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Right now I am leaning towards having the genuine OEM HP cartridges refilled. The cheapest route seems to be remanufactured compatible cartridges (cartridge not made by HP). Believe it or not , if you want genuine HP Cartridges , buying direct from HP.com is the cheapest you can do. There are some other stores where you save a dollar or 2 on the cartridge but you lose it in shipping. HP ships their cartridges free. I got a 20 % off coupon from HP coming and with that coupon , I get the lowest cost anywhere for genuine HP cartridges.
The reason I think I'll go OEM is because of all the reviews saying the compatible (non HP) cartridges don't fit exactly. They work in most cases but people report they do not snap in with a distinct click like the HP. This means the people have to keep wiggling them around until they finally work. Also , the ink in the remanufactured ones is tricky. One ink source apparently can clog the heads as was reported above. Other inks fade very quickly. Independent testing shows the genuine HP ink resists fading for many more years than the off brand.
Anyway , there appears to be now way around the high prices of HP unless you are willing to risk the printer itself or risk the prints fading over time.
For my printer it will end up costing about $62 for all now high capacity genuine HP cartridges but then I can have them refilled. I may just have the black and white refilled and stick to original HP ink for the colors as its the pictures where you will be most hurt if the ink fades.
Believe it or not , after really looking the problem over , a decent strategy is to just buy a whole new printer every time your cartridges run out. The new printer comes with a set of new cartridges and if the printer is on sale , the total cost may be lower to buy the whole printer package than just the replacement cartridges. Now that's F'ed up!!
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