How hard is it to refill an inkjet cartridge myself? Am I better off just buying a new cartridge?

Question

My printer is an HP deskjet 3915. I've only had it for a month or so. I print about 150 pages per month for my job.

Answer 1

Some people have no problems refilling their printer cartridges. Personally, I've had bad luck when I tried. My printer is an HP Deskjet 832c.
I bought a recycled cartridge at Office Depot which worked well but wasn't much cheaper than the HP cartridge.
If you search online, you can find some low prices for the HP deskjet cartridges.
I love to search at www.pricegrabber.com. It shows multiple prices from different sellers. I just looked for my black cartridge and found it for $13+. In stores, it's around $32.
Good luck!

Answer 2

I have tried several methods... Here are the problems:

- Cartridges can get too dry, so when you FILL them, they don't work.
- Sometimes, a cartridge will only refill just once or twice
- Refilled cartridges just don't last as long.

The smart move is to BUY a printer that uses cheaper cartridges and does not waste ink. Canons are beautiful that way. With separate color cartridges, you don't waste the unused colors. I have found that by buying Canon cartridges, they are still less than half the cost of my old HP Deskjet printer.

So while you might say, "My old HP is still working"... but it is also STILL COSTING YOU. Stop spending money, and consider a cheaper to RUN printer.

Also, I found that my Canon printer prints better in color than the HPs.

Answer 3

HP makes decent to great printers, but they freaking rip people off with the price of their cartridges. Even their low priced cartridges are a rip-off because they barely put any ink in them.
Sorry......I just had to say that.
If you're going to refill your own cartridges, make sure that the cartridge is not completely empty. This helps to prevent clogging.
I think a better method would be to look around your city to see if there are stores which sell remanufactured HP cartridges, or a place which refills them. Try the Yellow Pages. In my city, there's one particular place that refills cartridges while you wait, and they also offer a 30 day money back guarantee.

Answer 4

Many cartridges are not hard to refill, but some cartridges have chips in them, and they are only good for the one fill. The biggest problem is in ink quality. I cleaned my old Lexmark once on 9 years, and I never used a refilled cartridge. We refilled the cartridges for an Epson at work, and had to clean the heads at least once a month;.

Answer 5

It is cheaper to buy a cartridge kit, but it can get messy if you are not careful, generally speaking you should only "refill" a cartridge about 10 times befor the print heads wear out, and you should buy a new one

Answer 6

Some people have done it without a problem. A friend told me it was easy, but I didn't find that it worked very well. They leaked even though I followed directions to the "T". I apparently ruined the print head. New cartridges may be cheaper in the long run, they definitely are for me. Good Luck with whatever you decide.

Answer 7

I have a basic model canon printer and I have been filling the cartridges for two years. The money I have saved has covered the cost of the printer. It’s not photographic quality but for text and grey scale it does the business. Of course the manufacturers don’t recommend it; that’s where they make their money.
Check out this link
http://jettec.com/products_refills.asp

Answer 8

With a clean printer you get much less ink interior the cartridge in case you purchased a clean printer, in comparison to a alternative ink cartridge. yet with a clean printer, you do get a a million 12 months guarantee with it. you may desire to elect

Answer 9

Get the ink, needle, and the cartridge. Fill needle with ink. Insert needle into semi-large hole with sponge and inject ink. Do all this on newspaper or other expendable substance. Easy right? No. You can do it but you need to get GOOD ink and find detailed instructions for your cartridge in particular.

Answer 10

i also hav an hp printer (photo printer); i usually use hp compatible ink tanks. there are plenty out there; i haven't had any problems yet, and u can save a couple of bucks with them. ink is ink no matter who the manufacturer is. don't go the refill-it-yourself route, u can seriously damage ur printer like that. check circuitcity, they usually hav hp compatible ink tanks (that's where i shop).