How to Refill Toner
Refilling toner in your printer cartridges can save you a lot of money while reducing unnecessary waste. Officially, "toner" refers to the powdered substance used in laser printers, but printer ink is often called toner as well. Both of these forms have very different methods of refilling. In both cases, you will get more toner back in the cartridge if you let a professional refill store do it for you, but it is still quite easy to refill the toner yourself.
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Things You'll Need
- Replacement toner (ink or powder)
- Syringe bottle (ink)
- Drill or utility knife
- Funnel (powder)
- Newspapers or paper towels
Instructions
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Ink Toner
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Look for or create a fill hole in the cartridge. This varies depending on the cartridge. Some have a fill hole on the bottom opened by peeling off a circular film and pushing a ball bearing. Others have holes covered by the top lid that you remove. With some, you must drill or melt a hole. Check with a cartridge store for your model.
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2
Fill a plastic syringe bottle with one shade of ink toner--black, cyan, magenta or yellow--from a replacement bottle. A full ink replacement kit will have all four shades and a syringe. Insert the syringe needle into the cartridge. Some cartridges have a hard sponge inside, so you'll need some force to get it in.
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Inject the ink slowly into the cartridge to prevent air bubbles and make sure that the ink goes to the cartridge bottom. You can saturate the sponge in a single-shade cartridge, but not a tri-color one or the shades will bleed. When you see ink beginning to seep to the top of the sponge, stop filling.
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Wash out the syringe bottle immediately after filling one ink shade. Wait for it to dry out before filling another color.
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5
Reseal the fill hole if it was on the bottom, or replace the cartridge lid if you removed it. In most cases, you don't need to seal a fill hole you created on top of the cartridge.
Laser Toner
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Make sure that you are in a place with no wind or open flames, since you are dealing with powder that is very flammable. Spread newspapers or paper towels around your work area in case of powder spills.
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Look for a plug on the cartridge and remove it. If there is no plug, drill a fill hole on the cartridge's flat side that isn't near the print head. Make sure that no shavings get in the cartridge. If the cartridge has a plate that is clipped on, remove that plate and create the hole on the side that was underneath it.
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Insert a paper or plastic funnel into the filler hole. Pour the new powdered toner into the hole through the funnel. If the cartridge was nearly empty, a full bottle of toner will fill it back up.
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Plug the fill hole after refilling. Replace the plug if there is one. If you drilled a hole, seal it with electrical tape. Replace the clip-on plate if you removed one.
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Tips & Warnings
An ink cartridge can usually be refilled up to eight times. A laser cartridge often won't work after three refills or less because of mechanical parts wearing out.
