Ink Refilling - Do you use them - Any Comments?

dvdfan

Hi,

Thinking of investing in an ink refilling machine for cartdridges to add as another service in digital photo processing business. Now it looks a nice peice of kit, vacuums it to ensure you dont get air in which causes alot of problems and also cleans the cartridge out.

I know photographers etc will stick to paying for the full whack for the real deal but im in the middle or a big residental estate so my target market would be the typical dell/epson cheap printers where the printers are cheap and the ink is expensive. Due to the profit margins and quality of the machine i would be able to offer a 100% money back if it dosent work but just wondering do many people use these services, do they find them problematic and although the company that provides the software says they do all brands id imagine theres quite a few that arent compatible. Im particularly interested in the Dell all in ones and Epson as id imagine theyll be a big part of the business

Thanks

yoyo

dvdfan wrote: »

Hi,

Thinking of investing in an ink refilling machine for cartdridges to add as another service in digital photo processing business. Now it looks a nice peice of kit, vacuums it to ensure you dont get air in which causes alot of problems and also cleans the cartridge out.

I know photographers etc will stick to paying for the full whack for the real deal but im in the middle or a big residental estate so my target market would be the typical dell/epson cheap printers where the printers are cheap and the ink is expensive. Due to the profit margins and quality of the machine i would be able to offer a 100% money back if it dosent work but just wondering do many people use these services, do they find them problematic and although the company that provides the software says they do all brands id imagine theres quite a few that arent compatible. Im particularly interested in the Dell all in ones and Epson as id imagine theyll be a big part of the business

Thanks

If you get a epson buy compatibles, not refills, refills can be ok but it depends on how well there re-filled, I pick up a set of 12 epson inks (My printer takes 2 sets of 6) from a fella off ebay for €30ish and the quality is good, compatibles are generally more consistent quality as they generally (In epsons case) use brand new custom cartridges and are filled in a factory enviorment afaik

Nick

Biggins

I use them for basic printing. Great for home use no question. I am the exception, I produce high quality photos for people.
In those jobs I use the genuine thing as I find occasionally the colour quality of some prints is not up to the full quality they should be using the refills.
Refills also clog-up a bit more frequently but even this only happens rarely due to lack of occasional use.

Great for home use and you get the savings.
For professional work, switch your cartridges to the real thing.

dvdfan

Thanks for the replies. I agree with both of you, i seen some of the compatibile cartridges on i think http://shop.ink.co.uk or something similar and even compared to some of the cheap Irish ones available there amazingly cheap but unfortunately dont deliver to ireland.

If i could get the compatibles at the same price or pretty close i would definetely take the compatible ones myself however not everybody will go to the trouble of using their credit card to pay and also you'd need to be getting cheap delivery too along with the fact that some people dont have credit cards.

I also agree as i mentioned in my OP that for professional work its best to stick with high quality especially giving the price of the printers but the vast majority of my target market would be people using the cheaper printers with the dearer ink cartridges. Im also going to see if i can get in contact with one of the ink franchises to see if i can get some info that way. Im not sure whats involved with toner refilling and since the area im in is largely residential and Cartridge World already would have alot of the businesses tied up then i dont really think getting into that end of things would be a good idea yet so i plan on sticking to just cartridges.

yoyo

This is the guy I've been buying ink off for years, I think his prices are very reasonable and he posts to ireland, if the credit card thing is a issiue you can create a paypal account and "add funds" into it from your bank account, or even use something such as a 3v voucher, I'm pritty sure you'll save a bit of money buying compatables off ebay than using a irish retailer/online store if you shop around

Nick