Are You Refilling Your Ink Cartridges
I got sick a while back and wasn’t able to work. Money was always tight and I had to use what little money I had wisely. So I wasn’t able to buy every new eBook or course on internet marketing. But I did buy the cheap ones and the free ones! I really got more out of the book if I could print it out and read, reread and maybe do some highlighting…..but that could burn up some ink.
I got into Public Domain materials and created some eBooks with public domain. Images are always needed and wanted from the public domain. So I would find myself doing mockups of calenders, eBooks and eBook covers or just plain images that would get a mat and some with a mat, glass and frame. Again, that darn ink could get really expensive if I had to buy new ink cartridges every time one went empty.
I had a decent printer, but as anyone who prints a few pictures with the home printer they know how fast ink will disappear. It seems like it evaporates. I guess the scam is for the printer companies to practically give away the printers and then provide ink cartridges with small amounts of ink that are very expensive. I believe that’s a form of planned obsolescence.
Well, the cheapskate I am, I figured out quickly that you can refill most any ink cartridge and then reuse that cartridge 10, 20 or more times depending on the cartridge and printer. At some point you need to buck up and buy a new set of cartridges because the cartridge itself wears out.
Usually the process of refilling the cartridge is very easy. You might have to drill a small hole, the refill kits come with a syringe and needle….. instructions are usually provided. However, simply Google the name of your cartridge and add “refill instructions” at the end and you’ll have enough guidance to refill cartridges to your hearts content. I have not found one ink cartridge that could not be refilled and I’ve gone through 25 or 30 printers.
I did find that quality inks are hard to find. Some companies will try to give you the same ink formula for every make and model. And this works to some degree. For instance if you were just printing out eBooks you could probably get away with that type of ink. But if you were printing an image to sell…… it ain’t gonna work! The image won’t look good, it will fade and you’ll get chased down by an angry customer. I’ll admit at one time, I went to Staples and purchased a refill kit and used the ink on Epson, HP and Cannon printers. It was mostly for printing out email or eBooks…. images didn’t come out so great because of the cheap ink. Also, beware, I’m told if you don’t use ink manufactured for your specific printer you can ruin the print-head and then the printer is trashed. So unless you are really hard up or your printer is on its last leg stay with ink that is compatible and designed for your printer and print cartridges. One place I found is InkJetCarts for some of the best ink I’ve ever purchased.
As mentioned, recently I ran into a supplier of ink and ink systems called InkJetCarts at …… and they carry ink for each specific printer, new cartridges, refilled cartridges, empty cartridge systems for you to refill. They even carry the Epson pigmented inks that are archival. I believe they have the long lasting HP inks also.
I talked briefly to Ross Hardie at www.inkjetcarts.us and found out that he has been working with ink for the last 30 years…. I don’t think there is anything this guy doesn’t know.
In fact, I purchased a CIS Ink Flow System for my Epson Workforce 1100. This consists of large bottles of ink outside the case of the printer connected to the ink cartridges by way of small tubes and one small reset circuit board that slips in the printer case. If you do any amount of printing then you should look into this because the ink is cheap, its the same quality as the original Epson ink and you can print forever. I did a more complete post over at CISS Ink Supply System….. check it out.
If you’re not refilling your cartridges then check out the guys at InkJetCarts and start killing some trees 
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