Refilling Printer Ink Cartridges

Hi!
I'm wondering how people feel about refilling printer ink cartridges using a company called, Island Inkjet http://www.islandinkjet.com/index.html . I've tried refilling them myself, but I make more of a mess, lol. I've heard very good results from the company, but I'm worried about clogged nozzles if anything goes wrong. Should I stick with genuine ink cartridges?
Thanks!

 

I've had cartridges refilled before and they have been fine. Can't comment on the company link you posted as I don't know them. I guess it depends what you are going to print...how important it is to you. If it is photos you may want to think twice...if it is just letters and stuff for home use I say try it out once and then make your decision HTH

 

I wonder how the company that you bought your printer feels about your refilling your cartridges. To me, this would void the (limited) warranty you have with the printer.....

 

I'm not worried about a warranty. I took the risk and tried the refilling service, and accept if anything happens to the printer. My opinion, cartridges sold by the printer manufacturer are so overly expensive. Once I replace the cartridges a couple of times with their product, I would've been able to buy another printer.

I'm not a heavy user of the printer, I actually see no difference in quality between the brand name cartridge and the refilled,... I'm not printing photos, just your basic stuff. If prices came down, I would consider buying the brand name. Until then, I'll use the "No Name" stuff, lol.

Thanks for your replies! I appreciate it!

 

Better off refilling you own cartridges, i.m.o. You'll soon save more than the printer's worth in cartridges.

Some brands/models are much easier than others. Some, such as Epson, require the cartridge to be reset, via a special resetter device, available at K-Mart and other places, so that the onboard cartridge chip ink level is reset to zero. Not that hard, but can be a little messy, so do it over the sink, and keep the Kleenex handy.

 

I have a HP printer and have re-filled my cartridges for years and never had a problem. (I do however purchase special cartridges for photo printing.) I wear latex gloves to keep my hands clean when doing it and usually do it over a paper plate on the counter with a layer of paper towels over it so I can easily absorb any ink that I may have dribbled down the side of the cartridge. I also gently clean the cartridge head with a Q-tip dipped in alcohol (per manufactures instructions) as it will get a build up over time from not only ink, but paper fibers and dust...which will happen with new and re-filled cartridges.

I can buy a re-fill kit for under $10 that allows me to refill my cartridges 8 times vs spending $64.00 for one standard set of new ones. For me it's a no-braniner as to which I will purchase

 

I have an Epson and recently heard they're bad for getting clogged. Before I installed the refilled cartridges, I used alcohol and cleaned each printer ink nozzle.

So, I guess as long as you're not under warranty, this refilling service (or do it yourself) seems to work well. Thanks to all for your help and opinions! As a newbie, I appreciate the advice from those that know better!

 

I bought a second Lexmark printer, new, with 2 new cartridges. It was cheaper than buying new cartridges for my first Lexmark printer. Anyone want to buy a new unused Lexmark printer, with no cartridges?

Just make sure that each printer uses the same model cartridges. Bazza

 

Warranty already expired, so not relevant.

IMHO if the company want to charge extortionate prices for new cartridges and won't offer the option of cheaper refills, and some other more innovative company decides to offer this as competition, then all is fair in love and war. The company I sourced my printer from are totally free to enter the refill market too and capture this section of the market, but they choose not to do so.

If they want my buck then they need to offer a full range of services.

 

I, too, decided, just today, to begin refilling my ink cartridges. I refilled the colored cartridge. To no avail. Heck! where's my color that I put in the cartridge? ARRGGGGGG!!!

 

I fill ink cartridges. After a few and a coupla mistakes and making a mess, I have it pretty well down. Seems to be ok and is a bunch cheaper.

Jack

 

Oooops...you can go to this group EPSON_Printers@yahoogroups.com and sign up. Excellent site to get all your epson questions answered by some highly astute people. Regarding refilling you will be surprised to find out how bogus the "void warranty" warning really is when it comes to refilling any brand of printer. Several of the people are retired epson and other brand service people and technicians. You can even obtain a free cleaning manual for your epson that is worth it's weight in gold. I could go on but with a little reading from some of the members you will get some great info regarding printing and printers. One thing, with epson the inks are either dye-based or pigment based and it is very important not to use the wrong ink base if you are going to refill your cartridges. I have a very old epson that works like it just came from the factory and have used nothing but "compatible" cartridges purchased from ebay stores for the last 6 years and never once had a problem. Just got a new epson 6 months ago ( a dedicated photo printer ) and have started using the "compatible" cartridges in it after finding out some facts and am very pleased with the results of the photos that it puts out. It seems that the brands of paper used affect the quality more than the inks used for great pictures. The price of buying new cartridges for the photo printer was quite high and after realizing how often they have to be replaced it was a simple decision not to give my money to the printer manufacturer. As far as I'm concerned, I would gladly pay a little more for a quality printing device in the beginning and less for the supplies as I go along. The printing manufacturers are just driving more and more people away from their "genuine" product. Anyway, my little tirade is over.