I am never sure about ink refill services, I have heard stories that can be kind of scary. But when Walgreens had a free ink refill promotion yesterday, I took my HP 57 ink cartridge there to give it a shot. I figure it doesn't cost me anything to give it a try.
Below is a link to Walgreens' info page on their refill program/cost.
http://www.walgreens.com/printercartridge/
It costs about $19.99 for the #56 black cartridge, and refill for $10.
It costs about $34.99 for the #57 color cartridge, and refill for $15.
The savings for color cartridge would be significant, if it works.
After I got the refilled cartridge, I printed a test page, and it shows the color looked pretty good, but after it sat overnight, I printed another test page (a google map), the red is no longer showing up properly (more purple), and the highlighted route that appears yellow-orange on the screen, looks yellow-green printed on paper.
For additional test:
I ran a clean cartridge function, printed a test page, then performed the same function with a genuine HP cartridge.
Comparing the colors:
Cyan is good.
Magenta is off with the refill, it looks has too much blue.
Yellow looks puke green.
Purple is good.
Green is good
Red appears purple/brown.
Also, the colors from the refill has lines across (not solid).
Here's a scan for comparison:
The top row is using genuine HP cartridge, and the bottom row is from refill.
This is disappointing, I am not sure if they just filled wrong color in the cartridge or not, it is hard to tell, and I am not sure if I want to bother to go back to that store to find out. For general printing of records and such, I am probably just going to use up this cartridge, but for sure not going to use this for photo printing, :)
dave
18 comments:
Wow! I didn't realize the results could be so horrible with a refill. I've never tried refilling my cartridges, and I'm definitely not going to after seeing this.
Talking about wow, I was review epicedit blog and found a link to my quickie article.
Thanks Brian!
What you got truly was a second rate refill! I just wanted to throw out there that I have had refills done many times for my laser jet printer and for ink and always had wonderful results. Saves money and I fell like I'm helping the environment also :)
The printouts does look kinda scary. I can't believe the ink quality is like this and they're selling this to consumers.
I really wanted this to work - it will be cheaper, and, good for the environment. I went to Wal-Greens, let me know where you have your refill done, I'd like to give them a try.
Continuous ink systems have very high quality ink and are even cheaper than buying a refill cartridge.
They continuously supply your printer with ink...I bought one 3 weeks and have been very pleased with mine...very high quality prints...plus it was easy to install.
One refillable system is equal to 61 cartridges of each color...thats alot of printer ink and a huge savings in money.
I am always doing refilling but I have not even tried to notice such difference.From now I will check.Nice post.
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p005
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I have a HP Photosmart C6180 All-in-One Printer Scanner Fax. I have used it to print photos, art work, scrapbooking, and even print on canvas. The replacement ink cartridges are expensive. However I would suggest getting a continuous ink system instead buying individual ink cartridges....it is equal to 61 cartridges of each color so the need to refill it is alot less often. They are easy to install and not messy at all...it took me about 5 minutes to get mine completely installed and when I need to refill it the tanks are outside of my printer so there is no need to remove the cartridges. The cartridges are also set with non-expiring chips so there is no need to reset the printer. I am very please with the quality of the ink also. It has saved me a fortune. The best place I found that has all printer models and I bought mine here Printer Ink Cartridge Refills and Continuous Ink Systems
Good luck and happy printing :-)
I have a HP Photosmart C6180 All-in-One Printer Scanner Fax. I have used it to print photos, art work, scrapbooking, and even print on canvas. The replacement ink cartridges are expensive. However I would suggest getting a continuous ink system instead buying individual ink cartridges....it is equal to 61 cartridges of each color so the need to refill it is alot less often. They are easy to install and not messy at all...it took me about 5 minutes to get mine completely installed and when I need to refill it the tanks are outside of my printer so there is no need to remove the cartridges. The cartridges are also set with non-expiring chips so there is no need to reset the printer. I am very please with the quality of the ink also. It has saved me a fortune. The best place I found that has all printer models and I bought mine here Printer Ink Cartridge Refills and Continuous Ink Systems
Good luck and happy printing :-)
Great of you are in the US but what about the UK? Here we have this service which offers up to 60% discount
http://www.ink-refill-uk.blogspot.com
Check it out if you're in London or the UK.
Finally!
A blog worth reading on forward until the end! :) I really admire the wording in this blog, quite precise to the details but I just might change one or two things, never-the-less, bravo on well choiced words mate.. p.s.>> Thanks for sharing, I actually picked up some knowledge on this one :)
-Have an amazing day!
Wow! You really got a bad deal there. I would definitely take that back to the store for a credit!
I refill all of my ink cartridges and have been for a couple years.
Once you get the hang of it - and you've got some good inks to boot - it's really very simple.
Best of luck!
It looks as if the cyan has cross contaminated the other colors - probably via the head.
Solution: Keep on printing and it will clear up on it's own
regards
Reg
wow- it really seems like you got a low level ink refill. I am surprised that Walgreens would use a low quality machine such as this. I'm always trying to refill rather than waste money on buying new cartridges and have seen results like yours before. I must say though that the quality of ink refills is improving with time.
The best I've come across so far is
ink refill machines by STS. I'm really happy with their prices and customer service too.
Good luck, thanks for posting.
If you’ve been buying cartridge after cartridge to use on your printer, then you know how the cost could pile up over time,we must use high quality cartridges,in my opinion canon is the best great job,thanks for the info,Feli.
This site is outstanding in that it gave me all the information I needed. I appreciate your intelligence on writing this article. refill toner
on ink refills i have noticed that hp61 cart.s are good on hp deskjet 1050 ONLY to US markets,where as the HP301 and HP122 are used in other countries,i can only presume it is because of the refill,resetting issue that people are taking out class action suits against HP for in US markets.refills for HP 61's come in the stores in US as HP122's or HP301's (apparently HP 61 is NOT refillable but HP122,HP301 are refillable)you want a Refillable cartridge get those made for your printer Like refills from the UK for example,otherwise do like i do...buy a half dozen $20.00 printers when ink runs out throw away WHOLE printer,buy another since combo pack ink is $31.50 ordered from WallyWorld (ink is over 50% higher than to buy a whole printer!!)
this must be a sales blog for "continuous ink systems"...Alicia mentions by name and "Sandra" and "Brittany" are WORD FOR WORD typed one minute apart on entries???
GOTCHA!!!
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