Printable View
So I was in Wal-Mart tonight getting ready to buy the normal $60 that Lexmark and other printer companies try to make you pay while raping your dirt road. Anyway, as I'm browsing for my 82 & 83 cartridges, I notice the $10 refill package. I figure I'll go ahead and finally try it. Well I refilled the cartridges and now my printer prints blank pages. Well that went over well didn't it?
So the moral of this story is:
Save $10 today so you can spend $100 tomorrow to buy a brand new printer instead of spending $60 yesterday and still using the same old printer.
Was the cartridge dry when you refilled it? or was it just low? If it was dry the head probably had dry ink in it and you should dip the very tip of the head in acetone(pure no water) maybe even let it soak overnight. Then dab it dry with a paper towel. Then run it through a head cleaning a couple times.
Refilling a dry cartridge is always a bad idea, you should really only fill low ones or ones that barely went dry a day or so ago but even then might have problems.
Agreed ... if the cartridge that runs out has sat too long, it
most likely will not work ... best bet is to refill as soon as you
start to see a color get weak. Also, my experience with Lexmark
is the Black is easiest and safest to refill .. Color is harder as
you must pop off the cartridge top ... you can usually get 2-3
refills from a cartridge before you need to change them. Also you
should use a good quality refill ink
Acetone not reccomended as solvent, it will dissolve many plastics and epoxies...mineral spirits/varsol will do. As suggested, refill BEFORE heads get dry. SOME cartridges have little microchips in printhead that foil any attempt at self filling...
So that's why they don't seem to work very often after sitting overnight.
Hello Trey,
There are many (most) here who can feel your pain.
Some have gone to laser printers - the initial price is much higher, but the long-term cost seems to be quite low.
Some just go out and buy new printers when the original ink runs out instead of yielding to the dilemma. Problem with that is HP and Lexmark (Dell) have been onto that in the last couple of years and provide cartridges with new printers that are smaller than replacements.
Some go through the refill ritual and excellent advice has already been provided. But, I've been hearing that some cartridges have a circuit that needs to be reset and is based on time.
Some of us use or recommend printers that have ink "tanks" instead of cartridges - the jets or nozzles are in the print head mechanism and not in the cartridges. There are "NEW compatible" tanks available for most of these and are a fraction of the price for OEM. I've been quite happy with the quality and low cost.
When shopping for friends, family and myself; several Canon and Epson printers use ink tanks instead of cartridges. Compatible tanks for my Canon "IP" series are about $11.00 for two complete sets (black and color) delivered to the door. For most Epson models the tanks run about $9.00 per set delivered. The compatibles I've used are branded MMC and Rainbow - never had a bad experience and they are both manufactured in ISO labs.
With that said, when shopping for friends and family, I choose several printers that have the features they want. Then as a tie-breaker, I look up the ink tank numbers at OneInk to see if compatibles are available. If it comes down to a draw between an Epson and a Canon, my personal preference is Canon but we've been pretty happy with Epsons over the last three years too.
Oh BTW, these OEM tanks are quite easy to refill, but it's hardly worth the trouble since "NEW compatibles" are so cheap.
John B. :t