Want cheap ink to refill HP inkjet

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M

Max -

I am surprised at how expensive most dealers are for ink to refill
HP inkjets.

Are there any decent UK suppliers who do not charge an arm and a
leg for a bottle of inkjet ink?
 
I am surprised at how expensive most dealers are for ink to refill
HP inkjets.

Are there any decent UK suppliers who do not charge an arm and a
leg for a bottle of inkjet ink?
Click to expand...

in the long run youd be far better off ditching it and getting an
epson.
 
How is an Epson noticeably cheaper to run than an HP?
Click to expand...

It's not, Epson's are much worse. Utter garbage.
If you want to go to a different printer try Lexmark if you're
outputing photo-images etc...
If printing simple stuff like text get a Canon.

Have you tried Nujet.com for your ink?
Also try MIS:


http://www.missupply.com/store.cgi
 
gothika said:
It's not, Epson's are much worse. Utter garbage.
If you want to go to a different printer try Lexmark if you're
outputing photo-images etc...
If printing simple stuff like text get a Canon.
Click to expand...

Lexmark? This is a weird thread... previous comments I've seen on Lexmark
have related to high prices and mediocre quality.

As for Epson, my old 740 proved very unreliable. Probably due to the
compatible carts, which seemed to clog the heads (those silly "cleaning"
sheets epson produce were no good at all). It also often left white lines
in photos, even when I was using official ink. I'm currently using a C46,
but only because I was given it. I've also got a Dell branded Lexmark
hanging around as a backup, but I'll never be buying any "official" ink
for it, because they're over £40 for a pair of carts.

I'll probably go for a Canon next time, but it pains me to buy any
printer in the current market.


Dave.
 
How is an Epson noticeably cheaper to run than an HP?
Click to expand...

i can get 12 refill cartridges for my epson c660 for £18 from
www.britink.co.uk

try that with a lexmark or an HP,

they give those printers away because the ink is so dear

a canon is also a good bet

with any printer forget about the cost of the hardware and look at the
cost of the ink.

the reason the epson and canon refills are so cheap compared with hp
and lexmark is that the print head is not on the ink cartridge as it
is with the lexmark and hp.

just go to www.britink.co.uk and compare the prices for epson, canon,
hp and lexmark and then ask me the question again.
 
i can get 12 refill cartridges for my epson c660 for £18 from
www.britink.co.uk

try that with a lexmark or an HP,

they give those printers away because the ink is so dear
the reason the epson and canon refills are so cheap compared with hp
and lexmark is that the print head is not on the ink cartridge as it
is with the lexmark and hp.
Click to expand...

And the reason Epsons are crap?

Because the print head is in the printer, not the cartridge. Sounds great,
doesn't it? Epsons truly are dirt cheap to run. Until the day you've come
back off holiday, and discovered in the heat the print heads have dried up,
and no amount of cleaning and swearing is going to sort them. The you chuck
away your printer, and buy a new one.

I use an old HP pro Deskjet because I got it very very cheap, and I hardly
ever print anything. I've got a laser for black and white, and it's
brilliantly cheap to run, and once again, didn't cost me a great deal to
buy. I maybe use the inkjet once every couple of weeks. That'd kill an
Epson, worst case with the HP is a pair of refilled carts, which're 15 quid
or so together. Plus I can sell the old carts for just under a fiver.

A friend's got an Epson, was a high end model when she got it. Brilliant
printer and yes, cheap as anything to run. But she prints stuff out every
other day, so there's never been any problems. I had a 600 though, didn't
use it for 2 months whilst moving. now bin fodder.

So I suppose overall HPs are cheaper for people who don't print a great
deal, Epsons are fine if used regularly. At least, in my experience that's
the case. Then again, I never buy a new printer, so my way is even cheaper
:)
 
A friend's got an Epson, was a high end model when she got it. Brilliant
printer and yes, cheap as anything to run. But she prints stuff out every
other day, so there's never been any problems. I had a 600 though, didn't
use it for 2 months whilst moving. now bin fodder.
Click to expand...

Ever searched on the net about it ? - quite often the application of a
little ammonia to the pad it sits on can sort out the dried out print
heads :-}
 
everytime this subject of printers comes up after reading the replies
you can't buy any brand because somebody somewhere had a bad
experience with one brand at some time or another. I have had Hp's
660c - 1230, Epson 777i - C60- 2x Epson large media printers, cannon
s540, Lexmark 1001
Lexmark was the worst, never did anything very well. The HP was fine
but refilling those carts was a PITA. The Epson's run flawlessly, I
don't refill any of the large media tanks as I need EXACT color
matching for production work. The S540 is a breeze to refill 4
separate color tanks, but why bother as the tanks are 6.50$. s540 is
not a photo printer but DAMN good at it.

