Printer not printing after refilling ink cartridges

[cxgcxg]

It's about the third time I've done it. Each time the print colour quality has got worse. Now it 'prints' but no ink comes out onto the paper although the cartridge contains ink. The refill kit was bought from eBay from a specialist seller with very good feedback. I have a Dell All in One printer that's 18 months old. I can supply the model number if that helps.

Do I need to buy a new (proper Dell) cartridge, is it a problem with the printer that can be fixed or do I need to buy a new printer? As money is tight I'm hoping it's something that I can fix.

One other thing of note is that part of the refilling process involves sucking air/excess ink (?) out of the cartridge with a syringe after adding the ink but this has never seemed to do anything.

Any suggestions would be very gratefully received.

[redcow]

I've never had good luck or any luck, for that matter refilling cartridges. But that's my problem. As for your problem, why not drop a note to the "specialist seller with very good feedback" to see if he has any ideas?

I don't believe that you can continue to refill the same cartridge over and over again. At some point you are going to have to replace it.

I get emails all the time with people trying to sell me private label replacement cartridges. I got good ones and some bad ones. I've always gotten refunds on the failed replacements.

[cxgcxg]

Thanks. Are there some checks that I can do with my printer to try and determine the cause of the problem? If I buy a new cartridge it's going to cost me £15 which will be wasted if the problem is down to the hardware.

[contink]

If the cartridges you're using are existing OEM/Branded cartridges and the printhead is built into the cartridge then 3 refills is about your lot. Those sorts of cartridges will only ever allow you a certain amount of lattitude on refilling as they're designed only to perform properly once.

If you really want to get into refilling look for printers like HP Officejets, higher end Canon Pixmas, Epson printers, etc... where the printhead is either built into the printer or a separate consumable rated for more work.