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Printer ink refills can save you a lot of money compared to buying new cartridges every time you run out of ink. They can cost as little as 10% of the price of an original ink cartridge.

There are a few things you need to be aware of, though, if you’re going to use refill kits.

The first thing to keep in mind is that each brand and model of printer uses slightly different types of ink. If you use a “generic” refill kit that claims to work for any printer, chances are it’s not going to work very well on any of them.

You need to be sure to get a refill that is specifically compatible with your brand and model of printer, to get the best results.

Another thing to consider is how many refills you get from a kit. Many refill kits include enough ink to refill a cartridge 3 or 4 times.

While this can keep the price down, remember that a cartridge should only be refilled a couple of times before it is replaced. After that, it will start to malfunction and it won’t matter how good the refill ink is, your print quality will still be poor.

If you buy a refill that has enough ink for multiple uses, you can always buy a new (or remanufactured) cartridge after refilling yours a couple of times and then use the rest of the refill ink on that one when it’s empty.

Refill kits usually have a longer shelf life than cartridges do, often as much as 2 years. If you don’t do enough printing in that time to use up the refill, it may not be the best option since you’ll probably end up wasting part of it anyway.

The other common problem with refill kits is that they can be quite messy if you aren’t careful when refilling them. Companies that refill empty cartridges have specialized equipment that makes it quite simple.

When you’re doing it yourself, ink can leak or spill and it can make a real mess if you’re not careful. Be sure to read through the refill kit instructions thoroughly before attempting the refill – probably a couple of times.

Check the website of the company you bought the kit from and see if they have any special tips or even a video showing how the process works.

It might even take you a couple of tries to figure out how the refill process works, so it’s best not to leave it until you are on a deadline. Having to attempt a refill for the first time in the middle of night before your major project is due is not the time to find out whether you can make it work!

Are you in the market for a new printer? If so, you may want to consider shopping online to find the best deal on the printer you want. Here are some tips that will help you in your search.

Where to Shop Online

If you’re going to shop online, you want to stick with some names you know and some names that are well-respected in the Internet community. When you’re making a major purchase, you certainly don’t want to be risking your investment by buying from some flash-in-the-pan site. Here are a few sites you might want to visit:

• OfficeDepot.com
• Staples.com
• TigerDirect.com
• BestBuy.com
• Dell.com
• CircuitCity.com
• Amazon.com

How to Find the Best Deals

Below are some strategies that you can use to save money on your printer purchase:
• Comparison shopping. When you’re looking online, you should compare prices at more than one of the sites above. Make sure to search for the exact same model and condition. Amazon.com and Dell.com, for example, sells some refurbished models at a lower cost so unless that’s something you’re interested in you may want to pay attention to issues of that nature when making your comparisons.
• Take into consideration other factors. When you’re buying a printer online, there are other factors than price to consider. For example, some online stores offer rebates just like traditional stores. However, given the high rate of failure associated with rebates you may be better off not including these in the price when making comparisons. Another factor is shipping.

Is Buying Online a Good Idea?
Although you may be able to find a better deal by shopping on the Internet for a inkjet or laser printer, it’s not always the best idea. For one, shipped printers can be damaged quite easily even when precautions are taken. If such damage occurs, you may not have a local store to which you can take it for a replacement or for a repair.

Mistakes can also be made online, especially when the information provided on the model is limited. If you have questions, you can’t simply walk up to a salesperson and ask. There’s nothing wrong with doing some comparison shopping online or reading printer reviews. But if you go through a site such as BestBuy.com, you might ask the store to honor the online price if it is lower. Stores won’t always do this but it never hurts to ask.

What about Printer Supplies?
The good news is that you can take advantage of those improved deals on printer supplies that are often available online. Many of the problems associated with buying a printer online won’t be relevant to purchasing inkjet cartridges or toner.

People who are interested in saving money on their printing supplies may be interested in refilling those old cartridges. Not only will refilling reduce the costs associated with operating any of the inkjet printers on the market, but this is a useful form of recycling that can also benefit the environment. However, not all refill kits are going to be a good choice for your needs.

What are Universal Ink Refill Kits?
To make things convenient for consumers, universal ink refill kits were introduced. The idea was that one kit could be used with any brand of inkjet cartridge which makes finding a kit easier for consumers and would encourage them to refill instead of buying new. While the idea sounds good in theory, universal ink refill kits don’t live up to their promises.

