Stylus Color 400/440/600/640/660/740/760/800/850/860/900/980/1160/1520    Photo Stylus/700/EX/750/780/785/870/875/890/1200/1270/1280/1290    Updated April 27, 2002

Understanding the Problem - The root cause of refilling problems is residual foam. This is an ink foam (air bubbles and ink mixed together) that looks like beer foam. It is thick and gooey. It can not be seen by looking at or into an empty cartridge. It resides in the sponge inside the cartridge. It takes up space in the cells of the sponge and prevents getting a 100% refill. If you inject fresh ink into the cartridge on top of the residual foam, it does not mix very will with the new ink. Random pockets of foam and solid ink now exist in the sponge. As the printer begins to print all is well until it sucks in some of this residual foam. Then the print head becomes an intermittent pump. It can not pump foam. The air bubbles just expand and contract along with the piezo electric mechanism and no ink comes out. The residual foam must be removed from the sponge before fresh ink is introduced. So here is our latest procedure for getting the foam out and the ink in. Please read through these instructions completely before getting started. This procedure is for a cartridge that has been used and is out of ink. It does not apply to a virgin empty cartridge. Materials Required - 60 cc syringe 10 cc syringe MIS bottom fill adapter MIS Rivets black electrical tape razor blade small flathead screwdriver paper towel Styrofoam coffee cup Hot melt glue is optional Here are the ink positions when refilling with Original Quadtone Inks. Procedure -
WARNING:    DO NOT PUT A CARTRIDGE WITHOUT A CHIP ON IT INTO THE PRINTER - IT WILL CAUSE FATAL DAMAGE TO PRINTER !!!
1.	Clean the cartridge with a paper towel. Remove all of the foil and clear plastic film from the top of the cartridge. Then tape the vent holes and fill holes on the top of the cartridge so that it is air tight. You can also use hot melt glue to seal the holes shut, it works better than tape. Later we will tell you how to determine if it is air tight. Insert MIS Rivets into the exit ports on the bottom of the cartridge, all except for the chamber you are going to work on.
2.	Attach the MIS bottom fill adapter (clear acrylic piece) to the 60 cc syringe. It is a twist lock fit. You must have a 60 cc or greater syringe for this procedure to work.
Bottom Fill Adapter                                 MIS Rivet
3.	Make sure the 60 cc syringe is clean and dry. You do not want to introduce any contamination into the bottom of the cartridge. Insert the tip of the bottom fill adapter into the seal on the bottom of the cartridge. Push hard enough to engage the straight part of the adapter in the seal. Twist a little to get it all the way in.
4.	Pull back on the syringe, keeping the cartridge upright in it's installed position, with the top of the cartridge sealed air tight. You should feel significant resistance. If you let go of the syringe plunger, it should return to its original bottom position. If it does not return all the way (within 1/4 inch), you may have an air leak in the top of the cartridge. Check your tape on the top. Hot melt seal the vent hole and fill holes on top of the cartridge if necessary.
5.	When you pull back on the syringe, you should get some "Residual Foam" in the body of the syringe. Pull back as far as you can and hold it. The foam in the sponge should almost fill the syringe. When the flow of foam has diminished, pull the syringe out of the cartridge, breaking the vacuum seal. Do not release the plunger. This is important. You do not want the foam to go back into the cartridge. Dump the foam residue into a paper cup or your sink. Repeat this step until you can no longer get any foam from the cartridge. Do it 2 or 3 times. Hold the plunger back for 2 or 3 minutes. (If you put a hole in the syringe plunger, you can insert a nail to hold the plunger back, it is easier on the hands.)
6.	OK, now you have a chamber that has the residual foam removed. You can now proceed with putting the ink back in the chamber. Uncover or remove the tape covering the vent hole for this chamber only (an Xacto knife or razor blade works good here). Leave the adjacent vent holes covered to avoid contamination. The vent hole must be open to let the air escape as fresh ink is injected from the bottom.
