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Tom's Guide > Forum > Computer Peripherals > Printers > Recommend a good 'cartridge-refill friendly' inkjet printer

Recommend a good 'cartridge-refill friendly' inkjet printer

Forum Computer Peripherals : Printers Recommend a good 'cartridge-refill friendly' inkjet printer

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I am looking for an inkjet printer (I would prefer a laser printer, but I need to print in color cheaply) that is 'cartridge refill-friendly'. The printer shouldn't have mechanisms (chipsets, software, etc.) that will 'expire' a cartridge if its age is past a certain date (if there is, there should be a way to work around it). I might have a CIS (Continous Ink System) installed on the printer depending on the budget, but at first might just refill the cartridges individually.

Also please advice if inkjet printers which have 1 cartridge for each individual colors are better than those that have 1 cartridge for all the colors (typically cheaper than the former) if I am going to be refilling the cartridge anyway.

Also, bonus points (but not required) if the printer has good Linux support.


Message edited by dazed_00 on 08-03-2010 at 12:06:56 PM
Reply to dazed_00
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There is no refill/non-genuine ink friendly printer. The people who design printers put a lot of effort into making the ink/toner work properly with the printer. refilled/aftermarket options always cause problems that will cost you more money in the long run and your warranty will be void. refilled inks will cause your print head and ink system to block up and you will be doing head cleans all the time, which wastes ink and fills up the waste ink pads. Aftermarket toner dumps through your printer and remanufactured cartridges dont last as long and are more likely to fail. It is cheaper in the long run to buy the genuine product.

Reply to iam2thecrowe

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

Reply to dazed_00

i dont sell printers, i fix them, i told you those things based on experience, i was actually trying to help you. Any printer repairer would back me up on this. You cant guarentee any cheap ink, that contains god knows what, will work properly with any given printer. The manufacturers of this cheap ink give no guarentees, it normally says on the box that they take no responsibility if it damages the printer. The nozzles of a print head are super fine and it doesnt take much to block them. The genuine cartridges/ink are made in static/dust free environments with no human contact to the product. cheap generic inks are made the cheapest way possible in backyards and they make more profit from it. cheap ink dries out quicker, has larger partacle sizes, isn't the same colour as the manufacturers cartridges and the cartridges allow air to get through. SOMETIMES they work ok, but no garantee. Yes inkjet printers are expensive to run, if you don't like it, get a laser printer.

heres independent reviews on ink cartridges

http://www.pcworld.com/article/111 [...] robed.html

http://www.consumertipsreports.org [...] r_ink.html

Reply to iam2thecrowe

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.

Message quoted 1 times
Message edited by dgold on 08-26-2010 at 02:09:45 PM
Reply to dgold

I've got an old one, been using it for years, never regretted buying it.
It's a canon i250. The color and black ink refills costs about 2 us dollars in my country.

------------------------------ http://allprojectstats.com/su2021697n4--2-0.png
Reply to bobalazs

dgold wrote :

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.

Reply to iam2thecrowe

Buy a laser?
We invested in a brother colour laser (led), to evaluate cost effectiveness.
We have kept a spreadsheet of EVERY piece of paper put through the printer.
Original cartridges quote 1500 pages based on some international standard.
We got 7-800 pages, NOT printing photos. Thought ok, we’ll see what the new cartridges would do.
They quote 3000 pages. We got 8-900 pages, NOT PHOTOS.
The cartridges cost $100 ea, that’s 11c per page PER COLOUR..
Disappointed.
We are VERY happy to be reading this thread, it is a VERY important issue for us, thanks for all the contributions, maybe except for "Buy Genuine"..

Reply to dugg

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. :D 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.

Reply to gwenaruis

dazed_00 wrote :

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



:love:

Reply to tinierthanthou
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