leza said:
I have Canon i550 printer. When I bought it the sale person told me it is
great because when the ink will finish you do not need to replace the
cartage but you need to only refill the ink!! that is great news but now the
ink is finished and I went to store and he told me to buy the whole ink box
(the small black color) but I told him I thought I can reenject the ink but
he told me this is not good idea.. what do you think? Thanks a lot.
Refilling your cartridges is not recommended by the manufacturers (one guess
why) and may possibly even void your warranty. It is also a messy and
sometimes complicated matter. However, it is far cheaper than buying new
cartridges.
For instance, inkjetrefills.net has a refill kit with enough ink to fill
your black 6 times and your colors 3 times each for $39.95
http://www.inkjetrefills.net/canon_combos.htm
(it's the "Canon BCI-3e Black & Color")
This is far cheaper than even one set of new ink cartridges from the store.
As a side note, Canon's are not the only ink cartridges that can be
refilled. Just about any ink cartridge can be refilled with the proper
tools.
What the salesman was probably referring to when he said that "all you had
to do was replace the ink" was the fact that Canon ink cartridges are
separate from each other and from the print head assembly ... therefore only
the ink tank needs to be replaced and not the whole unit. This is still
cheaper than the HP/Lexmark model of attaching the print head to the ink
cartridge and putting all 3 color tanks together so you inevitable end up
throwing away some ink every time you replace the cartridge. But refilling
is by far the most economical alternative.
Though it is not likely that you can permanently damage your printer by
refilling your cartridges you must take extra special care because it is
possible for the ink to leak into the printer and cause problems. Normally
at the very worst you'll have to replace your print head assembly if
something goes wrong.
Best of luck
Drumguy
