I got a HP all in one 3180, and it came with a black cartridge, and then a tri color cartridge well thy don't tell you they are half full, I printed 32 color pages, dead, 22 black pages dead (prints at 22 pages a minute) well I googled, found this that's 42 2 refills, $23 bucks. then 8 ounce bottle of black, $25, and 3 , 4 ounce bottles of magenta, cyan, and yellow, $28. I know a friend who is a friend of this woman, she uses the top quality , earth friendly pigments, they sell for $600 a 5 gallon cubitainer, and she makes it practical use. So this time I can write papers, and print them out, without going to the school library, using there busted up Konnica piece of shit. Thought Id share to any inkjet users
This is why I went and got a color laserjet. Its a cheap ass Oki, the print quality is good, and the speed is there. Plus I can swap the toners out at a refill place pretty cheap. The oki 3200c from office depot was about $400 bones, but it comes with a NIC, and makes the whole family happy, and me too, cause I aint got to fuck with no busted up ass HP POS. Which I now have a nice collection of, 932c PhotoSmart 1100 5850 4215(scanner/fax/printer) The oki kicks their asses hands down. Im thinking of picking up a Xerox color unit that scans/emails/faxes so I can just be done with all the crap.
That half-full ink cartridge bullshit is quite the scam. Personally, I don't think they even fill them up that much. The printer companies say it's to keep the cartridges from leaking during shipment. And if you believe that, I've got some exclusive real estate to sell you in the vacationer's paradise of historic downtown Baghdad. The really fucked up thing is that you can pick up printers so cheap now, it's sometimes more cost effective to buy a new one rather than replace the ink cartridges. Incidentally, I had a similar experience last year when I broke a coffee pot. I went to Wally World to buy a new one, and it was cheaper to buy a whole new coffee maker setup than to buy just the replacement pot. We have truly reached a sick level of consumerism in this country. As you saw, they do sell cheaper refill bottles, I picked some up from Sam's Club once (not the huuuge ones you're talking about, but the 4/8 oz.-ers). But beware, you will probably have to break your existing cartridges open to refill them, and tape them back together. It's ghetto as hell, but it works pretty well as long as you're careful. Also, the red and yellow look almost identical to the eye while in the bottle, be careful not to get them mixed up (we did). It doesn't make much difference for alot of things, but if you're printing pictures or graphics, they will come out looking pretty funky.
I used to work for a major computer manufacturer and was privy to the discussions about entering the printer market. Dell's strategy was no different than the others sell the printers cheap and make money on the cartridges. Dwaine you need to make sure that the Hp you are talking about is not using the new smart cartridges that do not allow refill if that’s the plan. My dad had an HP a few years back and we beat that by taking the cover off and injecting ink into the cartridge without removing the cartridge. It was a simple integrated circuit with a latch-gate built in once removed and reinserted it latched to a different value that prevented its use. Good luck. The better strategy is to buy a new cheap color laser like Phat recommended. I got a refurbished Minolta 2430DL at fry's check it out at www.Outpost.com. It is network capable, had extra memory that was never removed (just got lucky on that). Works great. Business computers have pushed the envelope as far as it can with laser technology (rumor has it) and will be going to inkjet with giant print heads the advantage being that jobs will be measured by how many pages per second. The print head does not move it takes up the width of the paper.
On ebay, you can find cheap generic cartridges for printers, I found 10 cartridges for my Epson for $5 + $8 shipping... If I only use one set of them before the ink dries out on the others, I'll still have saved money. I believe the seller's ID was 'itrimming' (that could've been the cheap cell phone accessories/ USB/Firewire hookup, though - can't remember)
wel its the new C1380, HP, and I couldn't find refils, until now. it retails $169, but tiger had it for $72.22, and I had a $50 rebate, so I got it for $22.22, works great except it is an ink vampire. 72 pages, DONE
