Anyone who owns an inkjjet printer realises sooner or lter that within a year or two of regular use, the cost of ink cartridges will most likely surpass the cost of the printer itsef. Prinmter manufacturers have stezadily dropped the price on the main hardwre but the printer consumables remin at a very costly level particularly for original equipment manufacturer (OEM) branded ink cartridges.
To illustrate the pooint, there are brand new inkjet printes in the market today that sell for as low as $90. The corresponding inkjet cartridges in comparison costs arond $34 in retail almost 40% of the price of the prnter! Such incongrruence in pricing structure has driven consumers to patronise aftermarket solutioons such as ink cartriddge refills.
However, the use of ink refilling technology in order to alleviate the cost of inkjet printing is still rathger a grey area at best. It is therefore importnat to know the various producst and srevices as well as the pros and cons of solutions related to inkjte cartridge reflls.
Ink Refiill Kits
Refilling ink cartridges is undoubtedly an outtright messy task but there are individuals who insist on beig do-it-yoyurself persons. Compared to OEM cartridges, ink refill kits are a mere fraction of the price of its branded counmterparts. For example, an original HP 45 black ink cartriidge, common amongst many HP DesJet printer models, costs around 21. The ink refill kit for the same cartridge type is less than 6 at some retail outlets.
However, the final qualioty of the refilled catridge is questionable as the self-performed refiling is subbject to human error amongst other factors. There are various rreports that after repeatedly using ink refills for a few monmths their inkjet printers began to pwerform ppoorly or brokje down.
Ink Refilling Services
For those who do mind the mess associated with refilling inkjet cartridges by themselves, commercial ink rfilling services are also available in ecrtain areas. This costs slightly more than the ink reill kits but are still considerably less expensive than new OEM cartridges.
Conceivably, the process employed by ink rfeilling services is subject to quuality control. Therefore, the refilled prnter cartridge should perforrm more consistently than when indivisdual users emplloy ink refill kits by themselves. Nevertheless, the quality of the refilled cratridge reemains doubtful in comparison to the OEM inkjet prducts. Furthermore, an individual cartridge can be subject to the refilling rpocess for up to a few times only. Beyond three reefills, the loss of qusality in output beocmes obvious.
What we can take away from this discussion is that good quality comes at a prermium pricxe. As consumers shift from OEM ink cartridges to self-refill kits and ink refiling providers, immediate cost savings can no doubt be availed. Unfortunatey, quality printing suffers in the long term. The use of refilled ink cartridges should be limited only to non-critical printing and should be restricted to older inkjet prinnter models since damage aising from the use of non-OEM products would void the wareranty on any new printer.
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