Can You Refill Your Own Ink Cartridges?

For many people the most frustrating part of home PC ownership is replacing your ink cartridges in your printer

. It is clear that the major manufacturers have a got a great thing going in selling replacement ink - it has now become a 40 billion business worldwide. Manufacturers like Hewlett Packard, Canon and Epson will often sell cheaper, entry-level printers at cost just so they can get the repeat business that comes with purchasing new ink and toner for the machines.

Interestingly, one way around the high replacement cost of ink cartridges is to purchase a home refill kit and do the work on your own. There are a number of third party ink kits now available for sale. They come with new ink, a syringe and instructions on how to make your current cartridge work for you again and again. The cost savings can be significant but beware: the work can be very, very messy.

Latex gloves are recommended for the refilling of the cartridges and you should cover the surface you will be working on to protect it from spills. On most of the manufacturer cartridges there is a label which if you peel it back will reveal a hole for filling the container back up. Fill up the syringe with ink and then inject it into the hole. Inside most cartridges is a sponge which holds the ink so stick the needle as far down into the ink jet cartridge as possible. This process will work with most Hewlett Packard, Canon and Epson models and many other top brands.

If you don't want to do the work yourself, you can take your old cartridge to a discount store to have it refilled. You can also find a number of remanufactured cartridges on sale online and in stores which are recycled cartridges that have been refilled in this manner. If a new cartridge costs 30/$45, you should be able to find a remanufactured one for one third to one half of that.

You can also achieve great savings if you buy a third party compatible cartridge made to replace the ones sold by Hewlett Packard, Epson, Dell and the other top printer manufacturers. The compatible cartridges are brand new and will sell for much less than the name brands. For example, if you need both the black and color cartridge for an HP model which that company charges 50/$75 for, expect to pay a total of 20/$30 for a compatible cartridge made by a low cost competitor. Also take note of the fact that many of the discounters online will almost always also include a 100% money back guarantee, but the quality aspect of your printouts may actually suffer, especially if you print photos on a regular basis.

Many people would prefer not to go through this risky, laborious process, instead opting for quality over cost. Many businesses opt to go through this route, as having quality printouts produced by printers using genuine, direct-from-the-manufacturer ink cartridges are essential for them.

by: Dan Kilburn

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