I'm tired of paying over 30 bucks for just the black!!!

Talking with a lady who has a business selling generic ink cartridges, she tells me she can't get generics for my Epson 777...they have a 'smart chip' on them making them exclusive to Epson's products in thier printers.

OK....so, how about refilling the old ones?(she doesn't do refills anymore)

I am hesitant to get those kits, I can see me making a big mess.....

Any ideas?

(Shoulda bought an HP)

I think refills are risky, and maybe even false economy. From what I've been told, not all inks are made the same way. Some are (I think) alcohol-based, and some are something else--- maybe water. I tried the refill bit on my Canon printer a couple of years ago, and it bit the dust. Now I have an expensive paperweight in the back of the closet.

I have used their cartridges for a couple years now with no problems.

Tyler Martin

[ October 11, 2001: Message edited by: Joe Endicott ]

Firstly, let me state I do not refill Epson cartridges. It looks like they're very easy to refill but because of the way they are made and the nature of the sponge inside them, most people cannot refill them without creating bubbles in the sponge. Bubbles will cause intermittent printing and when the print head fires with no ink moving through it, problems happen. You run the risk of burning out or clogging up the print heads which are not part of Epson's cartridges, but rather part of the printer.

Additionally, you cannot buy just ink from Epson, and so far, nobody has an ink that will match the "blackness" of Epson ink. So, many people who use Epson and like the rich black Epson ink, will be disappointed with other black inks, regardless if they actually work in the printer or not.

Canon has some cartridges with a print head on them and others without.

Hewlett Packard, Lexmark, IBM (Lexmark), Sharp(Lexmark) and Compaq(Lexmark) all have the print head built onto the cartridge. When you buy a new cartridge you are also buying a new print head, which is a small part of why it costs so much for a new cartridge.

The major part of why inkjet cartridges cost so much, is for the most part they have a captive market who think they have no other choice. The price of ink in bulk is cheap - very cheap. It wouldn't surprise me of companies like HP and Epson spend only a couple cents (if even that much) PER CARTRIDGE for the ink that's in them. I buy ink in gallon quantities and my cost to refill a cartridge is less than a dollar. Can you imagine then what the big companies pay when buying it in 55 gallon drums, or even tanker trucks?

Yes, you can refill your own cartridges and they should work IF you do everything right AND have THE RIGHT INK. The "universal" refill kits you may have seen on TV or in the stores may work for some cartridges but there is NO WAY they will work for EVERY cartridge. I don't care what they say or have printed on their cartons. It's not possible. Some cartridges have DYE based inks in them and some have PIGMENTED inks in them. The print heads which work with each kind of ink are not designed to work with the other kind of ink.
My analogy would be, the print head is like a garden hose. Water flows through it fine assuming there's no obstructions. Now instead of water, try getting EPOXY to flow thru it. Eventually some will make it out the end but in a short time, that hose is gonna be permanently clogged.

I refill black cartridges only. The ink I use is SPECIFIC for each kind of cartridge I refill. There's several kinds of black ink I keep on hand just for one companies many cartridge models. I specialize in Hewlett Packard and Lexmark cartridges and cartridges made by Lexmark but labeled by IBM or Sharp or Compaq, etc.

The problems with refilling color cartridges just doesn't make it worth my time.
Some color cartridges need to be physically broken open in order to refill them. Others need to have holes drilled into their sides. In both cases, the quickest way to ruin a color cartridge is to put too much of one color into them. What happens is the color will spill over into the next chamber and contaminate the other color(s). From that point on it will never print color correctly. On some color cartridges, it's not possible to see when you have put too much ink into a chamber. How do you tell how much of a particular color has been used and how much needs to be replaced? It's never the same amount color to color or cartridge to cartridge.

About buying RECYCLED cartridges:
It's a hit or miss thing. I have been to some of the big office supply stores and have seen their "recycle your inkjet cartridge here" bins. I have looked into those bins and seen all the cartridges sitting there exposed to air. Air is the biggest enemy to ink cartridges. They dry up and get permanently clogged. The companies doing the recycling may or may not be able to remove all of the clogging but what about the damage to the electrical contacts on the cartridge, that happens from being tossed into a bin full of other cartridges and the damage from cartridges bouncing against each other that happens in shipping? And how many times has that cartridge been recycled and handled that way before? Did someone try to refill it themself and ruin it before tossing it into the recycling bin?

This is why I ONLY refill and send back your own cartridge. I don't sell generic cartridges and I don't sell recycled cartridges. I refill YOUR cartridge and send it back to YOU. That way you know what you're getting. And I guarantee it.

Regarding tips and tricks for inkjet printers and cartridges, I've never heard the masking tape and microwave one before. It might depend which kind of cartridge you try that on. Make sure you have not left any tape adhesive on the print head area. As an alternative, you could heat some distilled water in the microwave and then dip just the print head into the water until you see ink flowing out of the print head. Then blot it dry before putting it back into the printer.

Several factors influence how many times a cartridge can be refilled. Basically it comes down to how well they are treated. Be observant when printing. If the cartridge begins to streak because it's running out of ink, stop printing. Printing when ink is not flowing through the print heads will in most cases damage the print head from over heating.

As soon as you realize you need more ink, place that cartridge into a ZIP-Lock AIR TIGHT baggie. If you know it's going to be more than a week before you refill or get that cartridge refilled, place a piece of damp paper towel into the baggie with the cartridge to help keep it from drying out.

Never leave a cartridge sitting on a desk or in a drawer exposed to air for more than 10 or 15 minutes. The ink will be drying in the print head and you may or may not be able to get it 100% unclogged.

I mark the cartridges I refill for people, and so I know how many times I have refilled a particular cartridge. Last week I received cartridges that I had refilled 5 times previously for one of my customers. Usually what happens is after so many refills, either the electrical contacts on the cartridge wear out, or the print head just can't take it any more, or some of the inkjet nozzles become permanently clogged and it streaks no matter what you do. At that point it's trashed.

The reason you can buy "generic" Epson cartridges is because what you are buying is nothing more than a plastic box with a sponge full of ink inside. Some Canon cartridges are similar. The shape of the box is slightly different cosmetically from the Epson or Canon and so they avoid patent infringing. Or maybe Epson and Canon never patented the shape of their cartridge - I don't know. Somehow I doubt they would forget that, but whatever. You can't find generic Hewlett Packard or Lexmark cartridges because they have patented the entire thing or they license the use of the patent from someone else and they are very stringent about enforcing patents. And it takes some very sophisticated expensive machinery to make a cartridge with the print head built in.

I guess if I could make something for pennies, and sell it to a captive market for $30 to $40 retail, and they would need to keep continually buying it, I would want to protect that cash cow too. Why do you think they are selling printers so cheaply now? They get ya ON THE INK!

You are totally right on regarding the captive market on these, it ****es me off thet they do this, when I went back to Costco to get a packet (2 to a packet of black OR color) to replace my ink from my Lexmark, it was going to have to put out a hundred bucks to get both!

It was cheaper to just buy a new printer!

Since the Epson inks were a little cheaper, I bought a new Epson rather than new inks for the Lexmark....even there they got me....

Turns out the ink cartridges that come with the Epson are 'starter' cartridges....not quite as full as the replacements, so they ran out fast....

Can't win for losing

[ October 13, 2001: Message edited by: Ralph Thorne ]

We sure had fun at Harvest Moon!