How to Refill an Ink Cartridge for an Epson CX5400

The Epson CX5400 is an all-in-one color printer with four separate ink cartridges that must be individually refilled or replaced when deleted: magenta (T042320), cyan (T042220), yellow (T042420) and black (T032120). Ink cartridges are expensive, especially if you do a high volume of printing. Fortunately, you can reuse your old ink cartridges by refilling them with the appropriate color and type of ink to save money. Refilling your ink cartridges may seem like a daunting task but with an ink cartridge refill kit and a few basic tools, the process is straightforward and should take you less than 30 minutes.

• 1

  Purchase an ink cartridge refill kit for your Epson CX5400 printer. The kit will contain refill ink, four syringes (one for each color of ink), and a thumb drill.

• 2

  Remove the empty ink cartridge from your printer and place it on a paper towel or rag. Work in an area where the possibility of an ink spill will not ruin your carpet or furniture.

• 3

  Put on a pair of nitrile gloves to protect your hands.

• 4

  Reset the chip in the ink cartridge using a printer chip resetter. Follow the instructions for your brand and model of chip resetter.

• 5

  Use the thumb drill to drill a hole in the side of the ink cartridge, at the top of the label near the yellow text. Drill a second hole directly below the first hole. One hole allows you to fill the cartridge with ink while the other hole allows air to escape.

• 6

  Fill the ink syringe with the color and amount of ink that is appropriate for the cartridge you are refilling. Black cartridges (T032120) can hold a maximum of 25 ml of ink, while colored cartridges (T04220, T042420 and T042320) take a maximum of 10 ml of ink.

• 7

  Insert the syringe in the upper hole and slowly release ink into the cartridge. Because of the complex siphon design of the cartridge, the ink must travel through several passages and may overflow if you fill too fast. Keep a paper towel handy to clean up any spillage. Discontinue refilling if ink begins flowing out of the second hole you drilled.

• 8

  Cover the two holes that you drilled with black electrical tape.

• 9

  Insert the refilled cartridge into the Epson CX5400 print and leave it undisturbed for 24 hours so the ink can fully settle into the cartridge. .

• 10

  Perform a print head cleaning cycle on the printer several times or until the printer outputs cleanly printed pages. Press "Menu" on the printer LCD screen until "Head Cleaning" appears. Press "Color Copy" to initiate the sequence. The print head cleaning cycle takes about 30 seconds.