Printer refill kits

Factual Questions
1

Are these things worth the money?

I see the ads quite often on T.V. but they seem so, well, crappily produced. The ads are along the lines of the classic Ginsu knife ads of the past. They show how happy and easy it is to use for only ‘$19.95’. My feeling is, anything $19.95 is gotta be junk. But it makes me wonder.

The product they show looks like a simple syringe filled with ink injecting ink through a hole in the printer cartridge.

Can’t I just make one myself? If so, what kind of ink should I use? What effects on my cartridge will this have?

Chris

2

What type of printer do you have? Can’t do allof them.
They do work, yes.

http://www.image-control.com

3

Keep in mind that using refilled cartridges will void the warranty on most, if not all, printers.

4

The warranty issue doesn’t bother me because it’s a cheapy Lexmark Z11.

I was hoping to find a way of replecating the product I saw on T.V… It’s a simple syringe, right?

5

They work great. I get them at Office Depot and Staples.

6

I use an HP Inkjet 500 printer, mainly B&W ink. It is not easy on ink. Nor do they believe in making the cartridge transparent so you can determine if you’ll have enough ink to finish a long printing.

I used to pay $23.00 a cartridge. Now it is up to $29.00. Few places carry the commercially refilled ‘used’ cartridges, which go for roughly $15 to $18. (Talk about an environmental waste! Think of all of those HP cartridges being dumped!)

On the web, I’ve found refill kits of various prices, which I will be using starting at $18.00 for a kit that gives me 3 refills going up to $32 for 6. That comes to $6 a refill. And I don’t have to rush out to the store and buy a new cartridge when the one I’m using goes kaput!

Just use websearch and type in printer refill kits.

7

Well you’ve convinced me on the kits. But my main objective is to make one myself. Do you people in the know think it’s possible?

8

You could probably find somewhere that would sell you the correct ink. If you have that, you can make your own kit. Just get some syringes (one for each colour). Or you could buy a kit and keep the syringes and stuff from that and then just buy the ink. You’d probably get some useful hints pertaining to your cartridge that way too.

9

Some sites will sell you just the special ink but some cartridges need special rubber plugs to reseal them. These sites will sell you the plugs also. (Like $0.75 for 15 or 20.) On some cartridges, they state a hole needs to be drilled and they sell you tape to put on the cartridge which shows where the hole needs to be. Most are simply refilled through an air vent.

You might just want to buy one kit, then after you know what you’re doing, just buy the ink.

10

Wear Gloves! That ink stays glued to your hands. You can scrub with bleach if you have strong skin.

By them from the Net, they are way cheaper. $20 for a kit that can do it about 10 times.

Try the site I mentioned.