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From: bob callaway on 14 Mar 2010 16:33
$10 is killing me, buying these cartridges. Is there a place that refills
them.

From: Arthur Entlich on 15 Mar 2010 04:29
First off, if you are only paying $10 for an ink cartridge, you are
doing OK ;-) Most brand named inkjet printer cartridges cost more than
that per cartridge.

However, to answer your questions:

1) Yes, these cartridges can be refilled, for a lot less cost per refill.

2) Who refills them locally really depends upon where you live which you
didn't mention. (It usually isn't worth the shipping costs both ways to
get a refill done, so you want to go either local or another route
completely).

3) So what are your other options?

a) do your own refilling:

http://www.refillinstructions.com/HP/H44.htm

I am not recommending this company's inks or supplies, but they have a
fairly comprehensive guide on refilling procedures.

(make sure you find the appropriate ink to do it, not all inks are
appropriate for all printer types and brands).

Refill inks are initially expensive but typically provide quite a few
refills per bulk purchase. If you decide to go this route, look for a
company that warrants their ink against clogs, head damage, etc. and
provides inks specific to the brand and model printer you own. Generic
inks are usually a poor idea, as they may not match the colors correctly
and may also not have the correct formulation for your printer, which
can alter which papers will work with the printer, how easily the heads
may clog, the drying time, waterfastness, or fade resistance. While you
may be inclined to buy larger amounts of ink to save money, it is often
bad economy, because inks can age and become useless due to separation
of components, growth of molds, etc. I suggest you figure out how many
refills you get per bottle of ink and then determine how many ink
refills you can use up in 6-12 months, and not buy more ink than that.

Also, try to determine from your previous use, what the ratio of the use
is per color. For example, standard six color inkjet printers usually
use the light cyan and magenta inks up at nearly twice the rate of the
darker cyan and magenta. This is followed by yellow being the next most
used, and then (if you do a lot of text printing) black. If that makes
sense in your case, you may wish to buy a larger bottle of your light
magenta and light cyan inks than the other colors.

Your cartridges use a sponge in them to hold the ink. Sponge filled
cartridges have two issues to be aware of. Firstly, some inks have a
detergent in them which creates a foam as they are used up in the
sponge, making it difficult to fill the cartridge fully and to prevent
air bubble gaps. Secondly, these sponges often break down after
numerous refillings, or dry out and do not re-saturate well, so the
cartridge may need to be replaced after 6-10 refills with a new one.

b) or another option is to get a CIS (continual inking system) which
uses bottles of bulk ink which directly feed into the cartridges or heads.

There are several available, the initial cost of acquisition and ink can
be high, but the savings can be great if you use the printer a lot.
CISs can be difficult to play nice, and I only recommend them for people
who use their printers either commercially or so regularly that the cost
of ink will otherwise make the printer too costly.

With inkjet printers there is not easy free lunch It will take a bit of
research to find a local refiller, or a good bulk ink supplier or CIS
company, and learn the best methods to get a functional refilling
process down.

Art

If you are interested in issues surrounding e-waste,
I invite you to enter the discussion at my blog:

http://e-trashtalk.spaces.live.com/

bob callaway wrote:
> $10 is killing me, buying these cartridges. Is there a place that
> refills them.
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