Tired of getting ripped off on HP inks

[Heritagefarm]

First off, I'll say that HP inks are extremely expensive, and for no reason. It is at best a dollar or two's worth of plastic and ink. And nothing but HP ink will fit in an HP printer. I have read articles on filling the cartridges back up with normal ink; has anyone else done this and is it possible?
Another thing is that whenever the printer has a cartridge change, it wants to print off this big huge page full of pointless shapes to waste ink. It is a photosmart C3100 series.

[Reauxman]

I have the same printer. Buy refill ink on ebay. Get a needle and syringe and draw up ink out of the bottle and poke where the indention is in the top of the cartridge. SLOWLY fill until it start dripping out of the bottom. Wipe with a paper towel and insert to printer.

[Heritagefarm]

I took the color cartridge and looked at it. No holes. So I peeled the paper back and found, walla, 6 different holes...

[Reauxman]

do you have one or 5 cartridges?

[calliemoonbeam]

I buy all my ink from these people: http://www.source4ink.com/hp_92_93_99.htm This should be a direct link to your replacement cartridges. Not sure how much it will save you, but they have twin-packs for $30, free shipping if you order over $55 worth at once.

I have a Brother printer with four separate cartridges (black and three colors), and I got a 20 pack (4 of each color and 8 black) for $63.95. That works out to $3.19 per cartridge. Have used them for 1-1/2 years with no problems yet, and I don't have to mess with needles and messy ink, just pull out a fresh cartridge, pop it in and it's ready to go!

I had an HP printer before this one and brought a few for it from them too, same good quality, not as cheap as the Brother, but still less than half-price from the office supply.

[VT Chicklit]

I have been refilling my HP Office Jet 5610v printer for several years without an issue. You should be able to refill your ink cartriges 3 or 4 times before they are trashed. One way to extend the life of the cartridges is to refill them before they are completely empty. When they no longer print, the foam inside will dry up and it is difficult to get it to absorb the ink. I refill when I notice that the print starts to skip or when it gets light. The key to refilling is to go SLOW and allow the foam inside time to absorb the ink so that you don't over fill and make a mess (guess how I know this! Ha!)

[Old Vet]

Originally Posted by VT Chicklit

I have been refilling my HP Office Jet 5610v printer for several years without an issue. You should be able to refill your ink cartriges 3 or 4 times before they are trashed. One way to extend the life of the cartridges is to refill them before they are completely empty. When they no longer print, the foam inside will dry up and it is difficult to get it to absorb the ink. I refill when I notice that the print starts to skip or when it gets light. The key to refilling is to go SLOW and allow the foam inside time to absorb the ink so that you don't over fill and make a mess (guess how I know this! Ha!)

Some of the HP printers have a program that will not let you fill the ink and will not print until you change the cartridge. I have 2 HP Officejet 6500 and they have this encoded in them. The company has said they will not put it in the ones but since they are new I guess they may do this in the future.

[Heritagefarm]

Originally Posted by Reauxman

do you have one or 5 cartridges?

Two. One for color, one for black.

[CarolT]

I refill for my HP 5610 all-in-one. The top 3 holes are the color refill spots and the top center fills the black :-) Or, at least, that's how mine works. Weird thing is, some cartridges will refill and some won't? If I let mine dry out too badly, I have to buy new cartridges until I find one I can refill... And the ink I put in any that won't work is wasted grrrrrrr But, I get really big bottles of ink off ebay, so I'm still way ahead of any price loss. I print a lot, a 530+ page cartridge usually lasts barely a week, so I really like refills :-)

[arabian knight]

Just don't forget that the "Printing Head", is part of the printer cartridge. And will wear, if used time and time again. And printing quality will deteriorate over that period of time. And if you do not refill and plug that hole or holes perfect, the ink may run out and bingo, you will have a new printer to buy, because that one just went out of order.
i know a few people that buy just cheap printers when the ink runs out, the printer goes in the garbage and they buy a new one cheaper then you can by buying the replacement ink.

[clovis]

I hear you on HP printers.

I bought one a year ago on Black Friday for $25. My logic was that the entire printer cost only $5 more than a new cartridge for my old printer.

I finally set up the new HP printer a few months ago.

Please let me say that I am the world's biggest miser when it comes to using printer ink.

I swear that I printed 15 black only pages, set on the non-photo mode. These images did not have heavy coverage, nor were they full pages. The printer cartridge is now empty, and I feel like HP stole my hard earned money.

