REFILL INK AND TONER VS. NEW CARTRIDGE - Other

Companies like HP, Canon, Dell, Epson, etc. have for years been the only way to get ink and toner cartridges for your printers at home or in the office. But, when costs of new cartridges became so ridiculously priced, companies came out with a very simple and effective way to refill your cartridge(s) at a fraction of the cost. Not to mention all the talk of a greener planet and global warming and such, think every cartridge when it was empty you just tossed it in the garbage but, now you refill it over and over again and you are "saving" the planet.

The ability to have your cartridges refilled over and over again at say 20% of the cost of a new one has other long term effects. You can now put that money into other things like a new desk, a nicer printer, new computer or anything that you wanted too.

Say for instance your local utility company let's say they have 20 copy machines and half of them use toner at an average price of $200 a piece and they have 10 ink cartridges averaging $35 a piece and each cartridge is replace just once a month so you are looking at a monthly charge of $2350 a month in just ink and toner. That's astonishing no wonder the print companies do so well. Okay now you take your cartridges down and have them refilled, okay now your toner is around $75 a piece and your ink is at $10 a piece so now your total charges are $850 that is a savings of $1500 month, over the course of a year that's $18000, that's a new car. It should be illegal for those companies to charge that much, and like I said you are doing your part to make the world a greener place. The refill process is simple, cost effective and not to mention you do not lose quality or quantity in your prints, so the only question to ask yourself is Why not try it? Think of all the other thing s that you could do with that money. What if your company had 100 printers or 200, the numbers are astonishing to think of that you could save. Here are some frequently asked questions about ink and toner refills:

Ink refill

Does the process of refilling really work?

Yes! Ink jet cartridges can definitely be refilled successfully.

Aren't all inks the same?

All inks are not created equal. From the base of the chemical composition to colorants and additives, there are many varying combinations used when ink formulas are composed. Of the three chemical bases used to formulate inks, water and petrochemical solvents are most common. The third and most atypical base used is oil, found mainly in wide-format commercial printers.The colorant, or the substance used to give color to the ink, is either dye or pigmentation. Dye, consisting of small molecules, blends with the water-based solution. A water-dye based ink tints or stains the paper on a molecular level. Because the dye is composed of single molecules it lays flatter on the paper surface reflecting light more evenly and appearing more vivid. However, the smaller molecular structure of the dye-based ink also allows it to be damaged by UV light more rapidly that pigmented inks.

Pigmented colorant is insoluble. The pigment consists of much larger molecules than that of the dye, therefore the reflection of light received from a pigmented print does not appear as vibrant due to the scattering of the reflected light. The larger molecules do allow a pigmented ink's print to last substantially longer than a dye-based ink's print.

In recent years hybrid ink consisting of both dyes and pigmentation has been introduced to the market. These inks are being used in the latest line of Epson printers. The hybrid dye/pigment ink is also referred to as archival inks. The company claims that their archival inks will last twice as long as pigmented ink, close to 200 years.

In addition to the chemical base and colorant, inks also contain additives. Additives may include buffering agents for control of the inks pH levels, resin for resilience, and humectants for the prevention of evaporation. Other ingredients added to many types of ink may include fungicides, surfactants, and biocides. Each ink formula has a unique formulation of each additive, again causing dramatic differences in the final outcome.

Won't refilling void my printer's warranty?

No, refilling your cartridges or using compatible or remanufactured cartridges will notvoid your printer's warranty. Thanks to the Magnuson-Moss Warranty Improvement Act, a company cannot sell a product under the pretense that the consumer must purchase replacement parts, add-ons, etc., from that particular company.Magnuson-Moss Warranty Improvement Act

United States Code Annotated

Title 15 Commerce and Trade

Chapter 50 Consumer Product Warranties 15 Section 2302

"(c) No warrantor of a consumer product may condition his written or implied warranty of such product on a consumer's using, in connection with such product, any article or service (other than article or service provided without charge under terms of the warranty) which is identified by brand, trade or corporate name; except that prohibition of this subsection may be waived by the commission if:

1) Warrantor satisfies Commission that warranted product will function properly only if the article or service so identified is used in connection with warranted product, and

2) Commission finds that such a waiver is in public's interest."

What this means to printer users!

This means that a manufacturer of a printer you are using cannot void your printer's warranty because you use a cartridge or refill kit manufactured by some one other than the printer manufacturer. This prohibition includes use of remanufactured cartridges, compatible cartridges, refill kits, etc. For more information on this act, contact the Federal Trade Commission at (202) 326-3128.

