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INK CARTRIDGE TONER CARTRIDGE REFILL USEFUL INFORMATION

INK CARTRIDGE TALK

WHAT ARE PEOPLE SAYING ABOUT REFILLED INK CARTRIDGES?

"One of my biggest blunders for the year was refilled ink cartridges!
You waste more time and paper trying to get them to print than you could
ever save. No more for ink jet. Laser toners ordered two had to send
one back for replacement. Not good odds."

"I tried that road a while back and won't go there again. The money you
save in the short term will come back to bite you in the rear down the road.
Trust me..."

"Avoid them. They'll cost you a lot of time in the long run, and for
some brands, plugged-up printers."

"Our experience with the refilled inkjet cartridges was very bad. The color
cartridges were by far the worst, the colors were not consistent. When you
print a test page and the Windows logo is pink you know you are in trouble.
The black cartridges did not provide consistent results either.
They did replace, at no cost monetary cost to us, the bad ones; but the
time, frustration, and marginal quality out-weighed the reduced cost. I now
buy only new cartridges."

"Don't go there. You will be running and screaming back to new print
cartridges."

"I bring home a refill kit and see it's not exactly easy one, two, three. It's really a whole kit with syringes and vials of ink and a weird screw thing and like a plastic cover and all this stuff. For this thing I had to read the instructions because I was absolutely clueless. To refill: You have to drill into the side of the plastic of the old cartridge, then take out a syringe and suck some ink out of the vial, then jam it into the side of the cartridge, and slowly shoot it up. Then you gotta do this other thing with this other needle to kind of 'get it started'. It's a whole thing. Of course I made a frickin mess. I spilled ink everywhere on my fingers and my watch and all over my cardboard box table and my shirt and I touched my face with my ink hand and got ink on my face. It took me forever to do what it said on the 10 step instruction thing.

When I finally thought I was done I put the cartridge back in my printer and tried it out. Of course it didn't work and I also got ink all over my computer desk and inky fingerprints all over my printer and keyboard. And it didn't even frickin print! I was totally pissed. I go back and sit down in my poof chair all angry and cause I knew I wasted $15.

REFILLING INKJET CARTRIDGES: IS IT SOMETHING YOU WANT TO DO?

The ink jet printer market is experiencing dramatic sales growth. As with any printer technology, the supplies business for that technology follows the printer growth curve. In the case of ink jet printers, the ink jet supplies business is showing the explosive growth. Therefore, a number of companies are trying to capture a good portion of this business. Since the printer manufacturers have patent rights and manufacturing know-how on their cartridges, third party suppliers try various ways to participate in the market. Therefore, as with laser printers, a "refilling" market has emerged. While the cost for "refilled" ink cartridges is generally cheaper than the original manufacturer's cartridge, there are other major factors to be considered before deciding to use a "refilled" ink cartridge.

The ink jet printing technology is designed around the ability of the ink cartridge to squirt a finely controlled, small drop of ink onto paper, when the cartridge receives electronic signals from the printer's main electronic system. Any variation in component specifications, ink formulation and print media can affect the quality and reliability. Some companies are offering bottles of ink to refill the original ink cartridge. There are some major reasons why this may be unsatisfactory:

The first reason is ink formulation. The printer manufacturers do not make available their ink formulation and in most cases, the formulation is patented. This formulation is specifically designed to work with the cartridge and printer components. Any difference in the ink formulation can clog the small nozzles which squirt the ink; corrode the cartridge electronics or damage other critical components in the printer; and change the size of the drops which will affect print quality. The only way "refiller" can attempt to duplicate the ink formulation is to do "Reverse Engineering." However, they cannot match the formulation completely (remember the formulation is patented). Therefore, these refill inks may meet only certain criteria for good ink jet ink. They may fall short in any of the following areas: clogging of print nozzles, lower print quality, smearing (slow dry times) and less water resistance.

Another reason is that the cartridges are designed to last as long as the life of the ink supply. Each time a nozzle is fired, the cartridge components wear slightly. Over time, the components will degrade and wear out. If the cartridge is "refilled" the print quality will degrade and eventually the print cartridge will fail.

In addition, refilling with ink bottles can be messy. A spillage of ink can damage clothing, carpets, furniture, etc. This can become a very expensive "refill", if any of these are damaged.

So if you have an ink jet printer give careful consideration to using "refilled" cartridges. They may present a risk you may not want to take. The decision should be a careful one.

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