Do you refill your ink carts?

Tried it when refill kits first came out. Spent a lot for the best. It was a mess and didn't work well. I believe there was a limit to the number of time cartridges could be filled before they'd start to clog. And I think printer manufacturer's have gotten wise to the practice and learned to make life miserable for those who try to circumvent their plan of creating dependencies on their products. We still have a color ink jet but an old HP 1100 laser gets the bulk of the work. I might try pre-refilled cartridges on the ink jet as an alternative just once. I never stock up at sale time on ink any more because have been burnt a couple of times when printers died leaving me with extra ink. No savings when that happens.

purchasing refilled ones at a local brand name company but the printing results weren't that great. I have a different printer now and they have a sensor in them that cannot be reset. I buy mine from the manufacturer's website. Was considering the Kodak printer advertised, looks cheap on ink with great quality prints.

I send my refills to PetSmart Charities and it helps homeless dogs. It's a good cause, so that's why I do this.


Rick

I've used refills successfully on Canon bubblejet printers, where the actual print head is in the cartridge. But I found you can only refill twice and don't let the cartridge dry out before you refill.

I've done black on an Epson colour printer (you need a chip resetter)but getting hold of the coulur inks, especially light cyan and light magenta is tiresome.

I've used OEM and remanufactured cartridges and had good success with them and the price is very close to the cost of refilling.

Your mileage may vary.

For a few years I was extremely happy with my Canon S520 because of how cheap it ran. A 10-pack of aftermarket cartridges cost $20, and I even shot cheap refill ink in those in a pinch. Letting the printer sit for 9 months would only make me go through a few cleaning cycles before it was up and running again.

Those were good times.

Not long ago the printer threw up the "bad printhead" error. There's no way to fix it without buying a replacement printhead that costs more than a new printer.

Shopping for a replacement printer is more upsetting now because of these chips and other methods they use to suck your wallet dry without giving you any other options. Thank God for that new Polaroid system and their infomercials, maybe all manufacturers will learn that we're tired of being raped on every page we print.

My solution was to buy a cheap Canon ip2600 for $30 @wackmart. I haven't even unsealed the cartridges yet because soon I'll install a CIS (continuous ink system) by drilling and attaching the tubes straight into them while they're fresh. Not sure how well this is going to work, but I'll try anything before I pay out huge sums of cash for something so petty as printing.

Talk about pollution, THEY are the ones who charge less for the printer than the ink. I can only wonder how many printers are in landfills because of how cheap they are, and the complications or cost of keeping them running.

At $35 for cartridges, my $30 printer could easily be tossed every time it runs out.

Hey Willy,

I work at a Photo Lab in Pittsburgh, PA (soon-to-be a manager).

We develop pictures as well as refill about 30 to 40 ink cartridges a week, and thats considered average. Out of those, we refill HP, Lexmark, Epson, Dell, and Canon cartridges. I'd say we have a 90% success rate, and that is true for most labs. Also, we put ink in the cartridge that is developed differently than the original, with a different chemical composition but equal attributes so your cartridge performs properly without infringing any copyrights.

The only two things are to watch out for is the price and the print test. They should print test it for you on a small sheet of paper using a testing machine, and they should only charge you if they successfully are able to refill it. Lastly, most cartridges can be refilled between 3 and 5 times. Try it out. My Giant Eagle (Pittsburgh-based) refils any cartriges, black, color, OR PHOTO, for $9.99

I weigh my HP78 color cartridges and noticed a $15 refill at Walgreens was only 105 or 115gm (95 empty) vs. 140 from a real refiller. It ran out of ink very fast.
I use a digital postal scale (within 5 gms probably).
I talked to them later about it andthey said the machine was automatic and I should have brought it back.

I have to say, the coolest thing I've ever heard about, I think in the NY times science (or food?) section was this guy, a chef, who drilled out the cartridges in his inkjet printer, cleaned them really well, filled them with colored icing, and printed out pictures onto clear cellulose "paper" to put custom pictures onto cakes! For real. This is common now, but this guy started it.

I had hoped to reset the ink cartridge/printer chip on my iP4500 printer so I could reuse cartridges, but the link I was sent has info that doesn't work for me. Anyone else have any secrets to get refilled items to work? I wrote to Canon about it and the response was something about keeping the printer safe from poor workmanship or blah blah. I wrote back and said it was more a money issue for them than keeping the product safe. Too bad, because I will now look for companies more concerned about their customers and printers that allow reuse of cartridges. dedlnr

If u want to refill ur cartridges make sure u do it from a trusted person. It is not always advisable to use refilled cartridges since it may cause leakage in ur printer and can affect the performance of ur printer. Also repeatedly refilling a cartridge can eventually cause ink leaking into ur page when u print ur important text. Also if not used ocassionally it may cause ur cartridge to dry out...Most companys therefor recommend using new cartridges for better performance...

Try this link to buy some good products at reasonable rates
www.imageenterprise.com

why anybody would still consider refilling cartridges rather then using continuous ink systems is beyond me. Look up on Ebay "csi" + your printer like "HP" or "Epson" and you will find virtually hundreds of systems. Cartridges offered with the CSI system have auto reset chips. Some printers you need to release and re-install the CSI cartridge when indicated empty, minor nuisance. I like the ones which have bigger "bottles" for black and yellow, the 2 colors which have the most use. CSI and for that matter refilling makes only sense on printers with separate print heads where the cartridges are just little ink tanks. Most Epson's are like that, only some HP's. Some CSI are only marginally more expensive then a set of cartridges ~$60 -$90 and their refill is ~$25. Colors are good. With a CSI you completely stop worrying about color printing costs. I usually research available CSI systems for say Epson and then buy last years model brand new for <$70 + CSI for $49 and you are done: CX9400fax <$79 + CSI $ 49.00 (+shipping)

One of the most common problems we have seen when using refilled or recycled ink cartridges for this printer model or other printers using these cartridges if the ink out warning indicator. Most first time users believe that the refilled or recycled inkjet cartridge is empty, when it is not. To get around the ink out warning you will need to do an ink level indicator override, which is explained in Canon's printer service or maintenance documentation. After it is overridden, the printer will work fine but the ink level will not indicate accurately. Over the years we have had plenty of experience dealing with these type of fixable snags. www.re-inks.com.