Expensive Ink?/To refill...or Not to refill?

Don't let the printer manufacturers like HP, Lexmark, Epson and the others laugh all the way to the bank with your hard earned money that you have shelled out for ink cartridges. Why are these cartridges so expensive?! Well, there is a tradeoff for buying low cost mass produced computer printers...EXPENSIVE ink cartridges!

If you don't need a high quality printout, set up your printer to print in ECONOMY Mode or DRAFT Mode to reduce the amount of ink you use. Your printer will print faster too! Depending on your printer, you can select different modes which effect the quality of the printout. You can choose Best, Normal, Draft (or Economy) modes in your printer settings. If you have a Laser Printer look for the resolution settings (i.e 600x600 dots per inch, 300x300 dots per inch etc). Check your printers manual or go online for assistance. The two screenshot examples below are for an HP DeskJet printer and an Epson Stylus Photo printer:

Navigate to your Printer folder through Control Panel or go to Start, Settings, Printers for Windows 98, ME, 2000. For Windows XP go to Start, All Programs, Printers and Faxes. Right click on your listed printer, select Properties and look for Printing Preferences or Quality tab or button, then look for the Paper/Quality tab or button. Again, printer settings depend on the version of Windows and the printer driver you use. Don't be afraid to dig around in your printer settings to experiment with print quality - all you have to gain is $$$.

What about refilling ink jet cartridges?

Well, we have tried this and it has been hit and miss depending on the type of cartridge that you need to fill. It can be a messy process and you have to be careful which type of refill ink you purchase, they are not all the same.

Overall, the HP cartridges seemed to refill and print ok, but they did NOT last as long or print as good as a new cartridge from the factory (go figure!). We also have tried refilling Epson cartridges with less success. If your are adventurous and like to pinch your pennies like we do, give it a try, it may work for you and save you some $$$.