Mouse Clix

By: Hobie Lunin

Printer Refill Kits Revisited

Last spring I bought an Ink Jet Printer Refill Kit at Sam’s Club to evaluate. I tried it out on my own printer, a Lexmark 1000 and it seemed to work well. I wrote a report on it for this publication that was somewhat enthusiastic. My opinion has changed and I want to comment on that now. After refilling the Lexmark, I began to try it out on other printers as well as trying “black only” cartridges in addition to the “color” ones. The results have been mixed. Here are some of the problem areas.

Several companies, including Epson, have placed “Smart Chips” on their cartridges. This chip allows you to print only so many pages before you get an empty signal, even if there is more ink in the cartridge. Moreover, you can refill the cartridge but it will not work until you send the “Smart Chip” back to the manufacturer for “resetting.” This costs $3.00 and can take as long as 15 days. As most of us wait until we run out of ink to get another cartridge, this solution is not satisfactory. The ink refill kit company claims to have attempted to publish information on how to reset the chip yourself, but was prevented from doing so by the printer companies. The chip is about the size of a dime and can be peeled off the cartridge. If you do not know whether your cartridge has a smart chip, look in the documentation that came with it, make inquiry at the website of the manufacturer or take the cartridge out and look for it.

Meanwhile the prices of cartridges keep going up and up while the cost of new printers keeps coming down. I have seen new printers as low as $49.95, while the cartridges are more than $35 each now in some instances.

In addition to the smart chip problem, there is no sure way to know if the cartridge is going to work well after you refill it. As I said, I have had some good luck with the process (especially Black) but also have had instances where the cartridge was OK for a while but stopped working prematurely or may not have worked at all.

If you have left the cartridge sit in your printer for some time after it runs out, the ink may dry to such a point where it will not print even after refilling and waiting as long as 48 hours for the ink to “come down”. Some cartridges can be soaked in warm water to loosen the ink but others are unaffected by that treatment. Another problem is taking the cartridge out of the computer for more than a short time while you refill it. If the cartridge is out of the computer for a longer period, not only does the ink that is in the cartridge dry up, but also any ink that may remain in the printer after the cartridge is removed.

Therefore, the best way to refill kits that do not have “smart chips”’ as to refill them before they run out. In addition, you should be prepared to do the refilling and then put the cartridge back as quickly as you can, taking no more than 30 minutes.

If you run into a problem and the cartridge does not work, do not assume that the printer is dead. There is a very good chance that by replacing the refilled cartridge with a new one, the problem will be resolved.

With the increasing costs of ink cartridges, especially when buying them at the chain stores in a quantity of one, consider some other possibilities. Discount buying clubs, such as Sam’s Club, offer two cartridge packs at a reduced price while the Wal-Mart chain sells them at a lesser discount in single quantities. While I do not have first hand experience with ordering cartridges over the Internet, the prices seem to be very low and I expect to purchase my next ones there for evaluation.

Here are some web sites that offer printer cartridges for sale: http://www.inkjet-printer-cartridges.com, http://www.inkprintercartridges.com, http://www.myinks.com/, http://www.r-b-alternatives.com, http://www.1st-discount-inkjet-cartridges.com, and http://www.theinkbank.com. I have no first hand knowledge at this time regarding the prices at any of the above sites. I would suggest ordering when your cartridge is about half empty in normal use. As most cartridges are packed in aluminum sealed bags or containers, the problem of shelf life is not as acute as it would be with an opened cartridge either sitting in, or out of, your printer.

I do not have a good solution to what may occur if you do not use your printer for a long period after you have refilled the cartridge, but my own experience has not been very good. It may pay to print a few lines out every so often if you find you are not using it regularly and it is still hooked up to your computer.

For more information about Smart Chips checkout the following. For a workaround on the Epson printers see: http://pcbuyersguide.com/hardware/printers/smart_chips.html. A device to reset your Epson chip is about $50.00, see: http://www.inkjetsaver.com/777.html. You will find more information by putting “smart chips” in your search engine but this will also pull up information about other types of smart chips.

My own personal plan is to continue to refill black ink cartridges, which have run out. For colored ink, I will probably spend more time searching the Internet or local Buying Clubs for the best prices I can find. I may also try to evaluate some other refill kits to see if there are some that work better than others. For those of you who have older printers, I suggest you look around for good deals on new printers that may only cost a little more than a cartridge.

Hobie Lunin can be reached at mouseclix2@yahoo.com if you have questions about the ink refilling process or places to get reduced prices on cartridges. Previous articles are at http://mouseclix.tripod.com,