Ink cartridges can be expensive. If you do a lot of printing, you may find yourself spending hundreds of dollars a year replacing the ink in your home printer, especially if you purchase your cartridges at full retail cost. There are other, less expensive, ways to get ink, though.
You can bypass inkjet cartridges all together by switching to a laser printer. Laser printers don't use ink, they use toner, and this allows them to print many more pages per cartridge. The price per page is also lower. Laser printers cost a lot more, initially, however, than inkjet printers.
Another option is to purchase refurbished cartridges instead of new. Office supply stores, printer manufacturers, and third party vendors all sell refurbished cartridges. While the cartridge itself may cost less, the price per page may end up the same, if the cartridge cannot produce as many pages as a new one. Others report failures of refurbished cartridges. This is not true of all refurbished cartridges, though.
Refilling an old cartridge is another option. Some stores offer this service, or you can buy a refill kit and do it yourself. You can use the same refill kit to fill several cartridges. They are cheaper but if you aren't careful, you might make a bit of mess. Stores that offer refill services cost more, but save you the time and effort and cleanup. You can refill a cartridge between five and ten times before it wears out and needs to be replaced.
Take note, though, that some printers will return an error when they detect refilled cartridges. Ignoring the error message and using the cartridge may be an option. If you aren't sure whether your printer will accept refilled cartridges, you might want to test it with a store-refilled cartridge before you buy an ink refill kit.
What's the best option? Refilled cartridges are the least expensive, for those whose main interest is cost. The ink that comes in new cartridges seems more vibrant and rich than the other options, if your main concern is image quality. A refurbished cartridge is the best choice for the environmentally-conscious.
If you decide to stick with new cartridges, you can still recycle your old ones. Recycling saves energy and landfill space. Don't worry; these services are free.
You can choose between several different recycling programs. Organizations that handle electrical equipment recycling often also do cartridge recycling for charities and schools. Or, you can take the cartridges to the office supply store. Just drop the cartridges in their box and go. Printer companies also have cartridge recycling programs. Some even come with pre-addressed, prepaid envelopes to use to return the cartridges to the company.
You can bypass inkjet cartridges all together by switching to a laser printer. Laser printers don't use ink, they use toner, and this allows them to print many more pages per cartridge. The price per page is also lower. Laser printers cost a lot more, initially, however, than inkjet printers.
Another option is to purchase refurbished cartridges instead of new. Office supply stores, printer manufacturers, and third party vendors all sell refurbished cartridges. While the cartridge itself may cost less, the price per page may end up the same, if the cartridge cannot produce as many pages as a new one. Others report failures of refurbished cartridges. This is not true of all refurbished cartridges, though.
Refilling an old cartridge is another option. Some stores offer this service, or you can buy a refill kit and do it yourself. You can use the same refill kit to fill several cartridges. They are cheaper but if you aren't careful, you might make a bit of mess. Stores that offer refill services cost more, but save you the time and effort and cleanup. You can refill a cartridge between five and ten times before it wears out and needs to be replaced.
Take note, though, that some printers will return an error when they detect refilled cartridges. Ignoring the error message and using the cartridge may be an option. If you aren't sure whether your printer will accept refilled cartridges, you might want to test it with a store-refilled cartridge before you buy an ink refill kit.
What's the best option? Refilled cartridges are the least expensive, for those whose main interest is cost. The ink that comes in new cartridges seems more vibrant and rich than the other options, if your main concern is image quality. A refurbished cartridge is the best choice for the environmentally-conscious.
If you decide to stick with new cartridges, you can still recycle your old ones. Recycling saves energy and landfill space. Don't worry; these services are free.
You can choose between several different recycling programs. Organizations that handle electrical equipment recycling often also do cartridge recycling for charities and schools. Or, you can take the cartridges to the office supply store. Just drop the cartridges in their box and go. Printer companies also have cartridge recycling programs. Some even come with pre-addressed, prepaid envelopes to use to return the cartridges to the company.
0 comments:
Post a Comment