Tip For Cheaper Printer Ink
Damin Darlin in the New York Times reviews the current costs of buying a new printer ink cartridge vs. refilling, and finds that refilling is up to 50% cheaper, and becoming more convenient with kiosks popping up in department stores. But Darlin makes a more interesting point: "the more important consideration is the price per page printed, a number that is affected by the quality of a refilled cartridge."
Running those numbers yields a lesser advantage for the refillers, but still Darlin concludes:
the upshot is that you will not have much problem with used cartridges from reputable refillers if you are printing documents with black ink on standard 20-pound paper, what most people call copier paper... You will not have much problem with color inks if the scope of your printing is maps and the children's homework. At half the price, even if half of what you buy fails to print as much as a new cartridge, you are not much worse off.
But for high-quality color printing of digital photos, you may be better off with the new cartridges. If you buy alot of ink, Darlin's article is definitely worth a more thorough read.
Comments
I've been exchanging emails with HP support about the same problem with my printer. We just replaced the ink about a month ago and it was printing fine. Then half way through a print job today I get flashing lights and the "printer cartridge error" message and my printer won't work. I went through the trouble shooting procedures they give online and, as I expected, they didn't work. The machine didn't even tell me which cartridge was giving the problem. So I'm suppose to blow all that money again buying cartridges when I don't even know which one it is or if that is even the real problem? So I decided to email the support for answers. After some experimentation, it comes down to this, the support person told me to get back to them if it doesn't work after I purchase a new color ink cartridge. Mine were from Staples own brand "compatible with HP". They were working fine for a month and were working properly. There is still plenty of ink in them. Are you saying, Haiki, that there is some way they know if you are using recycled ink cartridges and then it shuts the machine down? Like built-in software?
From Punctuation, Plain & Simple, Edgar and Jean Alward."Two or more main ideas-each of which could be a sentence in itself- are seperated by a comma when the last main idea begins with a conjunction such as and, but, or, nor, for, so, yet, while, and whereas. The comma must precede the coordinate conjunction. He bought a new car, and she bought an education."
You see we know what Damin Darlin meant, and we know what MR meant.
Think about any ink cartridge, for example, HP ink cartridge that has a warranty. Bad ink cartridge, color bad, light ink which appears watery, what-ever, they give you another one. That's the way a warranty works. You buy a recycled ink cartridge, with no HP warranty. It may work momentarily, but then you get these same messages, remove cartridge. Why should my printer shut down after purchasing a recycled ink cartridge? But then if you buy an HP ink cartridge, your printer is up and running again. Or until that time HP thinks you have printed long enough, even if you have plenty of ink. HP forces you, according to HP predetermined usage, in order for your printer to work, to buy their ink cartridges, or HP will shut your printer down.
Don't focus on the ink cartridge, focus on the fact HP, and other printer manufacturers, stop your printer from working, because of some silly game they are playing of cheating customers before the ink runs out, or wrong ink standards, or what-ever. I say, go ahead send these stupid messages, but don't stop my printer from working. This is anti-competitive, and in violation of anti-trust laws.
To be perfectly clear
Hewlett Packard recycles their ink cartridges by promoting that HP cartridges be returned for recycling, using a self addressed, stamped envelope. Allowing HP, through their “refurbishing and reselling” effort to conserve resources, using the various recycling facilities of manufacturers around the world contracted by HP. Thus, the mere fact that there also are other recyclers available to refurbish, and recycle ink cartridges, but except for lower cost, and the free choice of the consumer, HP has restricted the consumer the full use, and the operation of HP printers.
Smith and Roberson’s Business Law, ninth edition. West Publishing. Chapter 43; ANTITRUST.
“Characterizing a type of restraint as per se illegal therefore has a significant effect on the prosecution of an antitrust suit. In such a case, the plaintiff need only show that the type of restraint occurred, she does not need to prove that the restraint limited competition.....Tying arrangements. A tying arrangement occurs when the seller of a product, service, or intangible (the "tying" product) conditions its sale on the buyers purchasing a second product, service, or intangible (the "tied" product) from the seller....Because tying arrangements limit buyers' freedom of choice and may exclude competitors, the law closely scrutinizes such agreements.”
Hewlett Packard has, unbeknownst to customers who purchased HP printers (tying product), tied as a condition, the purchase of new HP ink cartridges (tied product), or HP recycled ink cartridges, through the use illegal anti-competitive consumer practices.
After all, what are we talking about, it's a ball point pen refill morphed into a printer ink cartridge. It’s a recycled auto part! Again, I say Hewlett Packard, and the rest of the conspirators, play your silly games by cheating consumers on ink cost, and supplies. I say go ahead! But don’t stop me from the use of my printer.
4/21/06
Hewlett Packard ink cartridge, just another auto part to be recycled.
Do you have printer ink cartridge problems? Focus on the printer, not the ink cartridge.
Further into HP's efforts to deceive the unsuspecting consumer. HP goes through this ruse of support and troubleshooting, print cartridge errors..... 99% of which ends up meaningless!
"HP cannot guarantee the quality or reliability of refilled or remanufactured cartridge"
What does this exactly mean? The quality? It means my standards do not meet HP standards. Is this why HP makes my printer inoperable? Reliability. If a refilled or remanufactured ink cartridge fails, it fails! I'll just send it back. But, for the life of me, I cannot understand why I cannot operate my printer? Can HP tell the world, under what specific technical conditions has HP determined that the ink cartridge has failed, and therefore making my printer inoperable? Their answer would be crucial to HP’s credibility on the issue.
Recently, when the recycled red ink stopped working, as indicated by my test page, on a more than 3/4 filled color cartridge, past warranty period, the recycler sent me another one, at no cost. Why then, as I questioned in my letter to Mr. Hurd, the test page ran fine, but the next day, the printer immediately stopped working? HP company policy of shutting down a consumers printer is saying, all recycled ink cartridges are not of HP standards, and we will not allow our printers to operate, or the consumer, the free choice, to decide quality choices in the use of the purchasers printers.
In order to let you think that your recycled printer cartridges choices are inferior, and damaging, HP goes through this whole procedure as outlined in their website reference manual.
“Problem. A message or flashing light indicates a problem just after a new cartridge is installed A message indicates that there is a problem with a cartridge...Solution... Make sure the cartridges are compatible with the printer. See the manual for a list of compatible cartridges.
The trick is to do your own re-filling versus having someone else refill for you. If you do a search on the web, you can find sites where you can buy your own kits to make your own refills at home. The ink itself is rather cheap. What most people are paying for is the cartridge.
However, as a word of caution if your printer is expensive, refilling or using an ink cartridge not manufactured by the company your printer was made from can void some warranties. However, I have never ran into such a problem when getting warrantied service/repairs, as it's nearly impossible for them to prove what cartridge I used.
There is no such word as "alot". They are and have always been two separate words. Look it up.