Fiddlers Green

Color cartriages for my Epson printer have gone to $35us. Does anyone have experiance or insite on ink refilling kits? Pros & cons?
The Stylus 900 model I am using reads an elecronic serial number on the ink cartriages and only accepts them one time so you must have to fill them in place.
Walmart stores have both Lexmark and HP printers starting at $35us. Anyone know if the low end ink jet printers do an adequate job on card stock? It is attractive to get a new printer for the price of one of my present color cartriages.

I have tried those refill kits on my stuluse 800+ and they didn't work worth a hill of beans. Bite the bullet and buy new cartrages.
The low end printers are just that---low end. They work but are not the same as a good printer. I do a bit of photo printing and they can't begin to compare. But for model card stock,---maybe.

My self I would ditch the stuluse. I set mine at the curb after 3 trips trying to keep the print head clear.

73 Ron

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Any Day you learn something new, is a day that is not wasted!!

I use an HP 932 printer. It seems to get a lot of mileage out of a cartridge and it easily handles 110# cardstock. I tried using refills in a fit of misplaced frugality. Results were not the best--messy--inconvenient. I just buy cartridges now as needed.

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-Rob-

Currently working on: see avatar

I have an HP deskjet 3520. IT also has the sensor that lets it keep track of cartridges. But it only remembers the last 2 cartridges. To get around that, I sitchcartridges with members of my family who live nearby and have the same printer. Been doing that for 4 or 5 years and haven't had to buy a new cartridge yet. Another way is pricey at first, but might work. By 3 sets of cartridges and rotate them. I didn't have to do that, but I got lucky. I've gotten 4 years out of my cartridges (actually 4 divided by 3), with nary a problem. (Do people still use nary?)

I have the same problem with my Epson C82. OEM cartridges are very expensive for it. I've had good luck with ordering cartridges from www.ezinkjets.com. The price is right and they seem to work as well as the originals.

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When once you have tasted flight, you will forever walk the earth with your eyes turned skyward, for there you have been, and there you will always long to return.

ó Leonardo da Vinci

Put that $35.00 toward a new Canon from AMAZON. If your Epson is an all-in -one you can continue to use it as a scaner and media reader, and get a dedicated printer such as the Canon 4000 for about $80.00.

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http://s237.photobucket.com/albums/ff53 ... f%20Mirth/

I just read an article in the Jan 2006 "Smart Computing" magazine (in mail yesterday, on magazine racks?) on refills and refilling, including refilling "stores" which I had never heard of. (Closest one to me is 75 miles away, so I'm not going to try that anytime soon.)

Check the article out before giving up completely on refills, although I don't use my printer enough to justify refills.


Bob

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I'm not an old fool, but I'm taking a correspondence course to become one.

.Or you can do like I do and print them out at work on color laser printers. The ink doesn't saturate the paper, but fused toner doesn't bleed no matter how much glue you use. It also shines nicely in the light.

On the flip side, an HP Color Laserjet 4600 is like US$2000, and the cartidges (3 color and black) cost around US$200 each. They last a LOT longer than the inkjet cartridges at hime though, as they're rated for like 8000 pages!

How many models is that I wonder......

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Edward Merica
AKA "The Sarge"

If you use lots of ink and have a "decent" or better printer, I would suggest going to
www.atlascopy.com!

Their kits and inks are formulated for the printers intended for. The inks are quality and kits come with full instructions.

It's fairly simple and I've been using it for at least 10 years now.
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We used to use cheap refilled cartridges / toner. The results were foul, the lifetime was minimal. Check the running costs rather than the capital cost of your next printer. HP especially seem to go in for "giveaway" printers where the cartridges cost an arm and a leg.

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"Smile" they said "Things could be worse".
I smiled ......
and things GOT worse.

"Give-away printers" have been the Dell strategy for awhile now- buy a new PC and they'll throw in the printer for free. The catch is, you can only buy the refill ink cartridges from Dell. No reputable office supply house offers a replacement ink unit for Dell printers, and Dell's replacement inks are more expensive than some name brands at the store. No, I figured out Dell's angle pretty early on, which is why I have 2 brand-new Dell printers still unopened in the box at the house. I've been tempted to use them so long as the initial ink that came with them lasts, then toss the printer rather than order new Dell inks. Somehow, I just can't bring myself to do that, at least not yet anyway...

Could always use them as long as the ink supplied lasts, then flog them on ebay, I suppose?

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"Smile" they said "Things could be worse".
I smiled ......
and things GOT worse.

This may depend on just which division of Dell you are dealing with. Here in Oz, all the Dell printers are re-badged Lexmarks*, so cartridges aren't hard to find.

* I was under the impression that all the Dell printers were re-badged Lexmarks, but as always, YMMV.

Just a quick update on my free Dell printer. I opened one of the two I had on hand just to see what they would do, and yes, I was correct in that they are literally throw-away printers. It requires a USB cable which was not included, but I stole the one from my wife's printer for my test.

The printer is a no-frills "freebie" that came with my laptop some time ago. It contained a "starter" supply of one small black ink cartridge, and one for color. There is only one button- the on/off button. I printed off a jet model just to see how it looked and it was terrible- the color was poor and there were horizontal streaks throughout. Normally I would run the print head through a cleaning cycle to adjust the streaking, and/or use the head alignment utility on the printer's advanced tab in the Windows folder. Didn't have either option with this POS- it spits ink out on a sheet of paper and that's it- no provision for adjustment of any kind. Oh, and the paper feed isn't perfect either- it grabs sheets by a corner and when fed through, there is a slight skew on the resulting printout.

Checking the Dell website, I see that replacement ink for this printer will run me about $55, so there does not appear to be a huge savings in ordering from them. And oh yeah, as I already mentioned in a previous post, inks for this printer can only be had from Dell- no one is making cheap knock-off inks for these that I am aware of, and judging by the poor results I got, I wouldn't use them even if such were available. I'm even now questioning if I would bother using this printer to print plain text emails I have- no graphics or anything fancy, just plain text, but I probably won't bother.

There was nothing on this printer to suggest it was a re-incarnated Lexmark or any other brand of printer. It was stillborn as a Dell freebie and exactly met all of my poor expectations for it. Once the starter ink is used up, I'll be tossing it into the trash.

I'd be very interested in hearing from others who use Dell printers and what results they may have had...

-MOCR

Well, it sounds as though that one is worth more or less what you paid for it.

"There is nothing in this world that some man cannot make a little worse and sell a little cheaper. Those who buy on price alone are that man's legitimate prey."

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"Smile" they said "Things could be worse".
I smiled ......
and things GOT worse.