posted on June 2, 2001 10:45:42 AM
I've heard it can be done with a hypodermic and the proper ink, but what's the real story? And is it worth the trouble?
I see that new cartridges for the model I have go for $20 and up on ebay, and that's for the black ink ones. No way I would spend the $$ for a color cartridge--don't really need it.
posted on June 2, 2001 10:48:10 AM
I highly recommend it. I bought both the black and color re-fill kits for $24.95 and $29.95 respectively and I've already re-filled my printer heads twice, saving me nearly $100. You have to use the printer head utilities to clean and align the heads more frequently, but it really works.
posted on June 2, 2001 11:00:47 AM
Hi loosecannon...
I used this site and bought generic ink cartridges for my Epson...saved buckets, and they work very well. I can see no difference. They also have a lot of info and supplies for refilling. I didn't go that route, because they said the Epson cartridges were tough to refill... Good luck
posted on June 2, 2001 11:09:19 AM
Thanks Toke and Petpost
Aftermarket cartridges aren't listed for the Lexmark printers. Dang! And the color cartridge was listed for less money than the black! That's surprising.
It's either the refill kits or buying new ones on ebay i guess.
posted on June 2, 2001 11:16:28 AMAnd the color cartridge was listed for less money than the black! That's surprising.
You need to know the volume of ink in the cartridge before you can compare prices!!
I used to refill black cartridges when we had an HP500C, which had pretty small cartridges. Our current printers have much higher-volume cartridges, and by buying 2-packs at discount stores (Cosco, Office Depot, etc.) I am happy to pass on the aggravation of refilling cartridges. Also, remember, the contacts and the little spray-hole in the cartridge eventually get gunked up and don't work right.
Color cartridges - wouldn't it be wonderful if all color printers had separate cartridges for each of the 3 primary colors!
posted on June 2, 2001 02:01:32 PM
If you check the bigbigsavings site, you can sometimes find online coupons to use at office supply stores and save a very substancial amount. If you go that route, remember to check for rebates. I'm not too hot using other than the name brand supply stores for ink cartridges. Ordered from one, the cartridge would not fit, tho it was advertised to. Return hassle + downtime!
posted on June 4, 2001 11:54:15 AM
Hi! We tried the refillable route, but it was too messy for me. (I'm the kid who always spilled the bottles of paint in kindergarten, too!) We've started purchasing our ink cartridges from
posted on June 4, 2001 12:05:58 PM
We have refilled our Lexmark color cartridge twice with no problems. The kit I bought had 3 colors and black. I think it was about $20. It has saved me a lot of money.
"If man were to be crossed with a cat, it would greatly improve the man, but deteriorate the cat." Mark Twain
posted on June 4, 2001 12:58:09 PM
Better yet, if your printing needs are monochrome, why not try the laser route?I have a Panasonic KX-P4450 warhorse (state of the art, 1990) bought 3 years ago nearly new from a thrift store for $39.95. The consumables are: toner kits (5,000 yield, and bottle toner), drums (lately 15,000 yield) and developer (15,000-20,000). Used to be these were about $40, $200 and $175 respectively, but eBay has caused these prices to absolutely CRASH because there are a lot of supplies (orphaned by printer upgrades) being dumped by people who'll take just about anything for them. I got the last developer for $30 and the last toner kit, brand new, for $4.95! I get the fast laser printing, great reliability and VERY low costs.
I'd suggest looking at printers just a bit behind the curve but with a large installed base (many of the HP LaserJets probably would qualify). You'll find really cheap consumables costs on many of them and save tons of hassle and aggravation over the long-term.
That would be OK, except I got this ink jet printer for cheap, and I thought it was a good alternative to the old one we have, which printer paper is so expensive for. This one takes regular typing paper which is cheap, but so far, I haven't been able to find cheap ink cartridges for it.
By the way, how long will one of these cartidges last when used for printing about 7 pages a day, 5 days a week? A month? Three months?
posted on June 4, 2001 01:17:58 PM
I bought a refill kit a while ago and used it with no problems. However, the cartridge got old and "gunked up" as others have said, and my print quality starting looking like crap after just one refill. Now I'm sticking to new cartridges only.
posted on June 4, 2001 01:32:19 PM
Loosecannon I buy the cannon refills they last about 80% as long as the name brand ones but are like $2 each for compared to $8-10 for name brand ones. I print 10-12 pages a day every day and they last 5-6 weeks. I tried the refills and they only lasted about 3 weeks and were messy.
