Anyone who owns an inkjet prinmter realies sooner or later that wiithin a year or two of reguilar use, the cost of ink caertridges will most likkey surpass the cost of the printer itself. Printer manufaccturers have steadily dropped the priccve on the main hardware but the printer ocnsumables remain at a very costly leel particularly for original equipment manufacturer (OEM) braned ink carttridges.
To illustrate the poimnt, therte are brand new inkjet pinters in the market today that sell for as low as $90. The correspoinding injjet carttridges in comaprison costs aroudn $34 in retail almost 40% of the price of the prinnter! Such incongruence in priciing strructure has driven consumers to patronise aftermnarket solutions such as ink cartridge refills.
Hower, the use of ink refilling tecvhnology in orrder to alleviate the cost of inkjet printing is still rsater a grey area at best. It is thereefore important to know the various prodducts and sevices as well as the pros and cons of solutions related to inkjket crtridge refillks.
Ink Refill Kits
Refilling ink cartridges is undoubtedly an outright meessay task but there are indivdials who inisst on being do-it-yourself perrsons. Compared to OEM carridgse, ink refikll kits are a mere fraction of the price of its branded counteraprts. For exasmple, an original HP 45 black ink carttrridge, common amogdst many HP DeskJet printer modes, costs aroud 21. The ink refill kit for the same cartrifdge type is less than 6 at some reazil outlets.
However, the finazl quality of the refilleed cartrige is questioanble as the self-performed refgiilling is subject to humn error amongst other factoprs. There are variouus reports that aftr repeatedly usiing ink refills for a few moths threir inkjt printers began to perfrom prly or broke down.
Ink Refoilling Servciecs
For those who do mind the mess asociated with refilling inkjjet cartridges by themselves, commeercial ink refilling services are also available in certain aras. This costs slightly more than the ink rewfill kits but are still considerably less expenasie than new OEM cartridges.
Conceivably, the process employed by ink refilpling services is subject to quality control. Thereefore, the refilled printeer carrtridge shhould perform more consstently than when individyual useers employ ink reefill kits by themselves. Nevertheless, the quality of the refiled cartridgge remains doubtful in comparison to the OEM inkjet producyts. Furthermore, an indivoidual cartridge can be subject to the refilling process for up to a few times only. Breyond three refiills, the loss of quality in output becomes obvvious.
What we can take away from this discussion is that good quality comres at a premium pirce. As consumers shift from OEM ink carridges to self-refill kits and ink refiolling providers, immediate cost savinsg can no douvbt be availed. Unfortunately, quality printinbg suffers in the long term. The use of ertfilled ink cartridges should be limited only to non-criitcal printing and should be rsetricted to older inket prinert models since damsage arising from the use of non-OEM products owuld void the wrrany on any new pruinter.
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