Ink jet refill kit experiences?

[Bill Sconce]

On Wed, 31 Aug 2005 22:12:08 -0400
Ted Roche <tedroche at tedroche.com> wrote:

> The printer has paid for itself several times over, so I'm  
> willing to risk its loss to save some money refilling it.
> 
> HP has mastered the Gillette "give away the razor" technique, and  
> extract $40 or more for a pair of cartridges filled with water based  
> ink and a chip that expires the cartridge after two years. I'm clever  
> enough to work around the expiration racket, but I don't have any  
> direct experience with refilling. Has anyone done this? Recommended  
> vendors pro or con? Words of wisdom?


Good news:

    I have refilled any number of cartridges, Canon and Epson.
    Printers and heads always survived fine.  (I too object to
    the "stick it to 'em for the razor blades" racket, and
    especially the DMCA extortion of "we'v bought a law which
    forbinds you to circumvent our expiration chip"...)  I've
    even refilled laser cartridges.

    So refills are possible.  They've worked for me.  The stains
    come off your fingers as the skin wears away.   :)

    But wait, there's more.
    
    I don't do refills any longer.  I've found a store, a walk-in
    place with stock on the shelves, which sells me FILLED cartridges
    for $2.49 (black) and $3.99 (color).  At such a price refilling
    doesn't make sense.  Also, the guys who run the store know far
    more about printers and supplies than I could even get from
    Google.(*)
    
    They also have the best deal (for me) on laser cartridges.  I've
    used them for my Canon copier, my DECLaser 5100, and my venerable
    LaserJet III.
    
    (Disclosure:  the store happens to be across the street from the
    airport, so I'm frequently right next door for an easy supply
    run.)
    
The bad news:

    Cartridges for HP are not as cheap as those for Epson.  Black for
    the D145 is $13.99;  color is $17.99.    (*ouch*)
    
    (There's more bad news about HP.  And Lexmark.  Did you know
    that HP and Lexmark promote "economy" cartridges - cheaper, but
    only HALF FILLED?  You have to read the milliliters before buying
    or you find when you get home from Wal-Mart that the cartridge
    contains an expensive portion of air.  The part number was just
    one digit different...)
    
A final bit of good news:

    The guys at the store are Linux-friendly.  (Hey, I'll bet we could
    even work out a discount program for GNHLUG!  I know they've done
    it for other groups.)
    
The place is:

    GotInk4U
    28 Charron Ave
    Nashua, NH 03063-1783
    Phone: 	(603) 579-3637 
    
    I've talked mostly to Bill, and to Micah, who read mail at:
    	gotink4u at aol.com
    and whom I've CC'd on this post.

Super folks.

-Bill

P.S.  I have no financial interest, I'm only a satisfied customer, etc.

P.P.S.  To Ted, or anyone I see at meetings:  I'll be happy to pick up
anything you might decide to get from these guys.

(*) There's an HP dodge whereby the printer "remembers" the serial
numbers of the last 3 cartridges inserted in it, so that if you
try a refill you have to cycle two other cartridges through so that
"your" number gets flushed from cache.   Grrr.

And selling HALF-FILLED CARTRIDGES!   GRRRR.