Should I use both types of cartridges?

Q: I'm using an HP K5400, which has two-sided printing capability. It uses two types of cartridges. HP 18 (black, cyan, magenta, yellow, total of four individual cartriges. HP88 (black and yellow in 1 cartridge, cyan and magenta in another, total of two cartridges) Am I supposed to install 18 and 88 cartridges simultaneously? (That would be 6 installed cartridges). I initially thought I can use either separately, i.e. if I want to use the 18 cartridges, I should not install the 88, and vice versa. Help pls!

A: The K5400 uses only the 88 series of cartridges. The trick here is that the printheads are separate pieces from the ink supplies. There are four separate ink supplies (black, cyan, magenta and yellow) and two printheads (black and yellow, cyan and magenta). You need all six pieces for the printer to work. When you run out of ink, replace the ink supply and not the printhead. The only time you need to replace a printhead is when the print quality gets poor and printhead cleanings no longer fix the print quality. All of the cartridges for the K5400 should be labeled as 88 cartridges. Also, there are XL versions of the ink supplies with double (triple in black) the ink in the supply.

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