Printer ink refills

[JBJB]

My printer seems to eat ink cartridges and at £13 a pop, it's becoming expensive!

I was just looking on flea-bay and saw you can buy syringes of the colours and squirt them into your empty cartridges.

It seems to be a cheaper option, but sounds like a recipe for disaster?

Does anybody else use these?

[liz15a]

hi

I have the same problem! Sometimes the alternative brands (costing just a pound or two) work fine in my printer, other times they cause me a nightmare and I end up having to buy a genuine cartridge to fix the issue.

However I have read that its the chip on the side that determines things and regardless of how much ink is left in the cartridge, its this that decides when it is empty, so putting extra ink into the empty cartridge will be a waste of money as the printer will still believe it is empty - whether any of this is true or not I dont know as I've not tried it personally, I've just read it on more than one occasion. If you do try this method, maybe you could post your findings here as I for one would be very interested!

Out of interest what manufacturer is your printer with? Mine is Epson.

[Roseberry Crafts]

I'd be interested to know what people say on this too since my Printer Monster also drinks ink! I've seen the squirty things too but when I asked hubby about them he said they sounded like "a mess on" so I stuck with cartridges. I'm the sort of girl who likes to find things out for herself though, so I imagine I will buy some refills to dabble with at some point!

[auntynet]

I once tried the shringe filling thingy and I found it quite messy and nope - it didn't work for me either.

I now use Cartridge World. You take your empty cartridges into the shop to recycle and buy new (recycled) ones much cheaper than the shop price for new ones.

Did you know that that every cartridge thrown in to landfill can take over 450 years to decompose? Not that I'm a "green" fanatic but I will try to do my bit for the planet and if I can save a bit of money whilst doing it then so much the better.

[SusieQ]

I kept buying Canon inks for mine and they are so expensive!! I looked on the net and bought from 999Inks. They have a good offer where it's cheaper to buy two sets on inks and I got five black free!!!! Some of them had chips and some had to be transferred from the empty cartridge but that was easy enough to do. Hope this helps!! Sue xx

[woodtattoos]

I've done the syringe refill malarkey before and it did work the first few times but then it started to mess up. The computer will say regardless due to the chip that the cartridge is low on ink and needs replacing... but I was just able to click 'Continue Printing' anyway. After two or three refills, the ink wouldn't come through no matter how many times I cleaned the heads and charged it. I personally think that it's ridiculous that two cartridges often cost as much as a brand new combined printer/scanner... surely that is wrong on all levels?!

Si.

[Caroleecrafts]

I still stick to the original epson cartridges, when I used to work they used alternatives in the office printers, fine to begin with but then caused blockage problems and oin the end did not last as long. I think it also depends what you are using them for, if items to sell and literature etc, surely it is better to have quality and factor this cost in rather than quantity.

I am a bit fussy about this when printing for my cards, so I may be a bit OTT

[flurogoddess]

ooooh stay away from Epson! They are a rip-off in cartridges. You might like to try compatibles but Epson cartridges do have chips on the side and they syringe thing won't work with them.

I found cheap Canons on day2dayshop.com so you might want to try there!

[Ifor-Jones]

ooooh stay away from Epson! They are a rip-off in cartridges. You might like to try compatibles but Epson cartridges do have chips on the side and they syringe thing won't work with them.

I found cheap Canons on day2dayshop.com so you might want to try there!

I use them - quite good prices.

[kipper workshops]

I have a HP printer and the cartridges are a rip off!!! It's cheaper to buy a new printer than it is to get a B&W and Colour cartridge - honestly!!!

I use inkraider for my cartridges, I have used them for years and I cannot recommend them highly enough. The cartridges are refills and are miles cheaper than original cartridges. They have worked fine for me for several years and I replace ink regularly. P&P is good and they deliver fast. Also you get a recyle bag with your order so you can send your empties which they then refill and use again.

http://www.inkraider.co.uk/

Steve

[Chris W]

Cheap Printer Ink

I use cheap printer ink but I have noticed that the colours fade so I wouldn't use it for anything that needed to be long lasting.