kermittech

I'm totally disappointed by Canon MP160 printers that blocked any printing work to force me to buy expensive genuine cartridges but then didn't even recognized them when I placed them (unsolvable E5 error). These 1-year old printers stopped totally working and will now land in the garbage!!

I am now looking for models that don't decide for me if I can keep on printing or not.

Does anyone know about printer models that can be refilled without trouble? Do you have experience with any? I mostly print office documents for personal use so I don't need exceptional resolution. Just reasonable.

Thanks for any suggestion

Net Jockey

I do not support refilling ink cartridges.
I purchase only HP printers and I do not refill the ink cartridges. One of my printers sat for 3 months without ink...I purchased a new cartridge...installed it...and it worked out of the box....I Dare you to try that with any other printer?

yisgood

Refilling ink cartridges is the best way to kill your printer. Cartridges are deliberately designed to not allow refilling and with good reason. If you want to save money, there is a better, safer and less messy solution. I get cartridges for my epson printers from http://ccs-digital.com They have regular disposable cartridges but also a unique two-piece cartridge where the ink is in a separate tank inside the cartridge. When the ink runs out, you replace just the ink tank and the original chip resets itself to full. By keeping the same chip, you save 1.50 per cartridge. Ink tanks are only $3 and hold 50% more ink than disposable cartridges. Because these are fresh, sealed ink tanks and not refills, you avoid the dangers associated with refills.

Right now Epson is having a blowout on the 5-color R280 for $60. It even prints on DVDs.
http://www.epson.com/cgi-bin/Store/c...RID=1013876963

dai

i always use generic refill cartridges with no problems at a quarter of he price
i don't use a printer much mine is a canon s520

kermittech

Thanks for the infos and the links. CCS site sounds interesting indeed.
Since I'll have to look for a new printer, I'll keep these models in mind. The problem for me might be that, given I live in Thailand by now, shipping there might be impractical. I'll check that.
My accounting office uses common printer models but fitted with large, external ink tanks. I don't know if they got them custom made here or if it comes from the manufacturer (but I doubt that). I'll ask them.

Thanks again.

kermittech

I do support ink refills or substitutes
Why? Just because I don't know about any device that would stop working for the simple reason that IT decides it is time for you to go get milked at the brand shop on a regular basis.
Imagine your car with tanks half full refusing to start except to go direct to the gas station of the brand to get your left gas spilled and refilled at Dom Perignon price.
Btw, ink is an environmental hazard. Forcing people to dispose of half
full cartridges where no recycling facilities exist contributes significantly to pollution.

Cheap device/expensive cartridges? I have nothing against that as long as they play fair.
I mean each printer box on sale should bear a sticker saying:

"warning:
This device will stop working after a given time. We don't consider you deserve to know here after how long or how many pages. Not your business. This interruption will happen even if your cartridges are not empty. Actually, the point is not about printing quality, it's about revenues for us. It will then refuse ANY task (even the non ink related ones like scanning - don't ask us why). Your ONLY option will be to go buy a cartridge at an official dealer shop (sorry if you don't have one close to where you are by then). Prices of our cartridges can be checked daily on the precious metals exchange market. Any substitute will be rejected even if functional (sorry if inconvenient for you.. it is for us). By the way, this machine might also fail to properly recognize our own cartridges after you buy it (sorry again, anyway, we cashed already).
Thank you for joining our captive customers club."

I didn't find any of these informations on the packaging, even if they all proved true in my case.
Btw, at 30USD/cartridge, I checked on the net this morning: an ounce of Canon ink (200 USD) is pretty close to what the gold ounce was 8 years ago (260 USD). But gold inflated since then. Will ink follow the trend?

As for me, I want to get out of this tricky scheme. Means: devices compatible with refills or substitutes or large external tanks. In other words a machine that works for me, not the opposite.

Your experience with the HP is interesting coz showing reliability.
Thanks.

yisgood

The problem with refills is that the ink residue in the cartridge had time to clog. Now you add fresh ink to stale ink and those clots travel to the heads and permanently block them. You have the same problem if you don't use your printer for a long time and leave it off or let the ink empty and dont change cartridges for a while. That is why you should always leave the printer on and change cartridges as soon as they become empty. Continuous ink systems don't have this problem since there is always ink flowing, but they are meant for people who do a lot of printing. Good compatible cartridges work well too, and are more convenient. There is no reason to let the printer companies gouge you.