What HP says about refills and warranties:

"Using refilled print cartridges alone does not affect either the warranty or any maintenance contract purchased from HP for its HP Inkjet printers. However, if an HP Inkjet printer fails or is damaged because you used a modified or refilled HP Inkjet print cartridge, the repair will not be covered under the warranty or by the maintenance contract. Instead, standard time and material charges will be applied to service the printer for that particular failure or damage."

Is it really cost effective to refill my cartridges?

If you print rather often and go through at least 3-4 cartridges a year, then refilling can be very cost effective for you. (Not to mention helping the environment.) How much money you will save completely depends on how much you spend on your cartridges. For example, say you spend roughly $35.00 on a brand new Lexmark color cartridge. Multiply that $35.00 by 15 (the number of refills given in a Mobile Inks kit: $35 x 15 = $525.00 It would cost you $525.00 to purchase fifteen Lexmark color cartridges at $35.00 each. Now, for about $40.00 you can purchase a Mobile Inks refill kit and refill your cartridge approximately 15 times.

Or you can have us refill the cartridge for you for as low as $5 a refill and you refill that same cartridge 15 times you are still only spending $75 and you know the cartridge is filled correctly.

Refilling my cartridge will be really messy, won't it?

No, refilling your cartridge does not have to be a messy process. Latex-free gloves are included in your Mobile Inks ink refill kit and it is strongly suggested to refill your cartridge over newspaper or a sink. The main thing to remember in order to have a mess-free, successful refill is to inject the ink into the cartridge slowly! Remember, you are displacing air with ink and therefore forcing the air out of the way as you are injecting the ink. You want to give the air to escape the cartridge instead of forming air bubbles/air pockets inside the cartridge. Air bubbles and air pockets can cause uneven printing, streaks to appear in prints or not allow the ink to flow at all. As long as you exercise patience and read through your instructions completely as to not miss any steps, your ink refilling experience should not be a messy one.

Or again you can have us do the refill for you and not have to worry about the mess at all.

Will I get the same amount of prints/pages from a refilled cartridge?

As for volume, yes you will have the same amount of ink in a refilled ink cartridge as you would have in a brand new, store-bought cartridge... if not more. At one time HP produced cartridges with the product numbering ending in "A" and the same product number ending in "G". This threw many people for a loop. Cartridges ending with "A", like 51626A, were manufactured with 40 ml, where the ones ending in "G", referred to as the economy version, where manufactured with 19 ml. If you are refilling the economy version, good news, the cartridge that you bought with 19-20 ml in it can be refilled to 40-42 ml! (This also goes for the HP 51645 series and many of the color cartridges too.) Exactly - HP just filled the cartridge half way up and sold it as such. The "economy" cartridges have recently been discontinued.... wonder why? As for the amount of prints you receive from the cartridge, that will completely depend on what you are printing. For example, say you printed mainly t ext or about 5% coverage per sheet with the cartridge when you originally bought it, then you refill it and print pictures at 25% coverage. The cartridge is going to run out much faster printing pictures than it would just printing text. This has absolutely nothing to do with the refill, it has to do with how much ink you are printing with. You will probably find that the cartridges don't last as long because you feel you can print more since you have found an affordable way to do so!

Toner Refill

Will the use of a non Original Toner void the Warranty of my printer?

The answer is NO. Most laser equipment manufacturers do not recommend the use of another Toner other than the original one as they want to keep control of the market. Most laser equipment manufacturers are in the business of selling new toner supplies under their brand name. Nevertheless, you can be sure that this practice to void Warranty because of the use of Non Original Cartridge is against the Law.

Does the Toner Refill Kit provide the same page yields as the original Toner?

YES. The toner used in our Toner Refill Kit has the same gram weight as the original toner cartridge. The number of pages is always based on 5% coverage of the page. As you know, when you use your printer, fax or copier, the number of pages that you print varies according to the amount of toner required to print such pages.

Will the quality of a refilled toner cartridges be the same as the original Product?

You will have the same quality or even better quality. We refuse to offer our customers inferior "Universal Toner" from Asia.

What should I do when the drum of my cartridge wears out?

Of course, the Drum of your cartridge machine won't last forever. After the drum wears out on the cartridge, the cartridge obviously has to be replaced, now we do offer empty toner cartridges for as little as $15 so there is no need to run out and buy a brand new one and spend all that money that you are trying to save.

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