Lexmark refill problems

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Matthew Ford

I recently bought a Jettec refill kit (as advertised at
http://www.jettecjetset.com ) for the black cartridge of my Lexmark
Z605 inkjet. But I can't get the ink to flow reliably into the head...
the first couple of lines on each page come out very faint, and the
quality gradually improves to near-perfect at the bottom of the page.
The printer continues working fine until it stops; but if I print
another page after five minutes of inactivity, the same thing happens.

Unfortunately I did leave the cartridge "empty" for 36 hours before
refilling it, so that might be the problem; but it wasn't COMPLETELY
empty (it would still print half a page perfectly before fading).

Any ideas?
 
Pardon if I'm wrong but, don't they put chips in their cartridges to cut off
flow to the heads?
Joe
 
Pardon if I'm wrong but, don't they put chips in their cartridges to cut off
flow to the heads?
Click to expand...

Not that I'm aware of (I thought only Epson did that). There have been
plenty of other postings in this group about Lexmark cartridge
refills... but I couldn't find anyone else experiencing my problem.

The print quality has improved after leaving my cartridge in the
printer for another 24 hours, but it still doesn't flow properly at
the start of a new document after several hours of inactivity. Maybe
the JetTec ink is the problem?

The weird thing is that when I first refilled it I couldn't STOP the
ink flowing through the head... several cc of ink dripped out of the
head, even though I hadn't over-filled it beyond the recommended 15cc.
The dripping eventually stopped, and I cleaned the head, but now there
doesn't seem to be ENOUGH ink flowing through (I know the cartridge
has at least 10cc left in it, because I measured what went in and what
came out!)

Matthew.
 
Matthew Ford said:
I recently bought a Jettec refill kit (as advertised at
http://www.jettecjetset.com ) for the black cartridge of my Lexmark
Z605 inkjet. But I can't get the ink to flow reliably into the head...
the first couple of lines on each page come out very faint, and the
quality gradually improves to near-perfect at the bottom of the page.
The printer continues working fine until it stops; but if I print
another page after five minutes of inactivity, the same thing happens.

Unfortunately I did leave the cartridge "empty" for 36 hours before
refilling it, so that might be the problem; but it wasn't COMPLETELY
empty (it would still print half a page perfectly before fading).

Any ideas?
Click to expand...

Try dripping the head in boiling water this will help remove the harden ink
for the nozzles

HTH
Martin
 
Pardon if I'm wrong but, don't they put chips in their cartridges to cut off
flow to the heads?
Joe
Click to expand...

Not exactly, they use the serial number chip. That chip would do
nothing to directly control ink flow. What it would do is tell what
cartridge is in the printer, which the printer or application software
tracks ink useage.
 
I recently bought a Jettec refill kit (as advertised at
http://www.jettecjetset.com ) for the black cartridge of my Lexmark
Z605 inkjet. But I can't get the ink to flow reliably into the head...
the first couple of lines on each page come out very faint, and the
quality gradually improves to near-perfect at the bottom of the page.
The printer continues working fine until it stops; but if I print
another page after five minutes of inactivity, the same thing happens.

Unfortunately I did leave the cartridge "empty" for 36 hours before
refilling it, so that might be the problem; but it wasn't COMPLETELY
empty (it would still print half a page perfectly before fading).

Any ideas?
Click to expand...

This is Ian I've just bought a Z605 for my NOTEBOOK (excellent
printer) and I was assured that the cartridges were not chipped like
Epson. I have not yet refilled one of these cartridges. However
my experiences with the Lexmark 12A1970 might be useful. I tried
refilling this one but the results were generally disappointing unless
they were topped up before running dry. I used to blame the ink!!!
For a failed cartridge the results were exactly as you described. One
day I decided to try some drastic action. I put some strong thick
bleach in an old frying pan (after 1 to 1 dilution} about 1 cm deep
When it was boiling I dipped the end of the cartridge in and out of
this liquid about six times. I then washed it under the tap and dried
it. That was the end of stage one. Now for stage two.. I
wrapped the ink side in kitchen tissue paper and swung it through a
semi-vertical circle about half a dozen times so that some ink leaks
out which you can then wipe off. On replacing the cartridge in the
printer and going through the cleaning nozzle routine the result were
perfect, not just that day but until all the ink was used up again. I
have filled this same cartridge four times so far using this method
and it is still going strong. What is happening? Well my first
thought was that the other people recommend dipping cartridges in
boiling distilled water!! This concoction is very strong and as far
removed from distilled water . You might thing that this hot stuff
would corrode the works and ruin it for good. I don't know how far it
penetrates the nozzles but it obviously does it no harm. Stage two
applies some additional g to the ink and my guess is that at the
lowest point of the swing this can be between 2g and 4 g depending how
vigorous you can carry out this operation As a result some ink
escapes from the nozzles The ink is also forced down past any air
bubbles so as a result all these bubbles move to the top of the
cartridge. Well that is my recipe and it works! . It will be
interesting to hear any the comments from anyone else who tries it.

Sincerely Ian
 
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