Cheap carts for an HP are hard to come by, especially when the printer
is a newer model.
 
I have a storage room full of Epson crap
Stylus proXL
stylus 1500
Colorado 3000
etc... etc...
It's all garbage.
We started using Epson back in the mid 90's in our desktop publishing
business simply because Epson had the only printers that would handle
our resolution/dpi requirements.
We had constant problems with them right out of the box.
Clogged print heads, losing prime etc...
After nearly 3 years of grief and a constant stream of bull from the
Epson reps we shelved them and bought plotters.(encad and Novastar)
The only reason I haven't taken a sledgehammer to the lot is we spent
thousands on them and I may be able one day to either buy aftermarket
parts for them or get some sort of retrofit kit to do away with the
crappy piezio heads in them.
Ever searched on the net about it ? - quite often the application of a
little ammonia to the pad it sits on can sort out the dried out print
heads :-}
Click to expand...

If you want to clean the printheads you'll have to remove them from
the machine and soak them in sulfynol or hot distilled water.
Then dry them out and reinstall, but be warned they can clog right
back up with just a few runs.
You can also purchase a cartridge blank, fill it with sulfynol and run
a zillion head cleaning cycles for minor clogs.
the biggest culprit/pain I found with Epson printers is the really
crappy design in the cartridge seals(O rings).
These seals can go out on a perfectly new cartridge and for most the
only solution is pitch it and buy a new one.
I located a source for aftermarket 0 ring seals, but at 90 cents a
seal they aren't cheap.
and they won't always fix the problem, seems many of the oem
cartridges are made of really cheap polystyrene with irregular
surfaces which no o ring can hope to seal.
Here's hoping Epson eventually falls into the deepest pit of Hades.
 
I've found that the Epson cartridges are just as pricey as any out
there.
And the reason Epsons are crap?

Because the print head is in the printer, not the cartridge. Sounds great,
doesn't it? Epsons truly are dirt cheap to run. Until the day you've come
back off holiday, and discovered in the heat the print heads have dried up,
and no amount of cleaning and swearing is going to sort them. The you chuck
away your printer, and buy a new one.
Click to expand...
I have to disagree. Epson's are very costly to run.
You spend MORE time running cleaning cycles than you do printing.
Even then you never get all the lines out in the mid-resolution
settings forcing you to run in the highest settings which in turn use
MORE ink and MORE time.
The real problem is the poor ass ink feed design.
The piss weak printheads are supposed to pull ink out a cartridge
filled with a sponge soaked in an ink solution that forms clots and
clogs just looking at it.
On top of that the cartridges have the WORST seal system I've ever
seen in ANY inkjet system.
A rubber O ring that is anything but true.(If you pull one out of the
cartridge head the curl up like a rubberband.)
Top this off with the worst quality plastic in the cartridge itself
and some of the shoddiest jet molding I've ever seen.(Have seen some
Epson cartridge O ring seats so erose that it'd be impossible to get
anything to siphon ink through them without sucking air.)

When you run a printing business you need each and every print on a
run to come out good. something Epson's could never do.
You waste ink,time and paper and quickly lose all hope of producing a
profit out of these junky machines.
We had to switch to professional plotters. The Epsons are sitting in a
storage room collecting dust, they wouldn't even make good boat
anchors.
 
Lexmark? This is a weird thread... previous comments I've seen on Lexmark
have related to high prices and mediocre quality.

As for Epson, my old 740 proved very unreliable. Probably due to the
compatible carts, which seemed to clog the heads (those silly "cleaning"
sheets epson produce were no good at all). It also often left white lines
in photos, even when I was using official ink. I'm currently using a C46,
but only because I was given it. I've also got a Dell branded Lexmark
hanging around as a backup, but I'll never be buying any "official" ink
for it, because they're over £40 for a pair of carts.

I'll probably go for a Canon next time, but it pains me to buy any
printer in the current market.


Dave.
Click to expand...

True the consumer inkjet market is pretty woeful these days.
We use Lexmarks and get good quality and reliability.
I DO buy aftermarket ink and refill the cartridges.
As for the price of cartridges, aren't all brands of inkjet cartridges
overpriced?\
I buy new blanks and fill them myself.(one advantage is most brands of
aftermarket blanks aren't fused so they don't burn out after one or
two cycles. the printheads will finally go out after 15-20 uses
though.)
I also use better quality inks than the oems so they never clog or
skip.(Pantone fadeproof inks.)
We do have a couple of Canon's that we use for office work and for
simple text and graphics and they do very good work and are easy to
refill as well.(I have A BJC1000 that is a snap to refill, is cheap to
run and produce very sharp text and line-art.)
I have a BJC6000 that I picked up very cheap that does fairly good
color work.(I like it for it's separate ink tanks for each color.)
For our production runs I have a plotter that you just pour the ink
into.
 
