Why the CISS ink not flowing into the cartridge - sponge cartridge problem

I am going to share a trick, how to make the ink flow from the ink tank reservoir into the cartridge smoothly for Continuous Ink Supply System (CISS). This trick only apply to sponge type cartridge, where it uses sponge inside the cartridge to hold ink. Color printers made by Canon and HP usually use sponge type cartridges.

I am using HP Photosmart C4580 All-In-One printer which can print, scan, and photocopy. Sometimes ago i have installed CISS system on it to save money printing at home especially for normal documents. And indeed the CISS is really save a lot of money because it can print and photocopy thousands of documents without worry running out of ink. And never think of buying new cartridges all the time which cost around RM57 (tri-color) and RM52 (black).when you can fill in the tank reservoir 100ml each for RM10 only.



The first time installing the CISS was very frustrating experience, keep trying one after another the ink still not flowing from the tank reservoir to the cartridge. However after repeated try and error, at last i found the solution to the problem.

Note that the cartridge is using sponge, and if you don't push the sponge deeper it will always come up and block the host opening where the ink suppose to flow into the cartridge. The sponge also prevent the cartridge to have space vacuum to store air needed to hold the ink to flow in. So what you should do is take a piece of metal or long-enough object that can fit in the refill hole to push the sponge away from the hole.

This will keep away the sponge from blocking the CISS ink to flow in. And also it store vacuum inside the cartridge that contains enough pressure to hold the ink from going backward to the tank reservoir.

Also make sure the other two extra hold in the middle is sealed either by rubber sealer that comes with the CISS kit you purchased. Or you can use silicon gun to permanently seal it. If these two holes are not sealed, they allow air to escape from the cartridge thus no air pressure to hold the ink to flow in. And without air pressure the ink will reverse back to the ink tank reservoir.