Ink cartridge refills

[Stephen Cherry]

I just bought a supersized printer:

http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?181237-New-printer-gloat

Does anyone have any experience with refilling cartridges, or fleabay remanufactured cartridges? There looks like there are some ultracheap options, but I do not know how they will interface with the ink level detection, and the date of expiration for the cartridge.

Any help would be appriciated.

[Dan Hintz]

Steve,

I don't know anything about that particular printer, but liquid level on smaller printers is almost always done by guess/estimation rather than a true level. This has led to a lot of poor reviews because the printers rarely get it right, and customers feel the half-full cartridges listed as "empty" are just a scam by the manufacturers to force more ink purchases.

To combat the cheap refills (which manufacturers claim destroy machines and therefore end your warranty), they started putting ID chips in each cartridge that once marked as dead, will not allow them to work (don't even get me started on the cartridges that fail right out of the box). If your printer uses this kind of cartridge, you may be hosed. Some types have been hacked, and with a $30-50 reset tool you can reflll to your heart's desire... but not every cartridge manufacturer has been hacked.

[John M Wilson]

Hi!

I buy a copious number of inkjet cartridges (I'm a high school teacher) through a place called LD Products. Not sure if I am allowed to post their link or not, but you can Google them. They offer name brand OEM cartridges ($$$) along with their own no-name refilled models ($). These have chips & etc. and have worked flawlessly for me for countless cartridges. Only once have I had a failure -- cartridge stopped printing even though it was half full of ink. One quick call & a new one was on the way... no charge. I checked & they do offer cartridges for the HP Designjet 800... looks like $12.99 each, with a volume discount to $12.00 each for 3 or more. They often have "coupon" sales, and lately I have been ordering from them through Amazon to save shipping.

I run the cartridges until they are bone dry in my Canon printers... no complaints about throwing ink away. To me, they offer a steep discount from OEM pricing without the pucker factor of putting unknown ebay stuff into my expensive printers.

[ken masoumi]

I've had great service and good quality refills from these guys but they're in Canada,check it out. their prices are not too bad.
http://www.123inkcartridges.ca/catalog/index.html

[Tim Howell]

I bought a Lexmark Z53 years ago because the print head is in the cartridge. The last printer was an Epson - 90 for a new print head = no way. I use OfficeMax for ink. They refill my cartidge for $5.00. No problems either. The Epson head clogged up with aftermarket refill kit. It was still a bargin because I refilled about 10x for $30.00 verus $35 for a new cartridge. The Lexmark is still working on my old 32bit cpu but dones not work on the new 64 bit. (BS for no backward compitable!) Don't know if any of the Lexmarks still have the print head built into the cartridge or not now days, but worth a check. Replacement cartridges were 32-37 dollars. The Lexmark is now about 12 years old.

[Curt Harms]

I bought a Lexmark Z53 years ago because the print head is in the cartridge. The last printer was an Epson - 90 for a new print head = no way. I use OfficeMax for ink. They refill my cartidge for $5.00. No problems either. The Epson head clogged up with aftermarket refill kit. It was still a bargin because I refilled about 10x for $30.00 verus $35 for a new cartridge. The Lexmark is still working on my old 32bit cpu but dones not work on the new 64 bit. (BS for no backward compitable!) Don't know if any of the Lexmarks still have the print head built into the cartridge or not now days, but worth a check. Replacement cartridges were 32-37 dollars. The Lexmark is now about 12 years old.

I don't know about newer Lexmarks but some HP Deskjets still have the print head built into the cartridge. There are refill directions on Ebay and there don't appear to be 'kill me' chips in them. No certain because I don't have one, just doing research in case my current Deskjet decides to retire.

[Jim O'Dell]

Staples has a cartridge core rebate where you get it's either 2 or 3 bucks back for every spent cartridge you return with a limit of 10 per month. Their cartridge prices for new factory cartridges are competitive. We use an HP Photosmart and have had really good luck. Will never buy an Epson again. They waste a certain amount of ink each print clearing nozzles. After the spent ink reservoir gets full, the printer quits. There are work arounds online where you go into the printer with a piece of rubber hose and bring it out to an external bottle. I tried it with no luck. My understanding is that HP doesn't, or at least when we bought this last printer didn't, do this. Going on for about 6 years now with no problems and great prints. We get messages that the ink is low for a long time before it quits printing because the cartridge is empty. Never had an issue of partially spent cartridges. Jim.

[Floyd Cox]

As Curt said get them on ebay, I have always had good luck with them and about 50-75% cheaper