Thursday, October 11, 2007

Ink...Jeremiah 36:18

Computer seems to be acting just fine today. I've actually turned it off and on a few times and it is acting normally. At least all of my important files are backed up now.

We went to music lessons today and the violin teacher sent a unicycle home with the boys to try out this week. Oh, oh, oh! (To quote
Sacagawea reading her Dick and Jane books).

We stopped by the ER on the way home to visit The Man. He got the unicycle out of the van. He wanted to keep it there at the ER to play with tonight, but I made him put it back in the van...he's the only doctor there, what would happen if he got hurt? That wouldn't be good! Maybe I'll get some pictures of all the boys playing with it tomorrow. I sure hope The Man is able to get some sleep tonight.

We then went to
Wal*Mart to pick up a few things. One of the items we really needed was a new ink cartridge for our printer. We usually pick up a 3-pack at Costco of 2 color and 1 b&w, but we haven't made it up to Costco lately. Besides, we tend to use more b&w than color anyway. I was just going to pick up a single b&w when I saw it...the ink refill kit.

I'd never used a refill kit before. I had heard they were messy, messy, messy and they would ruin the printer. Well, since our workhorse of a printer is out of warranty anyway, I thought I would give it a try. It wasn't that messy, and so far it is working fine. At 1/4 the cost of a new cartridge, we might just be going this route for the future.

It was a bit time consuming to do all the little steps like covering such-and-such contact with tape, inserting the cartridge, removing it, inserting it, etc. It would have been a lot better if I'd read the last step carefully and turned the printer off and on like it told me to. That would have saved a bit of anxiety. It wasn't quite as easy as just swapping with a new cartridge, but it sure saved some $$.

So, do you swap or refill? Any helpful tips?

3 comments:

Lori said...

I swap! Since I don't use the printer that often I don't see at as a major expense, and some things are just worth the extra $$ for all the trouble they save you. (Not that I have any idea how much trouble it would be to refill an ink cartridge) The more truthful reason is because I'm lazy.
PS What's gotten into you lately? Your on a blogging roll lately, all summer hardly any posts and now almost daily you've got something to say. I like it though, even though we never talk on the phone I feel like I know you guys so much better now that I can catch up on your lives (big and small things) on a regular basis via blogland!

Mark said...

I've never refilled or used non-OEM ink. If I did, I would use it only in a printer that I set aside for non-archival printing.

In other words, photos and documents that I want to preserve, I would print on a dedicated printer with the OEM inks and OEM papers. (The print longevity claimed by manufacturers is highly dependent on the their ink/paper combination used in the tests.)

Whether refilling or using non-OEM inks is a good idea also depends on the printer brand. Some printer inks (like HP) have print heads integrated into the cartridges, so if the head fouls up, you can just go get a new cartridge. Some have a separate, removable print head that might be cleanable or replaceable by itself. Others (like Epson) aren't user-serviceable (as far as I know). So if that fouls up, it's off to the service center, or get a new printer (if the head cleaning process using OEM inks doesn't work.)

Anonymous said...

Well...it's been five days now. I thought you might have blogged someone, anyone, on the unicycle by now. Are they all O.K.? Any broken bones (or stitches!) yet?
I'm sure The Man can give them all lessons. Be careful.
Grandma