Ink Cartridge refills.

[Saltheart]

I have a very nice HP all in one machine that cost almost nothing to buy. The problem is the ink cartriges cost about $80 to replace. I see lots of cartridge refillers now and a local office of Cartridge World in just 5 minutes away. People have any luck with Cartridge world refilling their HP ink cartridges?

The second option is to buy remanufactured non OEM Cartridges. A set of these for my machine is $40. They are not remanufactured HP cartridges. They are remanufacrured LD or G&G cartridges. Anybody have any experience with these types of cartridges on an HP macine.

The fact is , that even the cheapest set of remanufactured Cartridges is Almost the cost of the michine itself. HP printers are now like Kodak cameras once were. They almost give away the cameras and gouge you on the film. In this case HP gives you a printer at what I bet is below cost then they rape you on the replacement ink.

[UserRemoved1]

be very careful. HP put timeout chips in alot of their cartridges...my #88 cartridges are good for I think 18 months then they automatically expire. Even if you haven't opened them. Like the ink is going to dry up inside them. It's a big scam to get you to buy more.

fyi there is a guy on ebay who sells megaload cartridges for alot of hp stuff...might be worthwhile looking into it.

I have a k550 pro here and probably spend $1500 a year on ink. Ripoff.

And filling sucks...as does rebuilt cartridges.

[JohnnyD]

You got the printer cheap because HP sells most of their printers as loss-leaders. With printers, they make their money on accessories, paper and most of all the ink cartridges.

I've had mixed success with generic cartridges. Sometimes they are fine, others they are garbage. Have had a generic cartridge gum up the printheads on my office printer. Had to replace all the heads.

[striperman36]

I threw out the HP's and went with the Canon

[UserRemoved1]

I went the hp way because I wanted something that would last longer than 6 months. This printer has been cranking for 6 years now. Getting tired though sometimes it picks up 7 sheets instead of one.

I want a wide format so I can print pictures. Problem is all the affordable wide format printers are real small.

[Saltheart]

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!!

[JohnnyD]

Originally Posted by Saltheart

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!!

Coworker used to do that with an Epson printer. He got a discount to buy the printers and they came out to the same cost as a replacement cartridge. Then he sold the printers on Fleabay for like $20 to recoup some of the costs.

[blue4spd]

If anyone is a Costco member, they have a very inexpensive refill program. I believe it runs under 7.99 to 9.99 per cartridge.

http://costcoinkjetrefill.com/pricing

[Raven]

best place for refills is in Yemen

[ecduzitgood]

I'm dumping the HP because of the expiring dated ink cartridges (will NEVER buy an HP printer again because of the Dated ink) and will get another Epson, most likely an Artisan 800 series which will take a continuous ink supply. I liked my Epson r220 printer with an aftermarket CIS so much I bought a second r220 (NIB on CL $100) that sits new in the box waiting for the first one to die.
I am hoping to find away around the expiration date but these are all trash right now (already tossed a brand new black cartridge because the machine wouldn't print or copy because of the dates)

r220 with CIS

[UserRemoved1]

DON'T FORGET TO REFILL THE WHITE

[UserRemoved1]

[ecduzitgood]

Check to see if there is a CIS for your unit, search fleabay type in: CIS, CISS or continuous ink supply and then search for your model. If you can't find your model sell it and look for one that will take a CISS.

[Saltheart]

There is a class action suit over the expiring ink cartridges , the early warning (says empty while still plenty full) etc with HP now.

I would try talking to someone at HP{ and see if they will send you new cartridges to replace the expired unopened ones.

I will definitely be looking for a CIS printer nexzt time. Thanks foor posting about them being available.

You know I bought all epson printers for a long time and then switched to HP in like 97 because their best quality photoprints were better than epson could do at the time. Now I find I seldom try to do photo quality printing. Its 99 percent just printing typical documents or info from net sites. It may be time to look at Epsons again.

BTW , my printewr said my cartridges needed replacing after just two weeks on the new printer. I have continued to print for several months now on the same cartridges with no problems. That's pretty unscrupulous of HP to design the chips in the cartridges that way.

[Mr. Sandman]

I like Hp products. I think they date them so you can be assured of the ink not starting to solidify inside. I tried the re-filled ones and most suck. I did have a couple that worked for a while but I have had some that don't work right out of the box.

Original Hp stuff works great. Yes it is more expensive but since you get the printer for essentially for nothing I don't mind paying for the ink. I think if you want the printer for free and the ink for free and expect to great great quality that is probably asking for too much.
I buy a bulk pack of ink and it lasts me a year or so. So once a year I buy ink. If you use a ton of ink...then you should get a real printer (laserjet), not a free inkjet which is intended for low volume.
I use a laser jet for B/W (letters and such) and an inkjet for color.

That said, I am about to toss all old my printers and buy two new ones; a color laser and and real high end inkjet just for photos.

[Saltheart]

I ended up getting 2 high capacity blacks and one 3 color combo pack. With the diecount and free shipping it was $53 or so.

I wait until the letters come out too faint , then I replace. Don't go by the HP warning chip at all. Now I would take my chances that an old cartridge didn't work but for it to be totally made useless by a chip inside with a date , that would piss me off big time.

Anyway , I looked at the whole refil thing and the more I learned the more I decided against it. One place (a big name) would have only saved me $5 per color cartridge and maybe $3 for the black. For $18 total savings over maybe 8 to 12 months of supply , I don't want any trouble. Invariably the trouble would happen on April 15 or some other critical time I needed it to work.

i will have to start looking into the CIS printers though. Never heard of them before and it sounds like a good idea.