Accidentally pouring the wrong ink into the wrong tank can be stressful, especially if you just bought your printer. I recently experienced this with a Brother DCP-T730DW Ink Tank Printer, which was just issued in our department, when I mistakenly swapped the blue (cyan) and yellow inks.
What to Do If You Accidentally Swap Ink in Your Brother Ink Tank Printer
Thankfully, it’s fixable. Here’s the simple step-by-step process that worked for me.
Step 1: Stop Printing Immediately
If you haven’t printed anything yet, that’s the best case scenario. Do not run cleaning or printing yet to prevent the inks from reaching the print head.
If you have printed already, discontinue printing. Continuing to print will allow the wrong ink to circulate further into the printer’s tubes and printhead.
Step 2: Remove as much ink as possible from both tanks
Brother DCP-T730DW’s ink tanks are keyed in to the printer so it cannot be detached. You can use a syringe, dropper, or pipette to slowly suction the ink out of the tank. Take your time with this step to avoid spilling ink inside the printer.
I used a narrow syringe and attached a plastic tube from a spray bottle to extend the syringe.
Step 3: Refill each tank with the correct ink color.
Once the tanks are drained, refill them with the correct ink color. Make sure each tank is filled according to the label. Close the tank caps securely after refilling.
Step 4: Run a Print Head Cleaning
Run 1-2 cycles of print head cleaning from the printer’s maintenance menu. This helps pull the correct ink from the tanks into the printhead. Do this for a maximum of two times only to avoid wasting too much ink and filling the waste ink pad fast.
Step 5: Print a Color Test Page
Print 10–20 pages of color test patterns to see if all colors are coming out correctly. If one color (like yellow) is still missing, it may take a few more prints for the ink to fully flow through the tubes. Printing several colorful pages can help flush the old ink out of the system. (Don’t forget to use scratch papers to save on paper!)
Important things NOT to do
- Don’t keep printing many documents hoping it will fix itself.
- Don’t mix more ink on top without removing the wrong ink first.
- Don’t run excessive cleaning cycles (3–4 max at a time).
Final Tip
Ink tank printers are quite forgiving. Even if the colors appear incorrect at first, a few cleaning cycles and test prints usually restore normal printing. Just remember: don’t panic. Most ink mix-ups can be fixed without taking the printer apart.
If you’d like to see exactly how I fixed the issue, watch the video below where I demonstrate the process step by step.
