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Do you refill your printer cartridges?
Old 03-15-2006, 03:41 PM   #1
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Do you refill your printer cartridges?

I have had a Cannon BJC-250 ink jet printer for at least 5 years. I keep waiting for it to break so I can get a new laser printer, but I can not bring myself to get rid of a perfectly good printer that is still chugging along.

I have always bought cartridges at Office Max for about $22 or 2/$40.* About 2-3 years ago I went to a local place (InkSell) that sells reloaded cartridges and kits so you can refill your own.* The kits (good for 3 refills) sell for about $12. Once you have the kit you can buy just the ink for about $3 and that also is enough ink for 3 refills.

I don't do a heck of a lot of printing but it prints a clean, neat document in about 20 seconds so it meets my needs.

My costs have reduced from $22 per cartridge to $1 per cartridge.

I hope this old printer lasts forever and I never get my new laser.

Anyone else had any experience with refills?
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Re: Do you refill your printer cartridges?
Old 03-15-2006, 05:50 PM   #2
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Re: Do you refill your printer cartridges?

Quote:
Anyone else had any experience with refills?
I refill my cheap lexmark printer cartridges. The black is easy enough, but the color is tricky and is best to just put a little in every once in awhile. I let them sit in rubbing alcohol overnite when they get clogged. Seems to work ok.
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Re: Do you refill your printer cartridges?
Old 03-15-2006, 07:05 PM   #3
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Re: Do you refill your printer cartridges?

I had a Lexmark inkjet. I had bad luck with the generic refills from Walmart/Sams Club, but had excellent results with a specialized kit made for each specific printer brand. The ink formulations realy are different between brands, and universal ink jammed up the Lexmark cartidges. The kit included a syringe setup that allowed you to force ink through the printhead (which is integral to the ink cartidge on Lexmark models).

The refilling procedure was easy, and I reused some cartridges many times. Reilling worked for me, saved a lot of money and was convenient. I recomend you give it a shot, but get the good refill kit.


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Re: Do you refill your printer cartridges?
Old 03-15-2006, 07:19 PM   #4
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Re: Do you refill your printer cartridges?

Cartridge World. $8 from them, $30 from Epson for their CX4600.

But as TH has pointed out many times, it's almost cheaper to throw the printer away when a cartridge runs out and just buy a new printer.

Our local CW franchisee is looking for a bigger place with two drive-through windows. Most of his customers park outside his front door and send their kids in with the empty cartridges to pick up refills.

When I watch the traffic through his place it reminds me of the early days of McDonald's or Subway.
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Re: Do you refill your printer cartridges?
Old 03-15-2006, 07:25 PM   #5
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Re: Do you refill your printer cartridges?

It has been my experience that whether one buys remanufactured cartridges or you buy a kit to roll your own, it tends to be more trouble than it's worth. I typically buy my cartridges on ebay. I have been able to get new factory fresh items that are near or at the expiration date for very reasonable prices.* Works for me.
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Re: Do you refill your printer cartridges?
Old 03-15-2006, 08:33 PM   #6
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Re: Do you refill your printer cartridges?

I've seen a few side by side tests. Usually the refill kits and the cheap cartridges use cheap ink that doesnt look as good when you actually see a fresh print side by side, and the cheap carts are often "remanufactured", which means "we put ink in an empty used one, and it didnt run out"

Sometimes it IS cheaper to just buy a new printer, especially if you can swing one on sale or clearance AND it has full carts, not 'starter' carts.

One of your best deals if and when you can nail it, is a color laser from costco or sams club when they come with the full toner cartridged. Usually $299-399. Those are good for up to 7000 mixed color/b&w pages at usually 15-20+ pages per minute. I dont know about you guys, but 7000 pages is good for me for about 6-8 years. The toner carts dont clog or dry out like ink. Waterproof results. Prints on thick glossy stock look just like photos. When a toner goes dry, throw it out and buy another one.

Usually much bigger and heavier than an inkjet or mono laser though.

Bonus baby is that they usually have a network connection on the back. I have mine hooked to the network off of a powerline network adapter in one of the back rooms of the house. We can print to it from anything in the house.
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Re: Do you refill your printer cartridges?
Old 03-15-2006, 10:56 PM   #7
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Re: Do you refill your printer cartridges?

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Originally Posted by Cute 'n Fuzzy Bunny
Usually much bigger and heavier than an inkjet or mono laser though.
Funny you should mention that.* *I just took delivery of a Dell 3100cn today.* *I ordered it because my wife said I could ("Hey, Wifey, do we want a color laser printer for $200?" ... "OK.")* *But I didn't check the specs throrougly.

I almost wept when I saw it.* *And my UPS guy was weeping.* *72lbs.* *It's a monster.* * But it works great, the color looks lovely, and it was cheap.* *The printer + four 4K toner carts was about $100 cheaper than the replacement toner carts Dell sells (and they almost never offer discounts on razor blades consumables).
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Re: Do you refill your printer cartridges?
Old 03-16-2006, 08:07 AM   #8
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Re: Do you refill your printer cartridges?

I just bought another konica minolta PagePro 1300 b/w laser printer for a family member on sale for $50 at one of the office supply stores. We bought ours (the older 1200 version) years ago, and the toner is still going strong. Hi speed, excellent quality laser printing. We sometimes go weeks without using it. Our old inkjet would clog and dry up if we didn't use it frequently (hence the decision to get a laser printer). Hassle-free so far.

