Yesterday at the "Dollar Tree" I saw refills for inkjets. Has anyone tried these? Are they any good? Is it hard to do, the instructions were kind of vague. What does it mean, "run through the cleaning cycle"? My printer came with no instructions. I'd appreciate any feedback -- inkjets are costing me a fortune!
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You can always google the printer manufacturer and find out what their toll free number is. Give the manufacturer a call and they might be able to help you out with an owners manual.
Or what you can do is google the make and model of the printer and a lot of websites give you step by step instructions of how you replace the ink cartridges.
If the bargain cartridges don't work, you can always take them back for a refund if you haven't used them yet.
I have a website, this is where I buy all of my ink cartridges on line.
Best Price Ink offers free shipping.
Marge from NY
My husband has had great success in re-inking cartridges with ink from our 99 Cent Store - (The older models are easier to ink.) They ususally come with instructions as to inking - or maybe yuo could find some online. Usually you have to do a printer diagnostic to clean the heads, etc. If you don't have a manual for your printer - look for one ont he net to download - everyone is always losing theirs, so there are downloads for all sorts of manuals!
My husband has had great success in re-inking cartridges with ink from our 99 Cent Store - (The older models are easier to ink.) They ususally come with instructions as to inking - or maybe yuo could find some online. Usually you have to do a printer diagnostic to clean the heads, etc.
I don't know about the dollar store ones, but I do know we bought an inkjet refill kit at Costco a LONG time ago and it's still around! We've changed printers/copier since then and this newest one didn't have instructions, we just took the drilling tool, made a hole, filled it up and plugged with the provided plug, works wonders!
Joan, if you live near a Walgreens, they refill ink cartridges. It's $10 for black and $15 for color. I had a black cartridge filled there about a month ago when they were doing a "free" filling.
IF refilling doesn't work for you... just FYI, if you bring an empty cartridge to Staples, the give you $3 off your new cartridge. I don't remember which brands, but mine is a Lexmark.
I use 2 printers, My newer Epson (in which I use ONLY original Epson ink because it's WATERPROOF) and my Much older epson. In the older printer I refill the ink cartridges. The Newer Epson, I use for my important business documents, & the older printer with refilled ink, I use for everyday correspondence & the like.
-----> HINTS FOR REFILLING PRINTER INK-JET CARTRIDGES <-----
1) Although I haven't yet used the "Dollar Tree Brand" of ink refills yet, I HAVE done my share of refilling ink cartridges & will share with you what I've learned so far. The most important thing you need to know about refilling ink cartridges is that you can NOT wait very long to refill them after the ink has run dry. The cartridges have a small sponge inside & if the sponge gets dry, you are just wasting your ink & might as well just throw them out & buy new. If you can't refill your cartridge within a week, then take it out of the printer & tape the hole up & put it in a small zip-lock bag with most off the air pushed out. I've found out the hard way, it's best to refill within a week, 2 at the most.
2) You can only refill a cartridge a limited amount of times or the ink starts to smear. I always buy a new ink cartridge after every 2 or 3 refills. Also the Printer's original brand of ink cartridges work best for refilling. I've tried the Office Depot brand of ink cartridges, & even though they work fine when new, they don't refill as well as brand-name ones do.
3) One of the best places to buy your Brand-name ink cartridges is at Liquidation stores. Most Liquidation stores sell the Name-brand ink cartridges for less than half the price they would be at an office supply store. The reason they are being sold at Liquidation stores is because they are "Past Pull Date"... You should always look at the date marked on the box & buy the newest one available because the ink is supposed to only be at peak performance for one year. I've bought ink that is 1 year or a little more past pull date & been extremely happy with it, but that all depends how it's been handled. And you never know for sure (has it sat in the sunshine, froze, etc) Yes, you are taking a chance buying slightly older ink at a Liquidation store, but I've always been happy & I think the saving are well worth it. (I guess it all depends if you are a "deal-savy" type person, or always buy "brand-name" & want the best when you shop) Me, I'll always go for the "Deal" & am rarely disappointed!
4) This goes without saying, but either memorize your printer cartridges numbers or write them down & carry them in your car or wallet, Just in case you find the deal of a lifetime at a garage sale or a liquidation store!
