Saving a fortune (Inkjet Refill Kits)

Member Name: Donf18

Product:	Inkjet Refill Kits
Date:	24/09/08 (253 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Save lots of money

Disadvantages: can be a bit messy first time

I recently found myself buying a new printer after having simply gone to get a cartridge for my old printer. The reason for the new purchase was that it worked out CHEAPER, how crazy is that. I'm guessing that in these days of credit crunch and tighter purse strings there will be a few more who like me will try to save money on computer peripherals in several new and innovative ways.
There is a way to save a substantial amount of money by refilling your old cartridge. There are quite a few manufacturers who now supply refill kits, but perhaps the most well known is JR Inkjet. The refill kits come in many shapes and sizes to accommodate most modern inkjet printers. You can purchase a simple black kit, which consists of a bottle of black ink a syringe and instructions on how to complete the refilling task.

Most of us however are fortunate enough to have a colour inkjet and this is slightly more complicated than the black cartridge. It's not exactly rocket science but its does involve a bit more work and effort. Having said this the effort will save you over and over again, because once you have refilled a few times you will become much faster and more efficient, so not only saving a big wad of cash otherwise to be spent on the very overpriced cartridges, but also the time in accomplishing the refill. There are a very few printers which will required more effort than perhaps most of us would consider reasonable, but in general the most popular makes of printer can be refilled in half an hour, less for black obviously.
Shopping around will get you the best price since for some reason the price varies considerably from store to store with the likes of Currys and PC World charging way over he odds for the kit which comes in at about £6 - £7 in most reasonable shops. The kit will refill most cartridges about 5 to 6 times saving on average about £150, which as you will now appreciate is WELL WORTH the effort. The kit comprises of the three main colour inks, which form the basis of an inkjet printer, those being Cyan, Magenta, and Yellow. There are some kits, which for the same price carry an extra bottle of black ink free, but they are rare these days but I have still seen them in some obscure shops.

The kit comes with other little pieces which are only required for certain printers, these include rubber plugs and a small screwed metal hook to create the hole in which to put the ink. This need not be a worry though since the comprehensive instructions cover everything. Should you lose the instructions JR Inkjet have a website where all relevant documents can be freely downloaded for future refills.
The basic refill procedure is simply that of removing a couple of labels and finding the refill holes which is usually hidden underneath the main label o the top of the finished cartridge. It is advisable however not to let the old cartridge get completely empty as this requires slightly more work. Once the refill positions for the three inks have been located ensure that when refilling with the supplied syringe that you put the correct colour into the correct hole or you will end up with some pretty peculiar results when you come to printing. Actually having done this with the Yellow and Magenta on one cartridge the results were quite pleasing but very confusing. Having placed the required amount of ink into each colour chamber on the cartridge it is time to reseal the holes. Some small sticky clear adhesive circles are supplied for this purpose but in general the refitting of the label will suffice. If in future refills you cannot find the sticky circles a small piece of cellotape will suffice. It is now advisable to leave the cartridge for an hour or so to let the ink soak into the sponges which are inside the cartridge and hold the ink. To do this, place the cartridge on a non-absorbent surface and simply leave for an hour or so. It is not unusual to return to find some excess ink having dripped out, this simply means you have put a little too much in. A wipe with a bit of kitchen paper to remove any excess which is on the cartridge will do fine, ensuring that the gold coloured metal contacts are absolutely free is essential to the cartridge working correctly once it is refitted into the printer.

Now all that remains is to refit the cartridge into the printer and print a test page. The first page might have a few lines missing but on printing a second test page everything should be fine and your printer will be as new. I haven't seen a great deal of difference in using the refill kit to using a new cartridge when it comes to the quality of the printed output. All in all the process should take about half an hour as I mentioned previously, but it is a half hour that has just saved you £30 for a new cartridge. You will not take so long the next time you refill and the savings will mount up. I don't know the reason for the 5 - 6 limit on the refilling, but have tried to refill more times with a greatly reduced quality of print, so I'm guessing the print heads have simply had enough after 5 refills. Definitely a product I would recommend.

Summary: A great idea to avoid the rip of prices of cartridges

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