When you add up the cost of inkjet cartridges over the life of a piece of output hardware, you quickly realise that the true cost of your printer is keeping it ink-fed. Refill kits or refilled cartridges appear to be a good buy when compared to the high cost of new original-equipment cartridges. However, before committing to a refill-only policy, consider some of the potential drawbacks of reusing inkjet consumables.
Print Quality
The chemistry of refill inks may differ from that of the original formulas designed for your printer. In a proprietary mixture of liquids and pigments, the complex properties of these supplies balance vividness, opacity, drying time, and absorption. If the refill does not match the consistency and performance of the original ink, you may notice more absorption into the paper, reducing the crispness of text and fine detail, and your output may appear dull or faint when compared to the results from new cartridges.
Output Durability
Ink formulas, along with the appearance of printed output, determine the durability of your printouts in response to light and time. Refilled cartridges may not match the archival performance of new consumables if you print photos and other ink-intensive materials that you expect to retain their appearance for long periods of time. Test a sample of your typical output for light resistance before committing to using refills as a mainstay of your office supplies. You can perform your own accelerated ageing test by exposing two copies of the same page to the sun, one with new cartridges and one with refilled cartridges.
Leaks and Defects
Whether you use a refill kit to replenish your cartridges yourself or buy refurbished supplies, the cartridges themselves can be or become defective. DIY refills rely on you injecting just enough ink to fill small chambers, then sealing an injection hole with adhesive tape or reassembling a disassembled cartridge.Ink can get all over your hands and work surface during the process. If you put too much ink in your cartridge, it will leak inside the printer, clogging the mechanism and ruining your printouts. When you buy cartridges that have been refilled by someone else, you are purchasing the unknown history of those consumables. Because refills use cartridges that have reached the end of their primary useful life according to the manufacturer’s standards, they may contain defects such as contaminated electrical contacts or internal clogs.
Head Cleaning and Alignment
Your printed output may not be as clear and vivid after installing a refilled cartridge. If you notice dropouts or other defects in the appearance of your printouts, you may need to run one or more head-cleaning or head-alignment cycles to resolve the issue. Your printer cleans its heads by ejecting ink through the tiny nozzles that lay down detail on paper. Your printer generates a series of test pages from which you select the best output sample for head alignment. These procedures make use of built-in routines in the printer management software. Running them, however, depletes some of the ink in your cartridges.
