It seems we've been on this subject quite a bit lately ....Part of the reason is the cost of replacement carts. My new 5550 HP has carts about half the size as the earlier machines.
Their arguement is that the ink is used more efficiently...There may be a little bit of that but it takes a certain amount of ink to put a spot on the page and you can't get around that.
What I've been doing for awhile is reloading the carts myself. There's nothing anyone can do to refurbish a cartridge. It's just cleaned and re inked.
As Shelly has said, there is a finite amount of use you can get out of these cartridges regardless.
Go out and buy a couple of sets of carts, B&W and color, and get the "Universal" brand of fill kit (20 bucks) or several others that have been discussed couple days ago.
You will quickly get the hang of reloading these. Usually one can get from 3 to 6 runs on a cart before it fails.
Hp would like the thing to melt down as soon as it emptys so you would have to buy new ones each time.
Couple of other printer companies are enclosing a chip in their cart to "tell you when it's empty" except the chip has to be reset before you can reink it. I think Canon and Lexmark...so far HP hasn't done this........
#3. "RE: HP Printer Rebuilt Cartridges" In response to aa1aq (Reply # 0)
I question the "Temporary Cartridge" bit. The HPs have always come with the standard cart that you buy. Who told you that or where did you get the term "TEMP". Doesn't ring true...... You may not see the fill holes. Mine are concealed beneath a label that's really tough to peel off.
Plus their warning scares a lot of people away from re filling.....Don't believe it...been doing it for years....
Go to Ebay and enter a search for "ink cartridges" when it comes up refine your search to HP.You will find all you will ever need to know by looking through the listings including How to refill,refill kits,factory refilled cartridges,new cartridges etc. I refill my own for my Lexmark.I have to pop off the top on my color cartridges to refill them( the tool came with the kit)On my Black ones I have to drill a hole to put in the ink(the drill came with the kit.MAJOR TIP...Do NOT overfill! This is especially important on the color cartridge.Usually one color runs out.You can put the recommended amount of that color in but I use a rule of thumb of two thirds on the other two.I learned this the hard way and spent an evening cleaning my printers guts. My next printer will be a Cannon with individual ink tanks...Good Luck
My Lexmark Model 3200 has two way communication.The method of showing the ink left is reasonably accurate but I have been surprised in the middle of a printing when the ink ran out.This was my fault because when I changed the color cartridge and indicated that it was "New",I mistakenly also indicated that my black cartridge was "new" when I had actually printed quite a bit on it before.As for the notification.In a printing of 20+ page instruction at about the 3rd page the warning of low ink came up ,but it completed the printing with no trouble.I have pretty much got a feel for what is happening by now. Cannon has several printers that use separate tanks for each color.You can purchase individual colors or kits with all colors. The reason printers are always on sale and reasonably cheap is the money is made by selling the cartridges.I understand that some of the new cartridges are being made with internal bladders which I guess is an attempt to make them harder if not impossible to refill. I have had good results with refilling and I have tried the factory refilled and they worked fine.Refilling can be messy the first time but you get better with each effort. I watch Ebay and have successfully bought an occasional NEW cartridge and know I have one for future refills.I am currently using a black that has been refilled 4 times and a color that is on its third refill.I have easily saved over $125 on these by refilling myself.