Problems with These Kits
There are a number of reasons why universal kits don’t deliver the results consumers want:
• Different inks. Manufacturers do not use the same type of ink in their cartridges which means the ink may not work with all brands. As a result, you may either end up with reduced printing quality or a cartridge that simply doesn’t work at all.
• Different cartridges. If you’ve compared inkjet cartridges, you already know that are not designed the same. As a result, there is no single way to refill all of them. That means what may work for brand is going to fail miserably for another.
• Different tools. Because of the different designs found in the inkjet cartridges, different tools are needed for refilling.

All of these reasons have contributed to an increase in failure rates among these universal kits.

Better Refill Alternatives
If you want to refill your inkjet cartridges, the better choice is to purchase model-specific refill kits. These are designed specifically to work with your model and, therefore, have a much higher success rate.

Should I Refill?
If you’re debating about whether or not to refill your ink cartridges, remember that you will save money, especially if you are a heavy printer. Choosing these model-specific kits makes the refilling process more convenient and more reliable. Also, there is nothing wrong with refilling used cartridges. Manufacturers may warn that doing so will void your printer warranty but that is simply not the case.

How many times have your gone to a web site, found a funny joke or interesting story that you quickly printed off so you could share it with others or so you could keep it for posterity? Have you ever printed off a draft of a letter or other documents so you could have someone else edit/review it for you? These and other printing activities may have seemed important at the time but if you have only stopped and asked yourself the question in this article’s title, you may have changed your mind..

Recycle Paper
Unfortunately, not all printers are going to be working with you on this quest to conserve paper. Occasionally, blank pages are going to be printed and those aren’t going to be useful to anyone. Have a container near the printer in your home or office where these pages and other unneeded pages can be dropped off for later recycling. Even though you won’t technically be saving any paper yourself, by recycling these sheets you can prevent the necessity for cutting down more trees.

Select Print Range
We’ve all printed something from the Internet only to find that the last page of the job only had a small line of text at the top and nothing else. One of the best ways to prevent this from happening is to get in the habit of doing a “Print Preview” before you send the document to your printer for processing. You can select this option from under your “Print” menu. Once you see the preview, you can find out which pages are necessary for printing. You can go back to the print job options and enter the specific page number range (for example, 1-5) that you need to print. You will save paper and ink cartridge using this technique but it can take time getting in the habit of taking those extra steps.

Print Front & Back
As long as your printer comes equipped with a duplexing feature, you can save on paper simply by printing on both the front and back of the paper. In fact, you might want to look for a machine that comes with auto-duplexing because this will be even easier to use. Generally, this approach works well for any document larger than one page in size and it allows you to cut your paper needs in half.

Only Print When Necessary
Another way to reduce your paper usage is by printing only items that are necessary. If you see something on the Internet you want to share or keep, email the link to people or bookmark the page instead of printing. If you are on a network, you can place documents on the network so they can access them in digital form.

Cutting costs and saving money in the workplace can be a huge advantage and may be easier than you think. Remember that even small actions can add up to help you save both paper and ink in the workplace.

Reducing Ink Usage

Below are some ideas that can help you conserve ink while you’re working. These can be important ways to lower your expenses:
• Use lowest print quality settings (draft or lower numbers)
• Only print necessary documents – If you can share it with other users via email or the network, do so.
• Edit online before printing
• Make one copy of memos or announcements – place it somewhere workers are likely to see it

Lowering Paper Usage

If you find that your office is going through a lot of printer paper, there are some ways you can rectify that situation. Below are a few ideas for reducing the amount of paper used by your business:
• Print front and back whenever possible
• Set print ranges so you don’t print pages with no text or with no important text
• Recycle blank pages that come out of the printer accidentally
• Combine small print tasks onto a single page instead of over several pages with lots of excess white space

Other Good Ideas for Saving on Paper & Ink
If you are interested in cutting your costs and that’s why you want to begin conserving your paper and ink cartridges, one of the best ways is to use a refill system for your ink or to purchase compatible ink cartridges. In these cases, you’ll see a dramatic price drop. In most cases, these two options won’t make it any more difficult to use your existing printer.

You can save money on both by installing a code system on your printer. That means your employees would need to enter their code before printing so you can keep track of their printing efforts. With that information, you can help heavy printer usage to reduce their dependency on ink and paper.

The Benefits
Taking any of the steps above will help reduce your need for ink and paper when using your printer. Additionally, you will also save money. The average inkjet cartridge costs around $30 and toner costs are about three times that so if you can reduce the number you need to buy that looks good for your bottom line. You’ll also be helping save trees and space in the country’s landfills. Surely, these benefits make taking a few of these efforts worth it.