Gothinka, interesting post. I think you are in the US.

gothika said:
True the consumer inkjet market is pretty woeful these days.
We use Lexmarks and get good quality and reliability.
I DO buy aftermarket ink and refill the cartridges.
As for the price of cartridges, aren't all brands of inkjet
cartridges overpriced?
Click to expand...

I reckon the replacement ink market is pretty overpriced. £10 for
two 40 ml bottles in Dixons. OK, so who really goes to Disxons for
a bargain - no one. However Dixons and such stores help set a
benchmark price.

I buy new blanks and fill them myself.(one advantage is most
brands of aftermarket blanks aren't fused so they don't burn
out after one or two cycles. the printheads will finally go
out after 15-20 uses though.)
Click to expand...

Where do you get aftermarket blank cartridges from?

I would like to get some which are for HP and are specifically
designed for refilling by having a hole already in the top.

I also use better quality inks than the oems so they never
clog or skip.(Pantone fadeproof inks.)
Click to expand...

Where do you buy that Pantone ink from? Google seems to suggest
that Pantone is for artists. Perhaps your ink is "Pantone
approved" rather than made by Pantone?
 
Gothinka, interesting post. I think you are in the US.



I reckon the replacement ink market is pretty overpriced. £10 for
two 40 ml bottles in Dixons. OK, so who really goes to Disxons for
a bargain - no one. However Dixons and such stores help set a
benchmark price.



Where do you get aftermarket blank cartridges from?
Click to expand...

www.nujet.com for blanks. Other ink companies sell them as well.

Last time I checked MIS associates sold blanks as well.

http://www.inksupply.com/

http://www.inksupply.com/index.cfm?source=html/cartridges.html
I would like to get some which are for HP and are specifically
designed for refilling by having a hole already in the top.
Click to expand...
You can use a small drill bit to cut a hole.
Others have used a hot nail to melt a hole in their HP cartridges,
advantage of not having any shavings to contend with.(I've always
drilled mine very slowly, the shaving then stays in one piece outside
the cartridge.)
Most refill kits come with a tool for making the hole in HP's as well.
At any rate try the links.
Where do you buy that Pantone ink from? Google seems to suggest
that Pantone is for artists. Perhaps your ink is "Pantone
approved" rather than made by Pantone?
Click to expand...

Pantone is a standard reference. and while there IS a company by that
name the only thing I've ever purchased from them was reference charts
and actual offset inks.
If an ink is referred to as being "pantone" it simply means that it is
a reference match ink that meets the pantone standards.(Industry
standard for the graphic arts/offset printing industry.)
Pantone inks are used for precision color matching in the graphic arts
industry.
Pantone inks used in inkjets allow you to make reference quality
proofs for the offset printers to match, ensuring no suprises when you
you get the production work back from the printers.
Using pantones designed for photographic work enable one to produce
copy from an inkjet that matches actual photographic paper tones and
colors.
I get the pantone ink I use from a local printshop that a friend of
mine has.(He uses a brand from Germany, I go in halves and cut my cost
by buying high volume wholesale.)
You shouldn't need Pantone unless you're in the pre-press/graphics
business.(They do allow better control of color matching though.)

Try this link:
http://www.vansonink.com/inkjet/index.html

Here's a link for Pantone, but their inks are very pricey:

http://www.pantone.com/aboutus/aboutus.asp?idArticle=393&idPressRelease=177

Here's a link for a London based company:

http://www.designsupply.com/

Here's a link that sheds some light on why Epsons piezio printhead
printers are fatally flawed.
Good article on the basics of correct ink type matching also.
http://www.screenweb.com/inks/cont/inkstrategy.html

For blanks try this link:

http://www.weink.com/ecom/catalog/cartridge_empties_and_blanks_325005_products.htm
 
A missing link? Now I am curious. May I ask you for it?
Thanks.

Geo
Click to expand...

Follow the link it mentions the reason early Epson printers had so
many clog problems.
http://www.screenweb.com/inks/cont/inkstrategy.html
Click to expand...

Here's the paragraph:

The ink must also be compatible with the plumbing that delivers it to
the printhead. After the introduction of one early solvent-system
piezo inkjet model, it was discovered that the ink corroded the supply
lines to the printhead, creating metal fragments that chewed up the
printheads when they got there. This was an expensive lesson for both
the manufacturer and its customers.
 
Here's the paragraph:

The ink must also be compatible with the plumbing that delivers it to
the printhead. After the introduction of one early solvent-system
piezo inkjet model, it was discovered that the ink corroded the supply
lines to the printhead, creating metal fragments that chewed up the
printheads when they got there. This was an expensive lesson for both
the manufacturer and its customers.
Click to expand...

Thank you.

Geo
 
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