Do Your Own Recycling! (Inkjet Refill Kits)

Member Name: ks.h

Product:	Inkjet Refill Kits
Date:	26/01/02 (2932 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Saves You Pounds

Disadvantages: None

I was first introduced to JR Inkjet Refill Kits about two years ago, I had just spent around £50 to replace both colour and black cartridges in my Canon printer and was watching QVC on television, a lady was demonstrating the refill kits and it looked fairly easy so I ordered a full kit. The kit consisted of two boxes both boxes contained instructions for refilling numerous makes and types of cartridge, a syringe, blunt filling needle and plastic cover, screw plug extractor and a sealing plug, in one box there was a 20ml bottle of yellow ink, 20ml bottle of cyan ink and a 20ml bottle of magenta ink, the other box had two 20ml bottles of black ink and the kit cost me around £22 including the postage and package.

I had kept my empty cartridges so as soon as the kit arrived I decided to have a go at refilling them. I found the instruction for my type of cartridge there was a diagram of both the colour cartridge and black cartridge with clear step-by-step instructions under the diagram; it looked painless enough so I started with the black cartridge.

Step One

Using the screw provided remove the vented plug from the filler hole by twisting the screw into the small vent hole and pull the plug out. This caused a problem because there was not a vented plug with a small vent hole for me to remove so I had to make a hole with the screw inside the circle on my cartridge; this circle was where the vented plug should have been according to the instruction.

Step Two

Assemble the syringe needle and fill with the appropriate colour ink. No problems here I filled the syringe with black ink.

Step Three

Insert the needle through the filling hole and push into the cartridge. I found a little resistance at first but no real problem.

Step Four

Inject up to 27ml of ink or until ink appears at the filling hole. No problems I slowly injected the ink into the cartridge. My type of cartridge did not require the
filler hole to be resealed.

Step Five

Install the cartridge and run a printing cycle.

I duly installed the cartridge in my printer and ran a test cycle and nothing happened, I printed sheet after sheet of blank paper. Just a minute what’s this on the bottom of the instruction sheet – Note – Empty cartridges should be refilled immediately? Well my black cartridge had been empty for about three weeks so I thought I would have a go with the colour cartridge, which had run out of one of the three colours and was actually still printing but everything was printing out in green.

I repeated step one on the colour cartridge and found the same problem – no plugs with small vent holes but three circles where the plug should have been. I made three holes with the screw provided. I already had the syringe assembled so I cleaned out the black ink with water, shaking the syringe well to get rid of any excess water and then filled the syringe with yellow ink.

On to step three and inserted the syringe in to the corresponding hole for the yellow ink again feeling a little resistance. According to the instructions I needed to insert 9ml of yellow or as much as the cartridge would take until ink appears at the filling hole. After about 5ml of ink the ink appeared at the filling hole so I blotted the excess ink from around the filling hole with a piece of kitchen towel, my fingertip was stained with yellow ink.

After cleaning the syringe I refilled it with magenta ink and repeated the procedure in the hole for the magenta ink, the cartridge took the full 9ml. Then I again cleaned the syringe and refilled it with cyan ink and repeated the procedure again, the cyan chamber on the cartridge took only about 6ml of ink and then overflowed so I blotted the top with kitchen towel and had blue ink stained fingertips mixed with the yellow.

I installed the cartridge in my printer and ran a test cycle, nothi
ng happened and I was left with blank paper, I ran a second test cycle and the print was starting to come through, a third test cycle – perfect. I had good quality print with sharp colour and was really pleased. After a few days I decided to give the black cartridge another go and it printed straight away and the quality of print was very good.

I now always use JR Inkjet Refills but have bought myself a pair of rubber gloves to save my fingertips getting stained and I also cover the utility room work surface with a couple of sheets of folded kitchen towel to put the cartridge on while I am refilling them. I find I often have to leave the cartridges a day or so before the ink start to run through properly while printing but this is not a problem because I refill the cartridge as soon as it empties and always have another full cartridge ready to use.

I have found the starter kits on my local market and in some computer shops, the black refill kit costs around £7.99 and the colour kit is around £10.99 however once you have bought the initial starter kit you can buy blister packs containing 60ml bottles of ink for around £6.99, these blister packs come in the three colours and black and if you have bought one refill kit you will already have the syringe, screw and instructions. Inks are also available in 250ml size bottles for around £16. You can also buy a 60ml blister pack of cartridge flush to clean the sponge inside your ink cartridge and clean the print head on the cartridge, instructions for use are given on the back of the blister pack.

Obviously the print head on your cartridge has a limited life span and will eventually wear out but I find the cartridges for my printer give good quality print for at least six refills and this saves me quite a lot of money.

This week while I was shopping in my local Morrisons I noticed JR Inkjet Black Refill Kits in a dump bin on one of the aisles, they are not a regular line for Morri
sons but are a promotional offer for the next few weeks and are selling for £8 buy one get one free, the kits also include 50% extra ink free so in each box you are getting two 30ml bottles of ink instead of two 20ml bottles. If you have never tried JR Inkjet Refills and live near a branch of Morrisons give the refills a try while they are such a good buy you could end up saving a lot of money.

JR Inkjet websites:
www.jrinkjet.co.uk
www.inkjetuk.com
Email address:
enquiries@jrinkjet.co.uk

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