HP ink cartridges and refill kits

[Maddy McCall]

Recently, I couldn't find my HP printer's black ink cartridge anywhere in town. It usually retails for 30+ dollars. The only thing on the shelves were off-brand refill kits, retail $10.

I hesitantly bought one, came home, and within 4 or 5 minutes had refilled the cartridge and was printing again. I had always assumed that you would have to be a techno geek with a bottle of 409 nearby to handle this job, but was amazed at how EASY it was.

The print quality is just as good as with the original cartridge.

Anyone else do this? I will continue to refill now that I know how easy it is and that the quality is great.

[SoCalDem]

1. Be very careful..

I bought a kit and ended up ruining my Lexmark printer.. It seemed great at first, but the viscosity of the ink must have been different, because the little "reservoir dock thingie" where the cartridge "rested" when not in use, filled up with leaking ink, and pretty soon, everything I printed was a MESS.. The printer case was screwed together and I was afraid to take it apart(which would have been the only way to even REACH it), so I ended up giving it away, and getting a new printer.. My canon has very reasonably priced cartridges (individual colors too)..

You might want to actually remove the cartridges when you are not printing.. That might have prevented my mess.:(

[THUNDER HANDS]

3. that's a major problem with refil cartridges

Once in a while they're okay. In an emergency they're great. But don't continually use refils or you'll mess up your printer.

[vi5]

2. I tried them but to poor results......

The first time I tried it, it seemed to work o.k. But any time after that it just would not print the color in question and all my color printing got botched. It was horrible. Perhaps it was just my printer, even though I bought the refill kit designed for my make and model.

I'm planning on buying a new printer soon anyway, but I had hoped that this would solve my money woes of buying new inks every month or so.

[SoCalDem]

4. Canon printer cartridges are cheap.. and the printer is great

Each color comes separately, and they are waaaay cheaper than the others.. I have had lexmarks, and hp...and I prefer my canon :)

[Mikimouse]

5. Had the same problem a couple of years ago...

I bought one of the refill kits, and within two weeks, the printer was a mess. I caleaned it for an hour and fortunately found the original HP cartridges back on the shelf. The number 29 HP cartridge has been notoriously difficult to get around here for about a month.

[starroute]

6. I've never had any problems

I refill my HP black ink cartridges constantly and have never messed up my printer. You do have to get a new cartridge every 5th time or so, because the print quality eventually goes downhill.

I don't recommend refilling color cartridges, though. The one time I tried it, it was a real hassle, and the color values were never right.

If you order online, you can get refill kits that are specific to your printer. This might prevent any problems that could arise from ink of the wrong viscosity. I've been ordering from Pacific Ink -- I don't know if they're any better than anyone else, but I've been happy with them.

[ArkDem]

7. I ruined my printer with a refill that leaked...

..

[Enraged_Ape]

8. We print a lot of photos at our house

The first, and last, time we tried this with our HP, our pictures came out looking like they came out of a 1950s Life magazine that had been left sitting on a bookshelf in the sun.

Now we just suck up the cost of the cartridges and remember that, in the long run, we are paying substantially less for cartridges than we would for film and reprint processing.

[radfringe]

9. Printpal.com

reasonable to down-right cheap cartridges - that's where I get mine

http://www.printpal.com/