Recommend a good 'cartridge-refill friendly' inkjet printer

I do not mean to sound rude, but that sounds just like what the printer manufacturing companies will say. I am looking for a point of view from the average consumer. In my case, buying a new cartridge is just about as expensive as the printer itself. It is said that printer ink sold by printer companies is more expensive than human blood.

The printer companies operate on a 'Blades and Razors' aka 'Gilette' business model: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Razor [...] l#Generics

This means that they will sell the printer cheaply while making the cartridges as expensive as possible and putting chips that 'expire' a cartridge (so you'll have to buy a new, expensive one every now and then, this is also to prevent you from refilling it cheaply, although there are ways to 'reset' this). Buying a new cartridge is also not environmentally-friendly as the old cartridges (which can still be used) will now be thrown out.

It is definetely not cheaper in the long run, to buy the ink cartridges by the printer manufacturer companies. Also, once your warranty runs out, the printer companies will now charge a ridiculous amount to repair your printer if it gets damaged - refilled ink or not.

The average consumer like me, is tired of this sick, corrupt practice. That is why we refill our inks from cheaper sources.

Related links:
"Every time I run out of ink, I just buy a new printer."
http://i.imgur.com/KdNCV.jpg

"Relative prices of different liquids..."
http://12.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_ [...] o1_500.jpg

"Why I believe printers are the spawn of Hell"
http://theoatmeal.com/comics/printers

I'm in the same boat. My wife is a real estate agent who's constantly printing contracts (B&W) and color brochures and listing presentations. We were going through ink like crazy in her HP Officejet 6500.

I bought a CIS from inkproducts.com and it's been working wonderfully. It's probably been 4 or 5 months and I just ordered some refill black ink from them, but haven't actually refilled the reservoir yet. I'm not endorsing this company, I don't know if their system is better or worse than others out there -- I chose them b/c they had good directions on their website.

She was buying XL black cartridges (they come in two sizes) almost every other week, and probably going through two or three color cartridges a month. So she was easily spending over $100/mo on ink.

So by now, without even having refilled the ink reservoirs, the system has already paid for itself. Should the print head or something else go bad, that I can't fix, We'll get her another 6500 (it's a really nice piece of equipment for our needs) for just over $100 (new) and use the CIS again.

Basically what I'm saying is, if the poster above is correct, that the CIS will kill the printer -- I don't care. I've already saved several hundred dollars before adding one drop of refill ink to the CIS. Also, the HP 620 cartridges, I read somewhere, contain about 5ml of ink. The CIS came new with 320ml already in it for $80. Do the math.

I did have to take the chips off the HP cartridges and put them on the CIS cartridges with the "special tool" provided -- fancy name for a 2¢ floss pick. The whole setup was easy - took me 15 minutes, I followed the directions, and she's been printing away since. The front panel reads all the cartridges as being empty -- so I guess they're "expired" as you say -- but it doesn't stop the printer from working very well.

Lastly, my wife does print color brochures on paper, but we do not print photographs on photo paper -- it's truly a business machine -- so I can't vouch for how well it can do pictures with the CIS.

good point. if your going to use refills/generic inks, make sure its a cheap printer that can be easily replaced. But for high volume printing, get a laser printer.

I would not trust the super cheap refills, but instead search for Archival quality inks. As a photographer, I need quality prints that last, and using a Canon Pixma Pro9000, the Canon ink is NOT cheap. For the same price as the combo pack with all 8 cartridges, I could get an entire kit of archival refillable ink, including pre-drilled cartridges for easier refills that have chips on them that automatically reset when refilled. There are also CIS that I've found for about the same cost ($150) but have not tried them. The brand I get is UltraGamut, but again, I do more photo printing than anything.