Wednesday, December 31, 2008

Refilling Inkjet Cartridges - Half The Price - 90% Less Waste

By Donald Bressellford

The part of the Inkjet Printer that provides the actual ink and must be refilled is the "inkjet cartridge". In most cases this cartridge also contains the electronic printer head as part of the unit.

There are both one color and multi-color reservoir cartridges depending on which model and/or manufacturer's printer is in question. Frequently manufacturers build in electronic contacts and microchips that tell the printer how the cartridge is performing.

Before doing any printing the level of available ink must be determined. Insufficient ink may dry on the printhead and lead to inferior prints. The volume of ink must be capable of providing smooth flow or the quality of prints will be sub-standard.

If you do have dried ink on an inkjet cartridge, it is important to clean it off gently with a soft rag or cotton swab dampened with isopropyl alcohol.

You can get charged an arm and a leg for original manufacturer inkjet cartridges, so most users, particularly high volume users such as businesses, started to seek alternative solutions.

The costs of replacing ink cartridges, compared to the price of a brand new printer, amaze many consumers. Leading printer manufacturers like Hewlett Packard, Lexmark, Dell, Canon, Epson and Brother often lose money by selling cheap printers expecting to make their true profits selling the inkjet cartridges, known as consumables.

This means that they MUST get a premium price for their cartridges to make their business model work. To that end they try every conceivable way to convince consumers that only "their" cartridges are any good, and that they should only be used once. Some have also have taken legal action against companies that started to refill and recycle these cartridges rather than waste them.

The printer manufacturers lost their case and now seek other ways to create a monopoly on printer cartridges.

Now that there are high quality alternative sources for a fraction of the original manufacturer's price, many inkjet printer owners are enjoying refilled or remanufactured inkjet cartridges at tremendous savings, and still getting phenomenal quality from their printers.

Hundreds of millions of perfectly good cartridges were being dumped at landfills every year before these refills became possible. Now, consumers are saving significant amounts of money while they're saving the environment.

A whole industry has grown up around ink cartridge refilling. Customers can find several qualities and types of refilling. However, some are safe and successful while other types can destroy the printer or produce sub-par prints.

It is essential that the refilling of these delicate cartridges is done by someone with the extensive training that ensures the job will be done correctly.

Never settle for less than a 100% Satisfaction Guarantee!

Generally speaking, Brother, Canon, Dell, HP, and Lexmark cartridges can be refilled, although some cartridges require the chip in the ink cartridge to be reset.

In conclusion, consumers or businesses using inkjet printers can save substantial money, and still be guaranteed high quality printing, if they use a well established and trained cartridge refilling supplier. - 16035

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