Color Output Revisited (refilling)

[Ed_L]

In the "color output" thread, there was mention about different papers and inks. This sparked my interest because I have a refill kit that I bought last year, but never used. The refill kit is "Inkube" by "High Resolution", and it is for an Epson Stylus Color 900. I have never refilled a cartridge, and I'm wondering if I refilled mine, would I get a reasonably close match versus using the Epson cartridges? I know there are other considerations, but at this time they don't concern me. With the price of new OEM cartridges, it is very tempting to try refilling. Any thoughts on this?

Ed

[DJ Dubovsky]

Ed,
I don't know how much this will help you but back when we owned a Cannon 200 series, we bought a refill kit to save money. The whole idea seemed great and inexpensive. I thought, how different could ink be. The process was pretty clean and I thought it was ok but my husband had lots of trouble getting the cartriges to print right and decided the ink refills were the problem. Soon after, our printer quit so we still have the ink and no place to use it. I don't think we had enough time to really try it properly before the machine broke but maybe that had something to do with it. I can't say. Maybe others will have had more experience with it them me. All I know is Dave refuses to ever try buying it again and now that we have the Epson 2000, I wouldn't do anything to jeoprodize our warrenty or the machine.
DJ

[Ed_L]

Thanks for the reply Debbie. Yeah, I know refilling with third party inks voids the warranty. Mine has been out of warranty for about a year already. The reason I bought the kit is because I ran into an old friend who taught me a lot about photography, and he told me he uses it in his Epson. I know there are some people who always refill, and there are others like Dave who have tried it and refuse to do it again. I seem to be using a lot of ink lately, and I'm really tempted.

Ed

[DJ Dubovsky]

Your warrenty is up so it can't be an issue. If your friend has had good results, give it a try and see what you think. It may work out fine for you. Unless someone else responds with better information to the contrary, I guess it can't hurt to try.
DJ

[thomasgeorge]

Ed, For printing photos and art work, I would stick to using the factory supplied cartridges. I experimented with a Lexmark printer and found that the prints from the refilled cartridges didnt turn out as well as from the factory ones. However, I do use the refill kit for printing text, etc., on the lexmark but use my 1270 only for photo work. Perhaps if you printed on the Epson Heavy weight matte paper, which has a good reputation for print longevity, the refilled ctgs. would work fine--I'd probably go ahead and experiment. The only problem might be if there are impurities in the after market inks which might plug the jets, but I have never encountered that problem. Tom

[Ed_L]

Thanks for the tip Tom. I think I'll buy some of the heavy weight matte paper to try. I've been thinking about trying something different whether or not I do refilling.

Ed

[Sanda]

This is an interesting thread, I've just bought my first lot of non genuine ink for my Epson the price was too tempting. I haven't been brave enough to try it yet although I did refill all the time when I had my Canon. Maybe I'll put the cartridge in and see what happens, I'll let you know the result.

[Ed_L]

Out of curiosity, which Epson do you have?

Ed

[Sanda]

I'm using a Stylus 760, I would love to get a better printer but as usual the finances don't permit.