I wish I had an ink well

[classic33]

Yes - some of them count the number of squirts or something
and then assume they are empty never mind if there is any ink left

I seem to remember a court case somewhere (EU????) about it a while ago

many years go my boss had a printer and a system where there was a hole in the top of each cartridge with a thin tube going to a 100ml bottle
you basically just refilled the bottle very cheaply and the cartridge never ran out

The guy he got it from went round car boot sales and the like - and had a printer going all day printing photos and never ran out!

the printer companies have made this contraption impossible

Continuous inking system.
Running from a larger bottle for the black and three for the coloured inks.

I think that some of the printer companies have realised that they can make money out of a similar if smaller tank system. Problem now is how long Will the actual printers last.

 

[DaveReading]

Despite having bought a half-decent Canon photo printer a couple of years ago, I still use a second-hand cheapo HP printer/scanner for everyday printing.

From bitter experience with its predecessor, I have a scheduled task that runs daily to batch-print a test page, and so far my carts seem to last for ages without drying up. Sadly, the test print seems only to exercise the tri-colour cartridge and not the photo one, but that's no great loss.

 

[newts]

We've been buying compatible cartridges from this company for many years, full set of colour & 2 blacks for just over £10.
https://www.internet-ink.com/
I had to take out the print head & clean it last week with isopropyl alcohol, first time I've done it with this printer & it's 7-8 years old.

 

[Regular.Cyclist]

My inkjet is an Epson Stylus Photo R3000 which takes 9 different ink colours. I bought it with a complete set of refillable cartridges and used it from day one with pigment dyes without issue.

One bottle of the stuff costs the same as one single colour from Epson but contains 5 times the ink.

 

[biggs682]

Just get cheap 'copy' cartridges and factor in that the odd one won't work. We did this until the old HP printer broke, and bought an 'instant ink' HP, and don't worry about it. £2.99 a month for ink.

This is what we did , as in the home office I am on average printing 3-400 pages a month so it costs more than £2.99 above but it's worked well for the last couple of years.

 

[Fastpedaller]

My second try at copy cartridges didn't end well! - HP21 black cartridge from The Cartridge People looked to be a good purchase with a stated 23ml of ink (HP is 5ml or 12.5ml for XL size now discontinued). The cartridge arrived and I put it in the printer today. The test print didn't print any black, the printer said the cartridge was empty. lots of re-testing and careful cleaning. I weighed the deunct cartridge at 32g, so expected the new one to be over 50g, but it only weighed 38g. A test of the print head with a piece of absorbent kitchen roll on the colour cartridge produced red, yellow and blue smudges. Testing the black in the same way produced no mark, so I can only conclude the new cartridge wasn't refilled. I called The Cartridge People and they immediately said I'd done all they would have suggested and they have posted another cartridge today, so fair play and we'll see what happens.

 

[winjim]

My second try at copy cartridges didn't end well! - HP21 black cartridge from The Cartridge People looked to be a good purchase with a stated 23ml of ink (HP is 5ml or 12.5ml for XL size now discontinued). The cartridge arrived and I put it in the printer today. The test print didn't print any black, the printer said the cartridge was empty. lots of re-testing and careful cleaning. I weighed the deunct cartridge at 32g, so expected the new one to be over 50g, but it only weighed 38g. A test of the print head with a piece of absorbent kitchen roll on the colour cartridge produced red, yellow and blue smudges. Testing the black in the same way produced no mark, so I can only conclude the new cartridge wasn't refilled. I called The Cartridge People and they immediately said I'd done all they would have suggested and they have posted another cartridge today, so fair play and we'll see what happens.

Doesn't account for the weight but I have had issues with cheap cartridges where the air inlet was blocked so the ink couldn't flow out. Had to peel the sticker off and give it a scrape.

 

[Fastpedaller]

The Cartridge people despatched the replacement yesterday and it arrived today, so less than 24hrs by tracked post. After getting an error indicator on the printer as soon as the cartridge was loaded, I switched it off and on, it fed blank paper out and then looked as though it was ready to print and........ IT DID once I sent it a document. Praise to TCP for quick service (and a complimentary pen and T bag!). It must be difficult to produce replacement cartridges for machines where the manufacturers are trying their best to prevent anyone else's product from working.