[arabian knight]

Well there is such a thing as that is why it was on sale, it had less ink in the Cartridges. Companies always find a way to keep making a buck.
I have always looked at the amount of ink there is in them, some have less then others, and that is why some are cheaper then others. My friend even went to Cartridge World. They refill the old ones. She does a lot of card making, and those "cheaper refilled" ones lasted have the time, she will no longer be buying from them. They has less ink in them. And she has been making cards for over the last 4 years and knows just how long new ones should last.

[FarmerRob]

http://www.4inkjets.com

Great deals on replacement cartridges and refill kits.

[catahoula]

Originally Posted by Heritagefarm

First off, I'll say that HP inks are extremely expensive, and for no reason. It is at best a dollar or two's worth of plastic and ink. And nothing but HP ink will fit in an HP printer. I have read articles on filling the cartridges back up with normal ink; has anyone else done this and is it possible?
Another thing is that whenever the printer has a cartridge change, it wants to print off this big huge page full of pointless shapes to waste ink. It is a photosmart C3100 series.

You mean like, "what if we paid what things really cost"?

[Fat Charlie]

Originally Posted by clovis

Please let me say that I am the world's biggest miser when it comes to using printer ink.

Not if you have a printer that uses ink, you're not. I got tired of playing that game and quit- the last time I needed a printer I got a laser. Toner's a lot cheaper. It's also faster and quieter, and if you go a few months without printing anything, it doesn't dry out on you. Before I got this printer I was screaming about ink prices with the everyone else. Then I realized that it only takes a small pile of ink cartriges to equal the cost of a laser printer. When you add in the time, frustration and constant wondering if your print job will actually print, a laser comes out ahead quickly. I've had it for a few years and haven't had to buy toner yet.

[Belfrybat]

I have a HPK5400. The print cartridges are huge and last me a year. Actually a couple of the colour inks have now expired so I get a nag screen when I boot up the computer, but they still print. I get my inks from LDProducts.com. Great prices and often free shipping coupons. Although shipping is free if over a certain amount.

[Harry Chickpea]

I can't imagine going back to using ink jets on a regular basis. I have a canon that I haven't fired up in over 4 years. I guess I should in case it needs to be stripped for parts and tossed.

For cheap printing, a Brother 4800 multifunction laser. I got it specifically because it has one of the cheapest toner carts. It does overheat after a couple dozen sheets or so and the print quality goes down, but that isn't usually an issue. For color, I have an OKI color laser. By using it only for the important jobs, I've only had to buy one set of toner carts in four years. The ink won't run if the paper gets wet, and the color remains true for much longer than the dyes used in ink jet printing.

If I had to do a ton of draft printing, I'd fire up my old Oki dot matrix. The ribbons can be renewed with a squirt of WD-40.

[Trixie]

For me, my son ordered an Epson printer and ink from a company on the internet. It comes with 1 black and 3 or 4 colored bottles of ink. Hoses hook directly to your printer and you can refill the bottles (quite large). I did a lot of printing for my son's business and have had to only refill the black ink - mostly because it leaked while in transit on our last trip.

The printer was very inexpensive, and I'm thinking the printer, original setup and bottles and refill bottles cost around $200. Now that I'm not doing bookwork anymore, I don't know how long this will last me. We were spending tons of money a month just for ink.

For business, I would like a laser, but this system paid for itself in less than 2 months compared to what I was using. For just home use, I'm thinking this is great.

[ladycat]

Originally Posted by clovis

Please let me say that I am the world's biggest miser when it comes to using printer ink.

Me too, that's why I got a laser printer. Hit the right sale at one of the office supply stores, and you can get a workhorse monochrome laser for under $50 (I got one with a scanner bed so it cost more, but I MUST have a scanner).

My laser came with a "starter" toner cartridge, but I have printed a few hundred pages now and it's still going strong with that same cartridge.

[ladycat]

Originally Posted by clovis

I bought one a year ago on Black Friday for $25. My logic was that the entire printer cost only $5 more than a new cartridge for my old printer.
<snip>
I swear that I printed 15 black only pages, set on the non-photo mode. These images did not have heavy coverage, nor were they full pages. The printer cartridge is now empty, and I feel like HP stole my hard earned money.

Something you may not be aware of- printers come with starter cartridges. This includes ink jet printers, too.

Many times I've seen people post that instead of getting new ink cartridges, they find that a new printer costs less, so they throw away their printer and buy a new one.

This is flawed logic, as the starter cartridges in a new printer don't have much ink in them. It would actually be cheaper to buy new ink for $50 than to buy the printer for $30.