Help please!!!

[Refiller91]

Hi

Just a quick post to find out some printer info. I'm planning to startup an inkjet cartridge refilling business and I just wanted to get an insight into the market from true printer enthusiasts (yourselves). If you'd be so kind as to leave a reply, here are just a few questions that I would like the answers to:

1) What brand(s) of printer do you use?
2) How frequently do you need to replace your inkjet cartridges?
3) Do you buy new cartridges or refill your empty ones?
4) Would you consider using a refill service, which would save you the time and hassle of refilling yourself, and would be cheaper than buying a new cartridge?
5) What would seem a fair price to pay for such a service (as a percentage of the retail price of the cartridge)?

Any replies are greatly appreciated. Thankyou!

 

[The Hat]

You could try this thread..

http://www.nifty-stuff.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=5911

 

[barfl2]

Refiller 91 Also bear in mind that you have Inktec offering an established product close by on Ford aerodrome. I have used them and the service is very good .

 

[Refiller91]

Thankyou for your comments. I'm planning to do most of my selling and marketting online, so i don't think it really matters where my competitors are situated.

I have been trying to find out whether universal ink is the way to go with refills. From what I've read so far, it works with some carts, but not others. I get the impression that universal inks work well with Canon, HP and Lexmark, but not Epson, Kodak, or brother. Can anyone tell me from experience if this is true?

Also if you have used a universal kit/ink that did work well, could you recommend it plz.

Many thanks and keep the responses coming!

 

[qwertydude]

Universal inks don't work with all printers. And I'm a fan of Stratitec's "Universal" ink. With that being said I know for a fact that Stratitec's ink is incompatible with canon oem cartridges, I always had to refill generic cartridges from G&G to get Stratitec's "universal" ink to work, and I had to add a few drops of Kodak Photo-flo to maintain ink flow using these "universal inks" in G&G carts. The foam in oem Canon carts doesn't like to absorb some inks and some inks that do work will swell the foam after several refills. Both get you flow issues with Canon oem carts. Canon carts can be rather picky with the ink you fill them with. On top of these compatibility issue you also have color matching issues. With even "color matched" inksets they'll be slight differences in color output, with universal inks it can be way off in terms of color output. It can be corrected for the most part with a profile but then that's an added complexity the average user doesn't want to hassle with, even some avid refillers don't like to profile their printers, they just then get color matched ink and are happy enough. But the thing you should take away from this is not all universal inks are compatible with all printers.

 

[Refiller91]

Yes that defininitely sounds about right. Thanks for your suggestions, I googled the stratitec product, but found that all online retailers are out of stock and one says that it isn't being manufactured anymore. Typical! Still there are plenty more products on the market. I will eventually compile a shortlist of "universal" inks to buy and test them out to decide which works best, and with the most carts.

I know that refilling companies use some variety of "universal" ink, so I'm wondering how they tackle the issue of colour matching. If anyone has worked in this industry and wouldn't mind sharing the secret I would really appreciate it.

On a different note, has anyone had any experience with refilling machines (the ones with the vaccuum chambers). Exactly how much of a problem are air bubbles when you refill manually?