Never buy another printer cartridge....

I got fed up with paying £40 a set for ink cartridges and took my mate's advice - I bought a continuous ink system.

This is a simple idea - bottles of ink which stand alongside the printer and are connected to the print heads by tubes. They fit a surprising number of printers, but those with piezo heads, like the Epsons, are the best to adapt because the print heads are separate from the ink reservoirs, and designed to be durable.

My own printer is an Epson SX600FW all-in-one. Fitting the continuous ink system took about 30 minutes - not difficult, just involved - but the result is superb.

The ink system cost about £60 but the ink bottles are the equivalent of at least 20 new cartridge sets. A HUGE economy.

The print results have been superb. The ink is easily as good as Epson's and I have printed some beautiful photos on photo paper. Before installing the system, I was always wary of printing photos because of the ink depletion. Now, I don't have to worry.

If anyone here wants to know more, drop me a PM and I'll give you the details.

I never buy em anyway, Im a civil servant and do all my printing at work, so I guess you lot are buy em for me, haha

Ahhh but you are a public servant working in the North....you're doomed, doomed I say! Have a nice day!

yes we are definately on the knife edge, which is why I need to keep my hand in as a rock guitar god, if for nothing else if may help suppliment my huge and unashamed public sector pension, haha

I have a hp printer, It is inkjet and I always refill its cartiridge with a 5cc syringe. I don't know how can I use your method on it...

experty said:

I have a hp printer, It is inkjet and I always refill its cartiridge with a 5cc syringe. I don't know how can I use your method on it...

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Well, experty (or maybe 'not so experty!') you just go to CISS Ink Supply Systems. CISS ink and CIS cartridge printing specialist | City Ink Express and buy the CISS kit for your printer. It's tanks of ink which sit next to your printer, connected by tubes.

Slightly off topic, isn't printer ink the most expensive fluid in the world? I recieved a circular email comparing fuel prices with bottled water, beer etc and printer ink was £30,000 a gallon or something ridiculous.

MarkTheSpark said:

Well, experty (or maybe 'not so experty!') you just go to CISS Ink Supply Systems. CISS ink and CIS cartridge printing specialist | City Ink Express and buy the CISS kit for your printer. It's tanks of ink which sit next to your printer, connected by tubes.

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Thanks for advice, maybe "not so experty' but will be experty in future.

Slightly off topic, isn't printer ink the most expensive fluid in the world? I recieved a circular email comparing fuel prices with bottled water, beer etc and printer ink was £30,000 a gallon or something ridiculous.

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Yes it is but it is still cheaper than printing costs.

I don't do that much printing these days even though I have stacks of photo paper ready.

What I have found though as a costs saver is - ignore the warning that a colour or cartridge has run out. My Lexmark ran out of ink 9 months according to the chips, but I've been printing all sort of coloured printouts on it since. I reckon there's twice the life in these cartridges than is registered on the chip.

Same thing is happening on my Canon now. The cyan supposedly ran out yesterday followed by the yellow, but I still printed off 5 x A4 coloured photos, all perfick!

When you have a CISS, the cartridges have a reset button to fool the printer into thinking you've renewed the cartridges. Until I got this system, I honestly believed that the ink tanks had a sensor which genuinely decided when the ink had all gone. Instead, as you say Jeff, it turns out even this is a lie!

But get a CISS, Jeff. If you go for Lyson pigment inks, the print quality will be even better than you have already.

MarkTheSpark said:

Instead, as you say Jeff, it turns out even this is a lie!

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I had this on an old HP Deskjet too.

MarkTheSpark said:

But get a CISS, Jeff. If you go for Lyson pigment inks, the print quality will be even better than you have already.

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Appreciate that, Mark, but like I say, I rarely print much these days. A letter or two per month, the odd renewal reminder to (10 at most) members per year, and then it's just the begging letters.

I only bought the Canon printer because it's quality for photos was that much better than the Lexmark, which is whgat I use for letters etc. until the ink really does run out.