Perfect Cartridge

NOT VIABLE is the label given to any cartridge that fails electronically or one that cannot acheive printing performance equal to a new cartridge.

"My cartridge was perfect when it was given to be remanufactured" is a common statement from people who learn thier cartridge cannot be remanufactured. Here are some bits of info that may help you understand why ink cartridges as they are currently built will not last forever.

Your cartridge print head was plugging up as you used it. It happens slowly over time. You may not notice it but ink is drying in the internal components like sponges and within the print head itself. By the time you have expended the ink in a cartridge many nozzles (the microscopic pipes that emit ink) are already occluded (like the arteries of a heart patient) and may not be working. Cartridges can have as many as 1500 nozzles, you may not have noticed when 20 weren't working. When IQcartridge tests your cartridge, all of the electronic circuits must work perfectly. We will not remanufacture a cartridge that has even one bad circuit or nozzle. You may not have noticed but brand new cartridges often have one or more unworking nozzles. If it comes to IQcartridge this way, we must reject it.

Ink cartridge design does not include electronic protection. So, if a cartridge overheats there is no thermal shut off to prevent damage. Nor are there bumpers or guards built into cartridges to prevent mechanical damage from impacts to the print head or electrical connectors. Most modern cartridges hold their ink in chambers filled by sponges. The chambers are vented and so the ink can dry within the cartridge.

The act of remanufacturing is stressful. We do not guarantee that your cartridge will survive the process. We must clean the nozzles, clean and replenish the ink storage and maybe even replace some parts of the cartridge in order to return it to service. Sometimes when we receive the cartridge it tests electronically 100% but fails at some point in the process. Depending on the model and how gently it is treated an ink cartridge can be remanufactured 2 to 8 times before a fatal failure occurs.

Many print heads are liquid cooled like your car. The liquid is ink. If you run out of ink but keep on trying to print the print head will overheat and sustain irreversable damage. Getting the last few drops out of a thermal print cartridge will ususally render it useless. For this reason it is good advice to print until you notice the copy starting to fade or streaks begin to appear.

If your printer has only one color cartridge it is a Tri-Color cartridge which is actually three cartridges built into one device. Tri-Color cartridges use Magenta (pinkish red), Cyan (blue) and Yellow primary colors to create color copy. There are three sepparate ink storage chambers and three print heads built into one unit. When one color runs dry or stops working for some reason the other two continue to work. But your color copy will change. As soon as you notice a shift in color discontinue using the cartridge or risk burning the print head which is not working. As an example, if the Cyan runs out, color copy will appear mostly red or orange.

Becuase Tri-Color cartridges have three print heads built into one unit, the likelyhood that a color ink cartridge will fail is at least three times that of a black cartridge. Each additional refill/remanufacture cycle increases these odds for an unfavorable outcome statistically. The up shot? Your cartridge will fail, your color cartridge will fail more often.