Refurbished ink ?????

[ignatiusjk]

Has anyone ever purchased or used a "refurbished" ink cartridge? There are some on Amazon for 25.00 as opposed to 60.00 new.I have a Epson 3800 printer and don't want to screw it up with bad ink but if the cartridge was just refurbished then I should be ok. Any info out there??

[domaz]

Sounds too good to be true. It's probably an Epson cartridge that's been refilled with off-brand ink.

[ignatiusjk]

How bad would it screw up my printer if it's cheap ink? Remember I have a Epson 3800.

[D. Bryant]

How bad would it screw up my printer if it's cheap ink? Remember I have a Epson 3800.

Show us a link.

[Jim Jones]

You don't have to pay Epson's price for the real thing. http://www.atlex.com/ and some other sources are a little cheaper. I've bought many cartridges from them. Don't gamble on bargain ink to save a little money. If it's refilled with cheap ink, print life may be very short.

[Dan Dozer]

For what it's worth, my brother works in the inkjet printer division for HP and has lots of horror stories of people who damage their printers with bargain barrel re-fills on cartridges. His recommendation is to always use cartridges/ink from the manufacturer.

[jp]

If you're going to use a lot of ink, get the cone refillables from inkjetmall.com

[Corran]

Find a local guy who does ink refills. Many of them can be high-quality. As with any business, there are good ones and there are bad. I have established a relationship with a local for all my ink needs and he does everything he can to make me a happy customer. He has all the proper refilling equipment and uses the best ink.

Frankly the ink market is a complete scam. HP and the like (especially Lexmark!) should be ashamed with their business practices! $60 for an ink cartridge? Give me a break!!

[Mark Sawyer]

Unless you can really ascertain the manufacturer/quality of the ink, I fear this may be not unlike taking an empty bottle of Glenmorangie to the liquor store to be "refurbished" at a bargain price.

[paulr]

I use bargain basement ink on my $40 canon printer that does utilitarian stuff. OEM inks cost more than the printer did (yes, I know this is the business model, but I don't have to like it). Longevity of the prints and the printer doesn't matter much here, nor does color accuracy.

A serious photo printer is a different story entirely. I'd buy from the manufacturer, or from someone like Cone.

[IanG]

I ran my Epson Photo EX using Staples inks for a year or so before switching to a cheaper supplier, again with no problems.

There's no way I'd use refurbished inks but as Bryan says the Ink market is a scam where the OEM inks are concerned.

My curent supplier sells a complete set of 9 cartridges for my r2400 for less than 1 from Epson that says it all, image quality is identical.

Ian

[Black Lightning]

What is the experience around here with Media Street Ink2Image replacement inks and refillable cartridges?

[Louie Powell]

Several years ago I purchased a refurbished cartridge from Staples. My printer is an old (14 years) HP, so one cartridge includes all three colors. But when I installed the cartridge, I found that it didn't work properly - the yellow ink was not flowing, with a resulting strong shift in overall color. I called Staples customer service who told me that they really don't recommend refilled cartridges even through they sell them, and suggested that I return the cartridge to the store for a refund (which they gave with no questions).

Last Fall, my wife noticed that a nearby supermarket offered a cartridge refilling service - $8 to refill a cartridge that would cost $35 -45 to replace. Sounded good, but the result was the same - no yellow, and severe color shift.

I haven't tried refilling a black cartridge - I suspect that it would be more of a binary thing: either it works, or it doesn't. And since my wife tends to opt for using only black ink, that might make some economic sense.

But at this point I'm actually looking at a different option - replacing the printer altogether. The cost of a new printer isn't significantly different from the cost of a set of cartridges (that's called the Gillette razor marketing strategy - sell the machine at a break-even price, and then when the customer is locked in, charge an arm and a leg for disposables). And I know that I'm going to have to replace my computer in another year or so, and when that happens, I will no longer be able to use my HP printer because it was designed for a parallel port interface that new computers don't have. So I expect to go ahead with a printer purchase in the next few months to prepare for the eventual computer replacement, and also to get fresh cartridges.

[BrianShaw]

I've found refurbished/refilled ink cartridges to be hit-or-miss. When they "hit" they don't seem to last as long. When they "miss" they are a real pain in the neck. I only use OEM cartridges anymore and treat printing like I do drinking -- buy only the good stuff and drink less.

[W K Longcor]

We have a store near us that specializes in refilled cartridges. I figured for our quick and dirty - black and white notes, letters and signs -- why not? Well, the refilled cartridge would not give me a print on "fast draft" mode from the printer. As a result, we had to use "normal" to get "fast draft" quality -- and it was not fast - plus we used more ink to get the print --I WAS NO BARGAIN!!!!