JB
posted on June 4, 2001 02:29:50 PM
I found the black refilled pretty easy but the colors...that's a differnet story. And all I can say it DON'T OVER FILL! They will leak and ruin your printer, I know, I did it.
posted on June 8, 2001 09:11:16 AM
"I bought a refill kit a while ago and used it with no problems. However, the cartridge got old and "gunked up" as others have said, and my print quality starting looking like crap after just one refill. Now I'm sticking to new cartridges only."
Printer manufactures design the ink AND the cartridge AND the printer to work together for optimum results. When you use refills, you loose the benefit of their R&D, which is one of the things you are paying for when you buy the manufacturers replacement (also a warranty on the new cartridge). The ink from the refill could have caused the cartridge to gunk up. Some printers use replaceable ink reservoir and a semi permanent printhead. If you gunk up the head with refill ink, it will be rather expensive to fix it.
If you refill the cartridge, you void your printer warranty. You may have good results, you could ruin the printer, though you will probably just experience some loss of print quality that may or may not be noticeable to you.
When comparing ink prices between single color and multi color, be sure to consider the total cost. If you throw away half the yellow ink to replace the red, it may be cheaper because it costs less to start with. If the price is the same, but you get less ink, it may not be a better deal. You should look at cost per page of the stuff you will be printing.
posted on June 8, 2001 10:53:52 AM
"If you refill the cartridge, you void your printer warranty"
This is one of those interesting statements that are often made..and just as often disagreed with.
Besides the usual comments about the accuracy of general legal advice here, as a practical matter if you refill your cartridges and later the paper feed mechanism dies for unrelated reasons, I can't see how this doesn't get covered under warranty. worst case, take out the cartridges, and/or put in unrefilled ones.
More observations: most electronic equipment either dies quickly (within the first few days of use), or lives a long and glorious life and then dies, well after the warranty expires (this is the "bathtub effect", based on the shape of the failure curve, that resembles a bathtub). In the case of early fails, you'll still have your original cartridges, so no problem. In the case of later fails, the warranty is gone anyway. The chance of having a printer fail after one has started using refills and before the warranty is up is relatively small, and the money you save can be well worth it. In the case of many consumer printers, its almost cheaper to buy a new one (with included ink cartridge) in the odd case where your printer does die before the warranty is over. Often the shipping cost and hassle of dealing with warranty repairs is such that its better to buy new anyway.
posted on June 8, 2001 04:56:20 PM
I used to refill cartridges for for three diferent printers, HP, Epson and Canon. It was messy sometimes but saved about 80%.
!!!But now I do not refill I just by generic cartridges. Try going to Yahoo Shopping http://shopping.yahoo.com/ and searching the keywords "cartridge" and "your printer brand" You will get a big list of results - click on "sort by price increasing" You should find generic cartridges for for nearly every modern printer for $4-5 a piece and you don't have to bother refilling anymore.
posted on June 9, 2001 10:01:02 AM
I do so much printing that I buy inks by the quart bottles. Yes, it does make a huge difference in the amount you will save to refill. I buy in such large quantity that a refill usually runs me about 75 cents per cartridge. 75 cents vs. $30. Yep, saved a bit.
Epson cartridges are most definitely the easiest to refill. HP can be easy or a real pain in the butt. My HP color cartridge is very easy to refill. On the other hand the black is an incredible nusiance.
I've never tried to refill lexmark so I don't know anything about them. Their cartridges look like the older HP.
Keep in mind that the cost to print in inversely proportional to the cost of the printer. The cheap printers will go through ink like you wouldn't believe. The expensive printers are much more conservative. PC Magazine did a study on this last year and found that people buying $70 printers were getting the least value for their printing. They were eating through cartridges continuously.
posted on June 9, 2001 10:43:48 AM
I have been refilling my cartridges for my epson printers for about 3 years. It is not hard at all and it saves a bundle. Also it has never ruined a printer because of it.
I have an Epson 880 that I use most of the time. I also had a 600, and I have also have a 740 now and they are all easier to refill.
Now the 777 is "not" easy to refill. I returned it and got the 880 after I found out that it was almost impossible to refill. I print a lot and I just couldn't afford the almost 60.00 a month it would take to buy new cartridges. At that time they did not have a generic replacement. They may now however.
