| Product: |
Inkjet Refill Kits |
| Date: |
02/05/01 (1064 review reads) |
| Rating: |
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Advantages: Save money on replacement cartridges, can be used with most printers
Disadvantages: Takes a bit of time, can be messy if you get it wrong!!!
I feel that there is a conspiracy going on. No, I don;t mean the one about area 47, Roswell and those little green men, or the true whereabouts of Lord Lucan, or whether Elvis really was seen in Sainsbury?s in Bournemouth high street last weekend, this is a bigger conspiracy altogether. I?m sick and tired of paying extortionate costs for something as simple as a cartridge for my printer!
I don?t know who came up with the idea of refill cartridges, but they are laughing all the way to the bank, and so are the manufacturers, who are really raking in the cash. Printer cartridges are designed to be thrown away when the ink runs out, and you are supposed to buy a whole replacement cartridge, made by the same company that manufactured your printer (a nice little earner eh!) for up to £30 each time. Wow, that?s a lot of cash these companies are making.
The whole system strikes me as very bizarre. When you run out of fuel on your car, you don?t throw away your old fuel tank and install a new one that is full of petrol, when your fountain pen runs out of ink you don?t throw away the ink barrel, you just refill it from a bottle of ink. So why do we have to buy a whole, new cartridge.
Many companies are becoming more and more environmental aware by producing refills specifically designed to cut down on waste, such as packets of washing powder so you don?t have to keep buying a box. Not only is it environmentally friendly, but you can save money.
The good news (for us and not the cartridge manufacturers!) is you can now buy an ink jet cartridge refill kit, which as the name might suggest, allows you to refill your empty ink jet cartridges. I bought a JR Colour Ink jet refill kit, which are quite widely available from all the major PC retailers such as the dastardly PC World, Dixons, etc. but I found my kit at Maplin Electronics, where it was only £12.99 (instead of around £18) and came with a free black ink refill.
So, what d
o you get for your money? The kit contains a 20ml bottle of Cyan ink, a 20 ml bottle of Magenta ink and a 20ml bottle of Yellow ink, the three colours used in most colour ink jet cartridges. You also get a filling syringe with a blunt needle, so the careless amongst us do not inject their fingers with ink!. You also get some sealing plugs to prevent leakages, and a plug extractor.
The kit also comes with a fairly comprehensive set of instructions giving a step by step guide on how to refill cartridges. Looking at the list of instructions, most printers are covered. All the popular makes such as Lexmark, Epson, Hewlett Packard, Canon, Olivetti etc and most printer types are covered, even the newer models such as the Lexmark Z32+52, Epson 580 and Canon B400.
For most cartridges all you need to do is cover the ink outlet holes with some adhesive tape and squirt the ink through the filler hole, ensuring you use the correct colour ink in the correct hole or you may end up with some rather intesting colours in your photographs! On a few cartridges you may have to drill a small 3mm hole to inject the ink through. Although this may seem a little daunting, you can buy a Starter Kit from JR that includes a little drill. Handy eh!
Also, don?t worry if you?re cartridge is not listed. The instructions are constantly updated and new cartridges being added. Go to their website at www.ink jet.co.uk to see if new instructions for your printer have been added.
I know it might seem a bit of hassle messing about with syringes of ink and maybe even drilling holes, but it really isn?t that difficult to fill a cartridge and it will save you an awful lot of money.
Summary:
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Last comments:
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- 20/05/01 I pass on this information in good faith, but everyone who reads this must make their own decision as to how appropiate it is to their particular application. My limited experience with a inkjet refill kit was not good, as, despite following the enclosed instructions I could not get them to work. Generally all I acheived was that I made a mess. I also had ambitions to print photo-quality images, so I bought a suitable printer, of the type where you only change the ink cartridge and not the printhead as well. For the first year I stuck to the maker's own cartridges as I didn't want to void the warranty. Since then I've been buying 5-colour cartridges at £4.70 and Black cartridges at £2.39 from Firstcall Photographic of Taunton, [phone 01823 413007]. I have no connection whatever, with this firm other than being one of their satisfied customers. At prices like that, I doubt if it's worth the trouble and mess of trying to refill them. My experience is that the cheaper cartridges work every bit as well as the "original equipment" and I have not been able to see a difference. |
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- 02/05/01 Good opinion, not seen anything like this before, the nearest thing I've seen is a mix between these and normal ink-cartridges in which you only buy the main part once and simply have to pay for a less expensive part when you need to refill ink, that could be quite messy at times though too and I only saw it for a few printers at the time. |
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- 02/05/01 Who's working both Dooyoo & Ciao then - naughty naughty |
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