7.	Attach the bottom fill adapter to the 10 cc syringe and fill it with the amount of ink shown in the table below. If you can not reach the ink with the syringe, pour the ink into a paper cup or glass. Remove any air that may be at the top of the s yringe by holding it up and pushing gently on the plunger. Put a paper towel or rag around the tip of the syringe to catch the ink. (If you push hard, ink will squirt up to the ceiling, so be gentle.)
8.	With the vent hole on top of the cartridge open, for this chamber, insert the bottom fill adapter and syringe into the bottom of the cartridge. Keep the cartridge upright in it's installed position, do not turn it upside down. Slowly inject the ink into the chamber. Watch the vent hole on top of the cartridge carefully while injecting. Do not let ink over flow out of the vent hole. Keep the cartridge tilted at 45 degrees so the ink will not reach the vent hole until the end. After about half of the ink is injected, you can hold the cartridge level. This bottom filling technique is the best, because it prevents an air bubble from forming in the prechamber (the lower portion). When ink is just about to over flow, remove the syringe from the bottom of the cartridge and immediately insert the MIS Rivet. This will allow all of the ink you just injected to soak into the sponge. Don't worry if it was dripping when the rivet went in, it will get absorbed.
9.	Be sure to wash out the syringe and bottom fill adapter with warm water before going onto the next color. A few drops of the wrong color in the wrong chamber will destroy the cartridge. A few drops of clear water will not cause any problems. Clean any excess ink off the chamber you just filled. Tape the vent hole on top of the cartridge to prevent contamination while filling the remaining chambers. Remove the MIS Rivet from the exit port of the next chamber you are going to refill. Now go back to step 2. Repeat this process until all the chambers are filled. If you were filling the black cartridge, you are done, it only has one chamber.
10.	At this point, after all the chambers have been filled, you should have a cartridge that is completely sealed and filled with ink. Remove the tape from the top and leave the MIS Rivets in the exit ports, and store it in its normal installed position. Put something under the front of the cartridge so it is level. Otherwise the ink will pool at the bottom of the cartridge at the opposite end from the exit ports. Remember, it is not a good idea to turn the cartridge upside down once it has been filled. The performance of the cartridge will improve with age. An over night aging is recommended before putting the cartridge back into the printer. The over night period gives any trapped air bubbles in the ink a chance to rise to the top and escape out the vent holes. Do not leave your printer without a cartridge during the aging period. For long term storage (months) seal of the vent holes with tape after the cartridge has aged for one week. This will prevent evaporation through the vent holes.
11.	We do not recommend using the cartridge right away. The sponge needs time to absorb all of the ink and any trapped air needs time to rise to the top. Wait at least 2 hours before putting the cartridge back in your printer, overnight is better. During this aging period, do not leave your printer without a cartridge. Put an old one in if necessary. Ink can dry inside the print head causing major problems if the printer is left without a cartridge for more than one hour. When you are ready to put it back in, remove all of the tape from the top. Use a small flathead screwdriver to remove the MIS Rivets. Keep the cartridge over a paper towel, as the exit port is likely to drip. Allow the exit ports to finish dripping, and clean any excess ink off of the bottom of the cartridge, by blotting it, not wiping. The vent holes on the top should be left open, not covered. If you have large fill holes on the top of your cartridge, they should be covered, but not the vent holes. At this point you should have a cartridge that will work great. Install it in the printer.
12.	Run 3 cleaning cycles, then print an image that uses all colors. Always run a NOZZLE CHECK before and after a cleaning cycle. We recommend making a multi-colored bar chart using your word processor or graphics program or you can use the bar charts from our Purging page. Print 4 or 5 sheets (8x10) of this pattern. If you see skipping or banding run 3 more cleaning cycles and then print 4 or 5 sheets of the multicolored pattern. Don't run more than 3 cleaning cycles back to back. It can make things worse.
13.	If you are having trouble getting good prints, try to determine which chamber is not performing properly by examining the Nozzle Check pattern. Let the cartridge stay in the printer for 24 hours and then try printing again. Many times, if there are air bubble problems, they will clear up after a period of time. Don't lift the cartridge out of the printer or you will have to go through the entire refill procedure again.

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