Ink Cartridge Refill ????

[mom2brina]

Last year when I bought our printer at Target, the ink cartridges for it were clearanced 75% so I bought a bunch. Now we have almost run out & I HATE the idea of spending $20 on new cartridges.

I mostly print coupons, recipes, emails, maps ... things that don't need to be perfect. BUT I do occasionally print photos and invitations.

I tried refilled cartridges many many years ago & they stunk. Have they improved & where is your recommendation for getting them??

Thanks!!

 

[Mom3girls]

I've gotten them at Walgreens. The black refill was $12.99 earlier this week. Not sure of the price on color cartridges. I don't know if they are any different than brand new ones. They seem to be working fine for us.

 

[vitfamily]

Have you checked on ebay? I buy all of my printer cartridges off of ebay. I have never had a problem with them.

 

[Bearshouse]

Going to second Walgreens. We got ours refilled a couple months ago and works great.

Bearshouse

 

[dawson5]

have you looked at supermediastore? They usually have good prices and they throw sales on quite often. I am signed up for their newsletter and they send me the deals about once a week. I can usually buy two sets (mine takes 6 cartridges) with two extra black for around $45. Sometimes I've been lucky enough to get three packs but no extra black for about that price also. Free shipping sometimes too, it's just reading it when it comes.

If you print pictures at all with your printer, make sure to change all the inks at the same time or that all inks are the same. I did this once with the black (who knew ) My photos took on odd qualities, I adjusted things and never got it right. I tried quite a few times, wasted some ink and photo paper. A friend asked me if they were all the same brand of ink--that was the difference. I changed that lone odd-ball black and all was great.

 

[mamilovesdisney]

I took my cartridges to Walgreens and the machine ruined both of them. I did not know at the time that Costco does refills and they are only 7.99 each. I would have gone to costco instead.

 

[mom2brina]

Thanks for the info!

I think I'll try Costco. Do you take the cartridge to the photo printing area? How long does it take to get filled?

 

[dis2cruise]

do all costco's refill?? I have never seen this??

 

[grumpeeduck]

I won't do refills anymore because once a container of blue leaked as I was just about to install it-thank goodness I saw it in time before it spilled into the printer or onto the carpet. It did soak a stack of papers. I promptly returned it and they acted like I was in error????? No more-I pay full price and am happy to do it. Some things are NOT worth a "deal".

 

[funkychunkymonkey]

I too have had issues with walgreens.

 

[Imzadi]

Go to Abacus Ink for really cheap ink cartridges that work great. They are about $3 per cartridge.

There are two different kinds of printers & thus two different kinds of ink cartridges. Some printers have cartridges that are pigment based - meaning they rely on pigment particles to color the ink. (Kodak printers.)

The other kind of printers rely on dye based cartridges. You really can't interchange the two. Put a pigment based cartridge in a dye based printer and you end up with the particles clogging the print heads. Use a dye based cartridge in a pigment based printer & you get slightly fuzzy printing because the dyes bleed a bit. So those "Universal" ink cartridges really don't work with ALL printers.

Abacus Inks sell only dye based cartridges & they are great for Canon & some Epson, Dell, HP printers.


Whatever you do, do NOT buy a Lexmark printer. These are sold soooo cheaply at the stores, you think you are getting a great deal. However, they will NOT accept generic ink cartridges. So you are stuck paying $35 for each new cartridge. After 4 cartridge replacements at $140, you could have bought a NEW printer. THIS is how Lexmark makes all their money. It's called after market profits. They sell a cheap printer up front in the marketplace - then make all the profits on the cartridges.

Compare that to buying a great quality Canon printer. Even if you don't buy it on sale and pay $150 full price, with great generic ink cartridges that these printers DO work well with, at $3 a cartridge, you'd have to buy 50 cartridges to equal that same $150. You will get thousands upon thousands of printed pages compared to the few hundred pages with the Lexmark.

 

[princessmorgan]

My dad just took his ink cartridge to Costco to get it refilled and it exploded. I think it has to pass some sort of test