Any opinions on these as a replacement for my dead C40?
I'm basically looking for something compact and quiet, that won't get
used that often, maybe as little as one page per week on average.
Reviews indicate that the print quality is reasonable considering the
price.
There doesn't seem to be any non-canon carts available, but I've
spotted a couple of sites selling refills kits. Are they any good or
will I end up ruining the printer?
Assuming US prices, the ip4200 is $80ish from places like buy.com.
Normally I would say the cost of the ink is so much higher on the
ip1600 that shelling out an extra $30 would save them in the long run.
I believe the yield on the pg-40 is about 190pages @ 5% yield and the
cli-5 is 500pages @ 5% yield but I goggled that info and have no
personal experence. Assuming about $18/tank and assuming 2.5x the
yield, and assuming my data on the yield is correct, that $50 ip1600
plus one and a half tanks of black costs about the same. Color adds
value to the equation.
But.. 52 pages a year, that's so low you won't see any savings for over
a year... as would be the case for anything under 400peages/year. This
is assuming black only.
However, the ip4200/5200 is easier to refill. Right now there is no
chip resetter so you loose your ability to meter if you refill, but you
can print with refill ink.
As long as you get good advice as to what to buy, refill kits are a
perfectly acceptable solution. If we are talking the ip4200, the worst
that could happen is the head can be ruined. I've never seen this
happen on ink from
www.inksupply.com. Others have had postitive
experence with image-specalists, formulabs, and hobbicolors (e-bay)
ink. The WORST that could happen on the ip1600 is you gotta buy new
cartridges and you waste some ink which tends to cost a couple
bucks/ounce.
Epsons, while a pain in the tookus at time, has more support for
refilling presently, including chip-resetters and aftermarket chips.
