Continuous inkjet refill systems

[atgcpaul]

My SIL in Thailand has this external reservoir tank on her inkjet printer. She can fill her own ink and it tricks the printer into thinking it's using the printer branded cartridge. I see that it's available in the US. Kinda' wish now I looked for one over there.

http://123refills.net/cic/product.ph...FTQF7Aod1iUAsQ

Anyway, we only have a B&W laser printer, but it would be nice to do color at home. The print quality on her's (an Epson all-in-one) was good. Knowing my girls, I know they'd like it.

Anyone have long term experience with one of these? I owned a photo inkjet about 15 years ago but almost bankrupted myself with the ink.

[JoeyGee]

I have no experience with that device, but I have seen many approaches through the years aimed at saving money on ink. None of the ones I have seen are with it. Ink is a racket. They sell cheap printers just to hook you on expensive ink. For awhile I would just buy a printer, use the ink that came with it and just junk the whole thing when it ran out.

How long has your SIL been using that device? If it has a long term track record, it might be worth it. I'm skeptical, though.

If it were me, if bite the bullet, buy a color laser printer and use color only when you need to. Toner won't dry out. Of course, I despise all printing. This is the digital age. It's time to do away with printing.

[MBG]

I've messed with refilling my cartridges for years. I buy Canon printers because they were easiest to refill (although they are great printers too). I bought bulk ink and a chip resetter but now online sources like Meritline have cartridges with new chips for under $1 at times making it more attractive than filling myself.

Also, a cartridge usually can only take only 3-4 refills so a large reservoir may not work well plus you need these small tubes to enter the printer and follow the print head.

Mike

[dbhost]

Back when I was in college in the 90s, I had a Canon BJC-250 that I tried doing the refill thing with. The refilled cartridges leaked and ruined the printer. However that was a very long time ago now. The process and materials have come a VERY long way in that time...

My wife's hair stylist / salon is an independent shop and the owner has me do some IT work for her from time to time. They use an HP Photosmart 7520e (Same printer I have although that was a sheer coincidence, her printer just showed up on me one day with the request to install it for her...) She has been using 123refills with good success.

I don't know about the external reservoir systems, but I know the vendor you are looking at it reputable...

At the price tag of printers, compared to cartridges, you are better off gambling on the potential or ruining a $150.00 printer on your 4th or 5th refill VS your 4th or 5th set of OEM cartridges.

Just for perspective. I have 2 HP Photosmart 7520e all in one machines at home. I just replaced cartridges in both, CMYK and Photo, with new OEM HP 564XLs. Got the CMY and K at Sams Club. CMY per printer was $55.98, K comes in a 3 pack and averages at $22.33 per printer, and the Photo Black came from Office Depot at $20.99 per printer. This means a total of $99.30

Compared to 123refill's prices of $6.99 per cartridge. (Total of 5) for a grand total of $34.95. This means the delta between the two is $64.35.

I got my printers for less than current list, but at current list they are $169.99 each.

So basically speaking, if my cartridges last through 3 full swaps before ruining the printer, I have come out money ahead compared to the new HP ink. And trust me, with 2 of these printers getting frequent use, I and trying to find ways to cut that cost down, WAY down...

[cwsmith]

This past year I finally gave up on 'inkjet' printers altogether. I guess I just don't print enough to make any inkjet worth my while. Over the years I've owned four different inkjets; three Epsons and an HP. I still have one Epson with individual color ink cartridges and an HP Photosmart 7760.

Problem with them all is availability, ridiculous prices, and clogging... mostly clogging as I waste more ink cleaning the nozzles than I do actually printing. The text quality compared to a laser printer is fairly poor, although the photo quality is superior. I just don't print many photos as it's just more efficient to library and view them digitally.

This past September I purchased a Dell B1160w mono laser from Staples for just $50. Another $15 provided a 3-yr extended warranty and an extra cartridge was $71. Total cost with tax was $130... for potentially 2000-plus pages. (A new Dell toner cartridge is rated at up to 1500 pages.)

