OT, I Guess: Printer Ink Refills

[Guido]

Cannon, G3260, +++++. $22.

[Rich Carlstedt]

........What I finally ordered is "genuine Brother cartridges" refilled by a California company (Door Step Ink). At least I was able to go: Made in the USA. ...........That's at least a 50% discount from Brother's prices.......................One more thing I like about this company is they have a recycling program for the empty cartridges. They give a discount on the next order if you send them 5 or more empties. I may be cynical about many "green" programs, but this seems to make good sense. ..........

yes Paul , I just bought some refills ( HP 45 and HP 78) from Doorstep ink a few weeks ago.
So far no complaints If they last in my HP1220C , I'll buy from them again
Really getting hard to find ink for the 22 yr old HP Printer, but it runs like mad, and is rock steady -so I'll keep feeding it
Rich

[Paul Alciatore]

Well, I am glad I posted about it. I would love to visit Reno again, but there's probably little chance of that with my present circumstances.

And gmax137, I don't think I recommended DoorStep. I only said I did buy from them. The ink came in three or four days and seems to be OK. Time will tell. I will try to remember to resurrect this thread after using a few of them.

Thank you, Paul! You just saved me hours of internet searching! If you're ever in Reno let me know, I will buy you a beer.

[RancherBill]

I have known for some time that printer companies do not make money on printers. Like movie theaters who make their money at the concession stand, printer companies will give the printers away if they can just trap you into buying the INK for absurd prices.

For this very reason I got rid of my HP Printer.

I bought an Epson eco smart. It's really good and the ink is cheap. They have wide format printers.

https://epson.com/ecotank-pro-ink-tank-printers

[Paul Alciatore]

They look nice.

At first glance I see three differences with the wide path models:

Epson used pigment inks. Brother uses pigment for black and die ink for the three colors. I think pigment inks produce a better photo. Not a lot of difference when printing documents.

Epson had the refillable tanks. Big advantage. I have to buy or refill cartridges for the Brother. And I AM saving money over my previous HP printer's ink thrust. In fact I more than paid for the new Brother printer (including shipping) with the annual ink savings in the first two years.

And price: Street price for the lower cost Epson model is $899.99. I paid about $165 for my Brother. That's over a 5X difference. With my pocketbook, that settles it HANDS DOWN!

That's how I see it. I am sure others will differ. YMMV!

For this very reason I got rid of my HP Printer.

I bought an Epson eco smart. It's really good and the ink is cheap. They have wide format printers.

https://epson.com/ecotank-pro-ink-tank-printers

[Corbettprime]

Paul, I had a HP office jet printer, and the cost of refills was sheer banditry. I brought refill kits from Printer Filling Station, at about 10% of HP's cost. The HP finally went south, and I bought a Canon EcoTank printer, and the ink mileage is fantastic. I went to check PFS for Canon refills, and find they are going out of business. Oh well, I've printed over 5000 pages in the year I've had the Canon, and I still have a half tank of each color, and a full black refill out of the two that came with the printer. Think I'll go to Sam's and get a refill just to have on hand.

[gmax137]

...And gmax137, I don't think I recommended DoorStep. I only said I did buy from them. The ink came in three or four days and seems to be OK. Time will tell. I will try to remember to resurrect this thread after using a few of them.

Thanks for the clarification. Sorry, I didn't intend to put words in your mouth!

[RancherBill]

I paid about $165 for my Brother. That's over a 5X difference.

That's an exceptional 11x17 printer for 165.

[Paul Alciatore]

Bad memory. I looked it up and it was $265 and change, including shipping in May of 2014. That brings the factor down to about 3.4 times more for the Epson; but still a lot less expensive. Sorry about the memory slip: my bad memory was my worst trait back in school.

And that also means it has lasted for a full nine years. Less than $30 a year.

Amazing thing, I was able to look up the sale on Amazon that far back. It popped right up along with all the ink I had purchased in that time from/thru Amazon. And it was only one ink purchase per year: nine total. I am definitely paying a LOT less for ink. And, as I said above, I hope to reduce that expense even more with the refilled cartridges.

That's an exceptional 11x17 printer for 165.

[mikegt4]

Like most here I got tired of the ink drying out in the printer, in my case the result of only using it once or twice a month. For me it was cost effective to just use the printer at the local FedEx office. I could buy a dollar amount of service and they would load it on a debit card that they provided. I would just insert the card in the machine whenever I needed to print 24/7. A couple of years ago they changed their hours to normal business times and raised their per page price. I found that my local public library offers free printing for the first 10 pages, perfect for my very limited usage. I do have to jump through some hoops, request a temporary password at the service desk and of course their limited hours but it works well for me.

[junkaddict]

I have an HP that takes the 63 cartridges. I use one of those refill kits off of Amazon. I found that when I would remove them and refill them, it would keep giving me a non HP/non genuine/non recommended cartridge error, and would not work. I drilled a hole on the top of a new cartridge, put a sticker over it, and do not let it go empty, just top it off without removing it. It goes a couple bottles of refill ink like this until the cartridge head clogs/fails. It has a constant low ink message, but keeps printing.