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Re: Do you refill your printer cartridges?
Old 03-16-2006, 08:22 AM   #9
 
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Re: Do you refill your printer cartridges?

I just bought some from abacus24-7.com, and they were pretty cheap. They came right away, but I haven't tried them yet.
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Re: Do you refill your printer cartridges?
Old 03-16-2006, 08:24 AM   #10
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Re: Do you refill your printer cartridges?

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Originally Posted by wab
Funny you should mention that. I just took delivery of a Dell 3100cn today.
Mines about the same size and weight. The newer ones are a lot smaller. Did that come with full cartridges or starters? Good price if they're full. Yes, you're right...some of these deals are cheaper than just buying the toner alone...guess they're figuring you're going to lay out $400-500 for a toner and eventually a clot of money for a drum, rather than just buying another cheap loss leader...

It was painful enough to throw out a perfectly good inkjet printer because I could buy a new one for half the price of the ink, I cant wait until I take an 80lb 2' tall printer to the dump and drop it next to electronics that were out of date 10 years ago... :P

Still have my two mono lasers sitting around...including one of those 1200's justin has. I think I paid $39 for that on a clearance about 3-4 years ago. Every once in a while I need an extra printer...dust them off, plug them in, off they go.

I did discover that if you take an extra toner cart home from work for your printer, stick it up in the attic, and then find that you dont need a new one for 7 years, that the spare doesnt work very well after all that time in a 140 degree attic...
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Re: Do you refill your printer cartridges?
Old 03-16-2006, 08:34 AM   #11
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Re: Do you refill your printer cartridges?

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Originally Posted by Cute 'n Fuzzy Bunny
It was painful enough to throw out a perfectly good inkjet printer because I could buy a new one for half the price of the ink, I cant wait until I take an 80lb 2' tall printer to the dump...
If your good friend JG is reading this (which he very well might be), I bet his heart rate just jumped up by 20%.

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Re: Do you refill your printer cartridges?
Old 03-16-2006, 08:37 AM   #12
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Re: Do you refill your printer cartridges?

Oh i'm quite sure some dummy will take the thing home, maybe even manage to sell it to some other dummy for $20 at a yard sale, who will take it home, find out its going to cost $400-500 to make it print again, and they'll put it out in their yard next to the toilet based dog water bowl and the pile of possum carcasses.
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Re: Do you refill your printer cartridges?
Old 03-16-2006, 09:04 AM   #13
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Re: Do you refill your printer cartridges?

Cheap Ink Cartridges

I started buying Canon printers the past few years. Some of the models take carts (BCI-21 or 24) that can be bought very cheap online. The Canon cart is just an ink tank - very simple, therefore cheap. I get them in bulk less than $2 each (inkjetmadness.com or e-inkcart.com):

Description = 12 Pack Special - 6 Black + 6 Color Ink Cartridges
Unit Price = $ 20.00

Never had a problem, and have used quiet a few - I buy for my Mom and my son.

HP carts, OTOH, include the printhead, so they cannot be manufactured cheaply. But when you replace the cart, you get a new printhead in the deal.

Caveat - I *do not* print photos, just general text and some graphics. I send photos to Costco. If you print photos at home, OEM ink/paper might be best.

Also, Canon is starting to discontinue these printers with the cheap carts - I just might buy one or two of the last models when they discontinue them and put them on the shelf.

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Re: Do you refill your printer cartridges?
Old 03-16-2006, 09:29 AM   #14
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Re: Do you refill your printer cartridges?

Another good point. Many places including costco and sams club allow by the page photo printing. They have big machines that take all of the flash chips/cards, cd-roms, floppies, etc. Helps if you already have your ducks in a row as far as what you want printed before you go in, although limited browsing and editing is available on the machine.

My sams club is about 5-6c per print depending on the size, for regular 3x5-5x7 stuff. Thats about half of what it costs to print at home on a color laser.

Like others though, the WAF kicked in. "I'm not printing my pictures at sams club. Go buy a color laser you cheap #$%^#$!"
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Re: Do you refill your printer cartridges?
Old 03-16-2006, 10:11 AM   #15
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Re: Do you refill your printer cartridges?

I just go to Walmart and buy a new one. My FIRE planning allows me not to worry about an extra $10 here or there.


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Re: Do you refill your printer cartridges?
Old 03-16-2006, 12:03 PM   #16
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Re: Do you refill your printer cartridges?

We print all pictures through walmart (or somewhere else if there's a deal) online. Upload, edit and submit. Then pick up your photos or have them mailed to you. Pretty quick and painless.
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Re: Do you refill your printer cartridges?
Old 03-16-2006, 12:48 PM   #17
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Re: Do you refill your printer cartridges?

I printed 12,000 pages in the last half-year or so at work....
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Re: Do you refill your printer cartridges?
Old 03-16-2006, 12:57 PM   #18
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Re: Do you refill your printer cartridges?

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Originally Posted by Cool Dood
I printed 12,000 pages in the last half-year or so at work....
I was wondering who that was. You're fired.

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Re: Do you refill your printer cartridges?
Old 03-16-2006, 01:00 PM   #19
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Re: Do you refill your printer cartridges?

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I was wondering who that was. You're fired.

Hey, if it were up to me, I'd print maybe 2-3 sheets a year, if that! We just have policies......
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