Tips & Tricks

The Inkjet Refill Debate

You want to save some money by buying ink refills? We ll, in general, I recommend not using refills.

They are probably OK for printers with ink nozzles that are NOT built into the cartridge (like Canon printers), but I would still be careful. The ink may not be the same quality as what you would get from the manufacturer.

If you are using an HP printer, the ink nozzle is built into the printer cartridge and is not meant to be run refill after refill. When you replace your ink cartridge, you also replace your old nozzle with a brand new one. This helps keep the print quality good (especially important if you're trying to print out photographs).

Another point to consider is that when you bought your printer, you were probably looking at print quality. Why take a chance on compromising that print quality to save a few bucks?

Those budget ones you get UCE ("Uckie"-unsolicited commercial email) about aren't that great either. usually they are made with recycled ink. Better to spring for the factory stuff or a decent generic from your local office supply. I know we all want to save money, but I prefer good quality prints and longer printer life.

Finally, in every "Manufacturer vs Refill" test I've ever seen the manufacturer ink outdoes the off brand - both in terms of quality and longevity. If you're just printing black text to a page, maybe that's OK with you, but if you're working with desktop publishing programs or printing out photos, stay with the real deal.

I know I'll probably have tons of e-mail over this from people who refill their cartridges with no trouble. But I get email all the time asking for my opinion :-)

~ Steve

Great Deals Just For You!