Last month our son bought us a Dell C1660w color laser with the 3-year extended warranty. Total cost was $188.97. The supplied cartridge is rated for approx. 700 pages with new ones at about twice that, IIRC. The printer uses four cartridges, one each for black, cyan, magenta, and yellow.

A laser, at least these lasers, doesn't print photos nearly as well as an inkjet. But they do give very nice graphic images and superb text. Best of all though is that they don't clog and therefore the shelf-life of the printer and it's cartridge are far better than my experience with inkjet. They also print much faster and quieter. So, for me they offer the best and most economic solution for my occasional needs.

When I do need a photo print, I prefer to leave that to my local vendor as such needs are pretty rare.

But that inkjet reservoir is sort of neat, but not sure how that would resolve and clogging challenges, at least for me.

CWS

[atgcpaul]

Last month our son bought us a Dell C1660w color laser with the 3-year extended warranty. Total cost was $188.97. The supplied cartridge is rated for approx. 700 pages with new ones at about twice that, IIRC. The printer uses four cartridges, one each for black, cyan, magenta, and yellow.

Wow! I had no idea color laser was so "cheap". Our current monotone laser is a Brother and has been going strong for 12 years. With this new information in hand, I'm going to look into color laser. Thanks for the input, everyone.

We print photos at CVS for my wife's scrapbooks.

[cwsmith]

I know we looked at laser printers a couple of years ago and the prices were a bit challenging, especially for color; and, the cost of a new color cartridge was, as you mentioned a bit nuts. So, that sort of changed my mind at the moment and I decided, that though nice, it was simply not within the means.

Then last summer I tried to print some important legal documents needed at the time and my old color inkjet, even with a new black cartridge was pathetically substandard with skipped lines, partial text, etc. Even after several nozzle cleanings I couldn't get an acceptable document out of it. This printer probably doesn't have 200 sheets ever printed on it and even with a fresh ink cartridge it was worthless and I had to go to Staples and have them print my documents.

A couple of months later, I got an ad from them which showed the Dell B1160w mono laser for $50. No way I could pass that up; and with an extra cartridge being only $71, how could I go wrong! Most all of our needs can easily be satisfied with a mono printer anyway. Having it 'wireless' just made it that much more attractive. At this point in time, I've probably printed 100 pages or so and the initial sample cartridge is down to 65%.
capacity.

The Dell C1660w color laser which our son got us last month hasn't been used for much more than playing around at this point. I've printed some old color illustrations of mine and the color and resolution is every bit as good as those in my illustrator portfolio that I made ten years ago on the commercial HP laser we had at the office. That had double-sided, 11 x 17 capability, where as my little Dell does not auto-duplex and will only print 8-1/2 x 14 (manually-fed) maximum. But I'm quite happy wit just letter-sized documents in my retirement, so what the hey!

Cost of new color cartridges for that are around $45-$55 a piece with the larger black cartridge around $65, IIRC. They're cheaper than past cartridges because with the Dell, the fuser element is built into the printer and not the cartridge. Supposedly, the fuser element it's good for the life of the printer.

That makes color toner about the price of most inkjet cartridges. For the laser they're rated at about 1,000 pages. But they don't dry out and they don't clog.

Right now, this week, I think the Brother color laser is even cheaper at Staples.... but I couldn't find my weekly flyer to confirm.

CWS

[LCHIEN]

i gave up on inkjets - I didn't print enough and they would clog and just be unreliable. A lot of jams, tool. I had several HPs.
I bought a used HP laserjet I in the early 80's and it lasted just about forever.
But I replaced it finally with a Brother 1440 laser that was ver reliable I finally gave it to my mom and dad to replace their injet and I got a brother scanner and mono laser whihc has been good. I just checked it the other day and I have 1700 pages and since 2011 on the current toner cart. The toner doesn't dry up, like everyone says so its more reliable and a lot cheaper to print.

Colorphots I upload them to walgreens site and print them at the pharmacy 1/4 mile away and pick them up an hour later. 19 cents, if they are not on sale. I couldn't print them for that price on the inkjet and I had to use and cut special paper and wait for the ink to dry. Gack. Don't miss that.