5) Unless you've already bought the "Name-brand" refill kits that come with instructions for almost each & every printer out there, then I doubt you'll know how to use the ones selling for only $1 because I don't think they have very good directions (I may be wrong), but you can do what I did: first buy the most popular brand of ink refill kit, Learn how from their directions, then buy the ones at the dollar store. My problem is that whenever I buy the Refill kits I always run out of the Yellow color well before the rest of the colors, so I always have to buy a whole new refill kit before I'd need to, just for the Yellow, so it will be nice to be able to just buy one single color at Dollar Tree.
6) Save your old printers, because not only can you use an old printer for a "Refill Ink Printer" but many times when they get 8 years old or so, you can find super great deals on the ink when they are discontinuing it. (Always check the Clearance table at Office Depot!)
7) This goes without saying, but when you refill your printer, the quality of ink will not be as good, & if you're in love with the Epson's brand of waterproof ink (called "Dura-Bright") You will not have Epson's waterproof ink after refilling. I need waterproof signs, as I do Street Fairs & sell my wares outside in the rain so, to remedy this, I buy a can of the cheapest CLEAR spray paint out there (Walmart's brand is 99 cents) & go outside & spray both the front & back of my documents until well saturated. When I first started doing this, I stupidly bought a special brand of coating at an artist's supply store, Then I found out that plain old clear spray paint will work to waterproof your paperwork. Each document will have a matte finish even if you use a high-gloss type of spray paint, Just buy the least expensive brand.
---> I plan on trying the Dollar Tree brand of ink soon, & will let you know how well it works, but I can at least offer you this: In my area (near Seattle) it practically JUMPS off the shelf & is rarely on the store shelf for long, So, maybe, that should be a sign that it works okay, because they've been selling it for several years in my area & I'd bet half the people are return customers. It might be beneficial to ask the Dollar store employees if they ever have complaints about their ink. I'm eager to read the posts about Dollar Tree's refill ink & it's quality & am Sooo very glad you posted this question for the ThriftyFun community to answer!
INFO ABOUT REFILLING YOUR INK-JET CARTRIDGES:
www.printcountry.com/
www.informit.com/
www.misterinkjet.com/
www.refill-instructions.co.uk
* In answer to previous posts: One thing I CAN tell you is that NO Printer manufacturer will recommend anything BUT their brand of ink! They may even go as far as to say it would void their warrantee... So don't ask a printer manufacturer how to refill. And the refill ink makers are way to busy to answer this question on the phone (If they even speak English!?)... Your best results for "how to" refill instructions may be on the web. Each printer's cartridge is different. Most refill kits come with a little instruction booklet. As far as a Printer Manufactures' warrantees: I've had 5 printers (No matter if I do or don't use refill ink) in a row last until 1 or 2 months past their warrantee date, then break down for good. I'm sure the printer manufactures have this down to a science, so you'll buy the new model. (Seems like there's a little timer in there that says "Okay, stop working, the warrantee in over now.") *grin*...
-- As far as Staples giving you $3 for your old printer's cartridges, I'm pretty sure it's only the ones with the circuit board on them, because these are the only ones that get resold... At least these are the only ones that Office Depot will give you a free pack of printer paper for & that is what they told me. Let me know if I'm wrong.
Don't know if this will help but this how I find where to "clean" on my printer. I go to properties on the box that comes up when I click print. Then I go to options. Then I go to solution center and there is an option to print to clean ink nozzles. I have used dollar store ink for a while now and I really like it.
I bought black and color refills at the Dollar Tree more than a year ago and am having no problems with them. Each package has everything you need to refill your cartridge. Just do it over several sheets of newspaper because the ink can drip if you're not careful.
Not tried the dollar tree ones, but know that the refill kits and cartriges are a waste of money.I only got 2 color pics and about 5 black and white pages from it. I did put my printer on both quick print and high quailiy and got the same results from the refills. Target has new ones for around 32 for both color and black combined. Most printers have a printer icon on your desk top, click help and type in clean printer heads. This will give you the information on how to clean them.
I also wanted to comment that dollar tree dot com has reviews of things on their website. Sadly enough though I couldn't find the ink refills on it though. One of my favorite things to get from there is the "Magic Eraser" type sponges. $1 for 2! Not $2 or $3 for two like in other stores, and they work just as well. They have a blue side that is a different type of sponge and this helps to hold them together in my opinion. So next time you're there give them a try!
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