Where do you get your ink?

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Not sure where to post this.[INDENT] I know this has been discussed before but I can’t find the article. Can someone direct me to the orginial article.
Where are you getting your ink cartridges OEM, remanufactured or fill yourself?

thanks[/INDENT]

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Here was the latest article.

I however have to modify my needs a little. Although the 3rd party ink would work well if I were printing a lot, my print needs are now minimal and I found the 3rd party ink started clogging the print heads on my Canon Pixma MP 620 and it was very difficult cleaning the print heads. Hence I am switching back to the manufacturer supplied ink cartridges. With such small print needs, I found myself using the savings up in cleaning the print heads, so my savings were lessened. When I also looked at the wasted paper and time involved, the higher priced cartridges became more cost effective for me.

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Being rather cheap myself, I’ve tried both refill kits and cheap remanufactured cartridges. Learned my lesson – gone back to printer manufacturer’s cartridges. The refill kits turned out to be messy and very difficult to properly fill the cartridges – and after filling a couple of times they often wouldn’t work properly anyway. Plus had some problems with leaking a bit of ink into my printer. Then I found a supplier here in Canada with remanufacturered cartridges for about $10 each (color or black) – package indicates they come from China (doesn’t everything?). Price was great – I bought a few to get the free shipping. First one worked fine, second color one wouldn’t print yellow, third one wouldn’t print blue. Black one printed with parts of lines missing (like needed cleaning but cleaning didn’t help.) Threw them out – not worth sending back to supplier – and put in new brand name cartridges and they worked perfectly.

I did find that the local Wal-Mart had them significantly cheaper than the local electronics store or office supply store althought the selection was limited. So you might want to look there if you have a Wal-Mart nearby.

I used to be able to find other reputable third-party cartridges in our stores but they now seem to carry only printer brand names. I see Ko-Rec-Type’s web site says they still sell ink cartridges. I’d used some a few years back and they were fine and less expensive but I don’t see them in our stores now.

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Amazon.com sometimes has Canon Ink cheap. But yes Walmart has Canon ink cheaper if they have it. I found some at Costco PG40 &41, 2 black 1 colored for $49.99 there was a small quantity of Canon Ink.
I think it is the model and brand of Printer that determines the amount of Ink you go through. I have the Canon Pixma 190 and it uses quite alot unfortunately.

Thank You for responding. I’m not sure what I am going to do, stop printing I guess.

Glenda

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Glenda, Like I said, my problem is the fact that I do not print that much any more. I do not know what the problem was with the 3rd party inks I was using. Perhaps the ink is thicker??? Anyway, unless I were printing each day, the print heads clogged and were a devil to clear. With the manufacturer ink, one cleaning cycle solved the problem after several cleaning cycles with the other ink still gave unsatisfactory results. I was using more ink just cleaning the heads, and using quite a bit more paper.

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Glenda, Like I said, my problem is the fact that I do not print that much any more. I do not know what the problem was with the 3rd party inks I was using. Perhaps the ink is thicker??? Anyway, unless I were printing each day, the print heads clogged and were a devil to clear. With the manufacturer ink, one cleaning cycle solved the problem after several cleaning cycles with the other ink still gave unsatisfactory results. I was using more ink just cleaning the heads, and using quite a bit more paper.

For low usage printing a colour Laser printer would work out much more effectively as toner does not dry up (only needs shaking if not used for long time to resettle toner powder). On my colour laser have had the same colour toners in since bought (over a year ago) and still going strong and the replacements cost about same as ink cartridges.

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LOL! sorry, I have a Lexmark Prevail Pro 705, and thought I would be really smart and save money with cheaper cartridges…… It was so bad, that Lexmark had to send (well they didn’t have to, but I do have a 5 year warranty) a new printer. Now the funny thing with that is they told me to keep the print head! still didn’t work even after switching back to their cartridges… So now, 2 new printers later and a new print head I’m staying with their (Lexmark) cartridges.

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At this point I can not afford to replace a printer that is working fine. I just had to put cartridges in that will not clog the heads. The cartridges I have now should last me quite a while as well. I will keep your suggestion in mind should I ever have to replace the printer.

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Always avoid 3rd party refill kits unless you are confident and experienced with the procedure, and the ink itself.
Sometimes trying to save a few bucks will give you far more grief than you had originally bargained for.

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I purchased a $29 Canon printer/scanner/copier from walmart.com. I also purchased a black ink refill kit from Walgreens for $15. I print black (monochrome) whenever possible, so as not to deplete my color cartridge. I’ll purchase a new color cartridge when the color one runs out; but I’ll keep refilling my black one with my refill kit.

