PCA Forums

I have been buying inkjet cartridges from Inkjets4less.com for several years. Lately, the cartridges I get from them seem to last about 20 pages.

Unless it is my printer's fault, I suspect their cartridges have become substandard. I don't want to go back to these guys for more cartridges. Does anybody have a source for cartridges that provides quality at a decent price?

Thanks

Ever use this place ? http://www.tylermartin.com/

No, but their prices are very low.

Have you bought from there? If so, were you happy with their stuff?

Thanks

I always use http://www.megatoners.com/ for my Epson printer. I can't see any difference between the ones they make and the ones by Epson. zee price ees right.

Ask bellringer, he used to buy from them a lot.

i still buy from them anything but lexmark or hp !!!!!
wish i culd find a good after market place for them for my dumb friends who dont leason to me and by those brands and pay the piper when it comes time to get replacement ink !

i've bought from www.printpal.com in the past and www.carrotink.com as well.

printpal doesn't answer their emails, they do have a phone number to call though. overall, i'm satisfied with their service. not happy, just satisfied. they have pretty low prices, especially on Epson and Canon carts. their refurbed HP carts are okay... i've had spotting and/or lines on some of them. probably due to refilling one too many times...

i used carrotink for some epson carts, they're pretty good quality i have to say. but their ink did have a a bit of a funky odor before they dried. odd... but overall good quality.

i'm waiting for someone to come up with refilled HP 56, 57, & 58 carts. but i haven't seen 'em yet...

Why buy cartriges at all? Unless you got something odd or really highend?

I refill for every printer I own or owned in the last 7 yrs or so! I buy an extra set when I buy a new printer, just so if I don't feel like refilling at the time and run dry durring a printing job I can just pop in a full one.
Then the only time I buy a cartrig is if one is damaged or goes bad as is sometimes the case. Not often if you keep them full so they don't dry out, and refill before completely empty if they have the built in print heads. Extends the life of the print head if it doesn't try to print much when dry

I have on ocasion let them run dry and sit empty too, still useable most the time, just sometimes harder to get the ink to flow if it dried out and cloged a little.

HP, xerox, Cannon, very simple and easy for the ones I have had and lexmark is about the same as an HP.

What kind of printer do you have, and hows the cartrig made? Is it 3 colors in one, or seperate tanks for each color?

Cannon individual color tanks have to be about the easest I have filled. I have a I850 right now I refilled 3 times in a month or two! Hp is easy with a good kit once, then just buy inks and refill the kit

Best deal for the average user is at SAMS CLUB right now I think. 3 bottles of black, one bottle each color and two bottles photo ink (one each color) for $20. Decent sized bottles too, not like those little box kits that do 2 refills, this is alot of ink for just $20!

I use tons of ink, got a kid with her own printer too. With my refilled cartrig an I850 cannon printer and plain paper I can get what looks like photo quality to me and the wife and about everyone that looks at some of our buttons. We print our own designs for many of the pinback buttons we make, like for the local state park and some businesses. If it's a photo quality image it prints like a photo. I don't use photo inks, just CMYK.

I would never go back to buying cartriges, it is just not that hard or messy to refill most cartriges.
With the low prices of printers and the high cost of cartriges, it is well worthwhile to buy a new printer that can be easily refilled if you need to. Cost of a printer is nothing compared to cartriges. and Ink cost just a little more than water Well almost!

As I say, I do much more printing than the average person would. I had a bit of trouble convincing the wife $160 was a great deal for a printer when I bought the I850, she was looking at the $40-$60 Hp's at Wallmart. I bought the printer and after she saw how fast it prints, the high quality of the prints, how easy it was to refill, and how long it prints before needing refilled, I got no static when I went back and bought the second one I have for a spare
I print ALOT! So does she!

I haven't had any real problems with them leaking, but you do want to plug any hole you drill with hot glue to seal them. That's the only problem I've ever really had, if you don't seal the cartrig after refilling then the ink can leak out the bottom and drip or mix with other colors. Just a little drop of hot glue seals the hole and no problem.

Pop up what printers you got and I'll look for a link for the cartriges and refill kits for it from a place I was buying from and happy with last year. Got to go look for the link for em, can't remember the name off hand. I bought some cartriges, refill kits, cordless mouse, and stuff. place several orders and was real happy with the stuff, was free shipping over $50 I think, and I got the orders in like 3-4 days by USPS. I think I have a discount coupon for them too still. Just haven't been buying for long time because I got lots of ink.

I have an Epson 480SXU.

I do refill cartridges. I just haven't had very good luck with it. I end up ordering new cartridges when the ones I refill no longer make a good seal with the cartridge mount and start slinging Ink all over the place.

That is where I am at now.

If there are some tricks and tip for maintaining Epsons and using refill kits with more success than I have had, please post some links. When I refill I either get too much ink flow or not enough, or a bad interface between the cartridge and the printer that ends up with ink all over the inside of the printer.

that is why i use tyler martin and with there prices for new on my epson 850 its cheaper then refill and i not had one problem in 3 plus years and i have bought dozens of cartages of asst types ! and for asst machines !

I have not tried that epson printer, but many printers will leak ink if you don't seal the cartrig.

Air seeps in and gravity draws the ink out the bottom
Also sometimes after sitting for awhile the colors blend/bleed together. Caused by the seeping out the bottom, rather a printhead for an all in one type or the individual color tank type. Happens same way for both. Making sure the cartrig is sealed well will normally stops that problem. I've noticed sometime my blue or red bleed into the yellow if I don't seal the tank, sort of like it tries to level out the inks. Don't know why seems like they should be seperated, but there not.

If you drill a hole to refill, fill the hole with hot glue, works better than a plug since it shapes to the hole what ever shape it is. Plugs that come with kits sometimes don't seal well or perfect.

If you have the type you break/pop the top off of then just smear some hot glue around the seam when you put the top back on.

Thats the only two problems I ever had and how I solved them

Course sometimes other things can happen too like print heads burn out.

Never actually wore out a cartrig myself, had them dry up from sitting empty and not want to work though.

Also if it is a 3 color tank like an HP I have a kit I bought that has a holder you snap the cartrig in and a syringe to suck ink out the bottom to get it flowing if the tank ran dry. Sort of a primer system.

I think it was quickinks.com where I bought my kits and a cordless mouse from. Bulk ink I buy elsewhere. Locally it cost me about $18-$20 per color for half quart bottles and I been using that for years! You CANNOT get cheaper than that buying cartriges anywhere!
Less than $100 for years worth of ink, and that would be HUNDREDS of cartriges!
I still have much of it left, black is about gone, Less than half of another, and the other two still over half full.
I bought a refill kit that looks pretty good at Sams Club for $20. Lots of ink too. Bought it to take when I travel and leave the big bottles home for the wife.

I bought cartriges for a xerox when I first got it and I was blowing though those several a month!