As the title says I saved myself a whole heap of money yesterday. How I did it I'll explain below. Why I did it is as revealing about the way the world works, as it is about my constant mission to save not only money, but to make myself and my household as efficient and less harmful to the world as possible.
I hate paying for ink cartridges! And I really mean I HATE paying for ink cartridges. Firstly they are so feckin expensive, and secondly they don't last very long before you have to replace them. I don't know how the printer companies can charge so much for them. They sell their printers cheaply because they know that it's the ink that is gonna make them the money! Also you have to buy new cartridges and chuck the old ones rather than recycle them. I had tried getting the cartridges refilled in a local cartridge shop but that proved expensive enough too, and the shop closed down a few years ago.
Around October of last year I spotted ink being sold on eBay, I made a mental note but didn't buy any, reckoning that the refill procedure would be too difficult. In mid-October I started the preparations for my Christmas project. I make Christmas presents every year for my friends and family, only the adults though cos kids don't appreciate non of that hand-made crap! ;). Anyway, I needed to buy new ink for my printer and I went to a well known computer/electronic store to buy some.
It cost me €50 for a pack containing a black cartridge and a colour cartridge. I was loath to pay that but had no other choice as the price doesn't tend to fluctuate that much between retailers. During my project preparations I managed to use up almost all of the colour cartridge and it brought my hate to the forefront of my mind knowing I would have to go and buy yet another colour cartridge so soon!
That's when I decided to buy the ink from eBay. I did some research on the refill procedure and it didn't seem to bad to do so I went ahead and bought a pack of ink and some syringes. They arrived in mid-January but I only got the time to work on the printer yesterday.
The filling procedure for the black ink I followed is this one from youTube :
The filling procedure for the colour ink I followed is this one from youTube :
I had 3 empty black cartridges and 3 empty colour cartridges, all of which I filled. If I had gone and purchased them it would have cost me €149.97. The ink I purchased from eBay, along with the syringes, cost me €22.82 so for the little effort I put in I saved myself a grand total of €127.18. Not bad for less than an hour's work. ;)
Not only did I save money but I also stopped the empty cartridges from being sent to landfill, a double whammy! And do you know what the best part of this whole thing is?? I still have ink left over! Enough to fill the whole 6 cartridges again at least! So I'll get to save myself a whole lotta money all over again! :)
For anyone thinking of doing this themselves let me give you this helpful advice. Wear some gloves! It's an important bit of advice so I'll reiterate it so there is no confusion, WEAR SOME GLOVES! I didn't and ended up with very inky hands and fingers, not a good look, and it took some scrubbing to get it off. You have been warned! ;)
But did it work? The ink cartridge? I have given up on refilled cartridges (which you can also buy readymade for still too much money) because they gave blotchy results (if they didn't already leak ). Maybe depends on the type of printer? I am not sure the cartridges have been designed to be reused. If they made them from a more durable material maybe, like gold (seeing as they already cost as if they have been)....but plastic is such a one-lifer.
Love the tag "weargloves". Must start using it.
Yeah it did work, though I did have to get the printer to perform a few more 'head cleaning' cycles than the video recommended. Once I had the printer gave me excellent prints so I'm a happy camper! :)
It was one of the reasons I wanted to re-use the cartridges, because they seemed to be designed for one use by the manufacturer. I read the other day that HP doesn't recommend refilling their cartridges, but then again they wouldn't because it's costing them revenue. In the real world there are people who have refilled the same cartridge over 20 times with some people claiming over 50 times. That's a lot of cartridges saved from going to landfill. :)
I liked the tag too! ;)
No plastic recycling in Ireland?
There is, and to be honest recycling of ink cartridges is pretty good here. Lots of charity's will accept used cartridges as they can make money recycling them. When I said in the article about saving the cartridges from landfill I was using poetic licence to make a point! ;)
I always suspect more ends up in the landfill than we think, anyway!
Keep extending the licence!