Why? If I print as much as possible from the black cartridge, I’ll keep that ink flowing, which means less chance of anything clogging up. Also, most of my printing is with the cheap ink.

In this way, I get the best of all worlds.

And if things do get clogged up, the refill kit included a tube of cleaner; I can always refill my cartridge with that, and then print a few pages, to clean the system.

And my trump card is that I paid only $29 for the printer. If it gets messed up somehow with the cheap ink, I didn’t lose much.

Group "L" (Linux Mint)
with Windows 10 running in a remote session on my file server

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I bought a new Canon MG5320 ink jet printer back in July. I used the original Canon cartridges (5 of them), then bought one set of five new Canon cartridges for around $12-$13 apiece. Then I decided to try “Sophia Global Compatible Ink Cartridge Replacement for Canon” from Amazon for a little over $2/each. I didn’t know what to expect but the printer was only around $100 so I could have gotten another one if necessary. I have been amazed at how well these cartridges work. I have used two sets of these cartridges so far with no problems whatsoever. The only problem has been that one of the sets of replacement cartridges was missing a couple of the cartridges. I reported this to Amazon and they immediately refunded my entire purchase amount without requiring me to return the cartridges that I did receive. Then I ordered another set so now I have most of one set for free. In addition, I can take the used cartridges to Staples and get $2/cartridge credit toward paper or whatever I want to buy at Staples. With the Staples cartridge credit, this means that my ink is almost free. The replacement ink itself is not quite as bright as Canon ink but quite acceptable for my daily use. I have been amazed that this procedure works and that the results have been as good as they have been, both in print quality and low cost. So far it’s worked for me, so that’s what I would recommend, although I have some fear that Canon or Staples or somebody will somehow make this procedure unworkable if they find out about it. Nevertheless, for now, it seems to work great.

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sounds good for biz apps

i enter a lot of critical photos into contests so i will have to stick with OEM ink for that purpose
since you say the third party inks are not quite as bright

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Hello Glendad: It is an old problem this ink cartridge business. I use “www.123ink.com” a supplier located in Canada. When replacing a cartridge be sure to shake the new cartridge vigorously 15 to 20 times before removing the shipping seals and pieces and then inserting it.

I found even Mfgr cartridges will gum up the print head if the printer is left on and idle for extended periods of time. Now we turn the printer ( Epson NX415 Stylus) on to print and off when finished the print job. Since we started this practice the printer and ink cartridges are A OK. George PS The laser printer solution is not so good if you have a cat in the house!!!

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I own a Canon Pixma iP4920 printer and I am very satisfied with the compatible cartridges offered by Blankdvdmedia.ca. I’ve been doing business with them for 6 years. I recommend them (at least for Canon compatible).

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As a professional cartridge re-filler (doing it for about 6 years now) it bothers me when I see replies about failing refilled cartridges. I pride myself in the work I do and keep myself educated about the latest techniques and equipment available. There are re-fillers, however, that give the rest a bad reputation as with any industry.

To be sure the printer manufacturers are not making the job any easier. In the past few years most manufacturers have resorted to embedding chips or IC’s that track cartridge usage, and, not succeeding in getting consumers to purchase cartridges that are more costly than the printers, offer low volume cartridges.

If you buy a $20 printer and the cost of the cartridges are $35+ for replacement the consumer naturally thinks replacing the printer is smarter. HP, Lexmark and Canon all participate in this rouse. However, many manufacturers do offer printers that are priced less than $100.00 that are a better value than the Wally World specials.

The quality of the ink is paramount to the performance of the cartridge. The inks used in my business are matched to the cartridge and are chemically the same as the ink used in manufacturing new cartridges. Also, it is very easy to overfill or use a technique that appears to work, at first, but have consequences later on. A professional, like myself, will ensure that the cartridge is returned full, working and in as close to new condition as possible.

My success rate is around 95% and I have a loyal customer base.

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For my Canon inkjet (IP4500), I buy compatible cartridges (with the chip) from Meritline. Haven’t had any problems and I have brought numerous ones. I also don’t use the inkjet all that much and I don’t get ink jets drying as some others allude to.

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Not sure where to post this.[INDENT] I know this has been discussed before but I can’t find the article. Can someone direct me to the orginial article.
Where are you getting your ink cartridges OEM, remanufactured or fill yourself?

thanks[/INDENT]

You might be thinking of this thread: http://windowssecrets.com/forums/showthread//149551-Third-party-printer-ink

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Wow…………..Thanks everybody for your great input.

I will have to make a decision on what I am going to do. It’s a cheapie Canon MP190 from Wally World works great but way too much ink usage. It’s cleaning the heads itself quite often.

Cloudsandskye…………..thanks for thread.

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