Refillable ink cartridges seem to offer a viable way for both individuals and companies to lower their printing costs. Now available for many brands of inkjet printer – the most common form of printer – in both colour and black, they avoid the expense of purchasing a whole new cartridge when the ink has run out and in doing so reduce environmental waste. However, refillable ink cartridges are not without their problems.

Clogging

Because ink-refilling firms do not use the ink formula devised by the cartridge manufacturer, the replacement ink may not have an accurate viscosity to flow freely through the cartridge nozzles. Over time, this can cause ink to build up and clog the nozzles, significantly affecting the quality of the printing. There are techniques you can use to clean clogged cartridges. These include soaking overnight in clean, warm water, and wiping with an alcohol solution; however, these will mean a disruption in printing.

Recognition

Many printers use electronic chips to measure the level of ink in the cartridge. A refilled cartridge will, however, not reset this measure as a new cartridge does – the printer will read it as empty. This is not too much of a problem, except that the only way you will know that the cartridge is out of ink is that it will stop printing correctly.

Leaks

Cartridges are refilled by injecting ink with needles. This is done either by the individual or a dedicated company. In either case, the procedure increases the chances that the cartridge will leak, spoiling documents and requiring the purchase of a new cartridge. Particularly bad leaks can require professional repair to the printer.

Warranty

If thinking of refilling cartridges, ensure that you purchase ones that are designed for multiple use. If a single use cartridge is refilled and it damages the printer, the warranty on the printer is likely to become null and void.

Print quality

Refillable ink cartridges may have may a negative impact not only on your printer, but also on the documents it produces. The generic nature of the ink used to refill cartridges means that the ink quality of lower, often resulting in ink bleed in documents, making images and text appear slightly fuzzy around the edges. In many businesses especially, such a drop in quality for their printed output is not acceptable. This drop in performance may mean that you print documents on a higher-grade print setting (which uses more ink), thus increasing the frequency the cartridge needs to be refilled and inflating costs, or any better quality paper to achieve the same results, again boosting costs.

Advantages

However, don’t necessarily be put off by the potential problems with refillable ink cartridges. The quality of the ink being used and the technology to ensure printers use refillable cartridges correctly are improving all the time. And as they do the benefits, not only in terms of cost but also in limiting the amount of non-biodegradable waste that is put into the environment, should outweigh any disadvantages.

Ben Greenwood is writing on behalf of Cartridge World, the UK\’s leading specialist in toner cartridges and ink cartridges.

Ben Greenwood is writing on behalf of Cartridge World (http://www.cartridgeworld.co.uk), the UK\’s leading specialist in printer cartridges.

Author Bio: Ben Greenwood is writing on behalf of Cartridge World, the UK\’s leading specialist in toner cartridges and ink cartridges.

Category: Advice
Keywords: printer cartridges, inkjet cartridges, toner cartridges