitored by the printer. Thus, before the printer gives out the warning of waste ink exceeding the capacity limit, the waste ink has already flown out, causing the printer to be broken.

Secondly, a rubber seal gasket is placed to guarantee the sealing between the ink cartridge and the ink inlet of the nozzle, ensuring that the ink cannot leak out. Long time application or removal of the ink cartridge for many times will lead to the seal gasket aging and less effectiveness of the sealing, causing the ink to leak from the joint part. Thus the ink will pile out and mix on the nozzle so as to cause the mixed colour of the bottom ink. The direct result is the colour change in printing the picture and draft. After printing many pieces of pictures or drafts, the colour will recover to normal state. This will also lead to ink waste and increase of printer waste ink.

Thirdly, however good ink is refilled, certain impurity substance or dust will be brought into the ink cartridge after many times of refilling. They will be taken away and adsorbed on the filter net of the ink cartridge. As the dust increases, the filter net of the ink cartridge will be blocked, which leads to ink flow blocking, causing the problems such as the broken line in printing. If the filter net is fully blocked, the fault such as printing failure will occur.

Therefore, if the ink cartridge is refilled over ten times or if it’s applied over one year, it’s better to consider replacing a new one to avoid every kind of problems.