Every time someone even mentions the topic of refilling cartridges on
this newsgroup, measekite has a conniption fit and starts posting
multiple responses screaming that (1) You don't know what you are
getting when you use third party ink; and (2) Using third party ink
will surely ruin your machine.  There is some truth in measekite's
rantings but, very little.  In truth, whether or not you choose to
refill should be decided, in my opinion, purely on economics.  Let's
examine :

First, if your printing load is light, replacing an empty cartridge
from time to time isn't going to break your bank account or cause you
to dip into you kid's college education fund.  When the thing runs out
of ink, go buy a new OEM cartridge and be done with it.

However, if you have a heavy printing load like me (I print
approximately 500 to 750 pages weekly with very dense coverage
comparable to newspaper print), refilling becomes an absolute economic
necessity unless you are Bill Gates. I go through the equivalent of an
11ml cartridge every printing day.  If I didn't refill, my monthly
cartridge costs would be many hundreds of dollars.  So, let's examine
the issues relevant to refilling from the perspective of those of us
who MUST refill if we are to use inkjet printing.

I have been refilling many models of all brands of printers for many
years with great success.  That doesn't mean that the path was always
smoothe and without frustration.  I clogged and ruined quite a few
printers before I learned that most of the ink vendors out there don't
know anything about their product and could care less.  In the
beginning, my success rate was low and the frustration level was high.
I was very close to giving up and turning to laser printing until I
met an experienced commercial printer who took me under his wing,

The first thing he taught me is that the quality of ink varies greatly
from vendor to vendor and not to shop for ink by price.  He put me on
the trail of a reliable vendor that he used in his business and, with
that, 95% of my problems disappeared.  I've been with that vendor for
about 10 years now and, no, I'm not going to publish the name of his
company.  If I did that, the flamers would be out in droves shouting
that I was nothing but a shill for that vendor.  So, you'll have to do
your own research.  Just take my word for it, there are very few good
vendors out there compared to a legion of turkeys.

The second major factor to contend with is the brand of your printer
and the configuration of the cartridges it uses.  Sooner or later,
after considerable use and whether or not you use OEM or aftermarket
ink, you printheads are going to clog and cease to function
satisfactority.  Moreover, aftermarket ink of questionable quality
will cause you heads to clog much more quickly than its OEM
counterpart.  This is the small scintilla of truth that I conceed to
measekite's rantings.  The real issue, however, boils down to whether
refilling results in signigicant savings so as to justify the
collateral damage.

It is also very important to choose your computer carefully in order
to minimize expense.  Currently, there are inkjet printers out there
that utilize two different configurations of cartridges.  For
instance, there are cartridges used in Canon and Epson printers that
snap into a holding receptacle.  The printheads are on the bottom of
the receptacle as are the electrical terminals that mate up with the
printer electronics.  These types of cartridges are little more than
ink tanks.  The other type of cartridge are of the type used in most
of the HP printers.  The printheads and electrical terminals are
actually part of the cartridge itself.  The significance between these
two designs is obvious.

If bad or marginal ink is going to damage anything, it will be by
clogging and ruining the printhead.  Now, let's examine the
significance of having to replace the printhead on, for instance, a
Canon IP4000.  Although, the printer can be bought for about $100, an
authorized repair station will quote you $120 for the printhead part
alone.  In other words, clog the printhead on this configuration and
you've bought a new printer.  Starting to get the message?  Now,
consider the HP 6540 which uses the other type of cartridge.  Ruin the
printhead on this printer and all you have to do is throw the
cartridge away get a new one.  Viola!  You have a brand new printhead.
Although, I much prefer Canon printers, this is the main reason that I
recently switched over to an HP.

What you need to do is to estimate you printing load, find out what
your costs would be in aftermarket ink, and determine if the economics
are sound.

Before I leave, allow me to put all this in a real world perspective.
I switched over to an HP 5940 three and one-half months ago.  With my
printing load, I have had to add ink to the HP 98 cartridge each day,
five days a week.  I'm still on the original 98 cartridge.  During
that period, I've refilled the equivalent of approximately 90 OEM
replacements and have used about one-third of a liter of black ink
from my vendor (costs $40 per liter).  Do the math for yourself and
ask yourself if my refilling had made economic sense for me.  That's
one-third of $40 opposed to the retail cost of all those OEM
replacements.

I know well that this post will probably generate an entire new
generation of flames and that there will be those out there that doubt
my veracity.  Are you listening, measekite? Frankly, I don't give a
rat's a.s.  I just wanted to try to set the record straight.