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Printer cartridges 96 97

BTRY B 529th FA BN

BTRY B 529th FA BN

Lifer
Hello. I have an HP Deskjet 6940 and both cartridges seem to be out of ink. I haven't used the printer in probably 3 yrs. What are people doing these days with the old cartridges? Are they still re-filling them or do people just throw them out and get new ones? The ink around the cartridge seems to be pretty sticky.

Another thing. I went online looking at the costs of these cartridges and Staples has a 2 pack for $82.99 😕, while on eBay I am finding a 5 pack (3 black, 2 color) for $18 😕 - What's the catch and why is Staples so high?

Moved from General Hardware

mfenn
General Hardware Moderator
 
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I use the same ones in my HP7410 machine. I do not buy from Staples, but I go direct to the HP website. They sometimes have a small discount. Most stores have the same prices for HP inks.
 
I use the same carts in my venerable HP 6980. I turn in the old carts at Office Depot. Get my new ones at Costco.
 
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Look and see if some of these are xl. These caetidges do very well with a refill, so I would suggest getting those as apposed to brand new ones.
 
The price variations are due to multiple factors:

Costco is probably selling a 2 pack of the ink, which is fine if you will use it before it dries up.

Ebay .. some of them might be a refilled cartridge, which I will not use in my printer. They may be ok, but not for me. I do buy on Ebay now and then and I only by ones that say HP Original and I try to buy ones that still have a ways to go on the expiration date. The HP printer (in my case HP7410) does not care if the cartridge date is past, but I did get one bad one, that just did not work.

So best to buy units that are OE and not expired. Otherwise, you take a chance and most times, will come out fine. I try to buy mine when the printer indicator is getting down to the bottom of the color drop. No matter where I order from, they will be here in a few days.
 
Went to order a set of 96/97s for the office last week and the HP brand cartridges were $130-some - which is ridiculous. They've typically been like $75, or $46 if you buy on Amazon. Note: we order from a company called Reliable which charges top dollar generally and gets the order here the following day.
As you might imagine we ordered generic office max cartridges instead.

Don't really have an explanation for the ungodly price, but your thread makes me wonder if something's afoot.
 
Library, first 5 copies are free, the next are .10 cents a piece. Hmm :hmm: $89 dollars for new cartridges or $1.00 for the 10 extra copies I need.
 
The older the printer gets, the higher the cartridges cost. This is so that:
a. The manufacturer will make more money on you buying ink, or
b. The manufacturer will make more money on you buying a newer printer that has a higher cost per page.
 
Library = first 5 copies free. Any after .10 cents

I'm so glad I decided to just go to the library. I was prepared to spend .15 cents per copy too!

I appreciate all the help with understanding the differences in the price and the type of ink used. Thanks :thumbsup:
 
I just ordered a combo pack from Amazon.com for $69.95 plus tax ... should get it a few days.
 
I have a different HP printer, but an important feature is common between us. That is that the ink jets (printer "head") are part of the cartridge and are thus easy to replace. That is one reason I chose the HP design in the first place.

In my experience, if I don't use the printer for several months, some jets are clogged and I MAY be able to clear them with the printer's utility tool. But sometimes I have to resort to removing the cartridge and placing it on wet tissue for a while to allow water to soak the jet tips and clear them. However, even that is insufficient when I have not used the printer for a year or so.When it is impossible to soak the heads clean, it is time to install a new cartridge. As far as I can tell, the ink in the main reservoir body does not dry out. What dries and hardens is the tiny bit of ink at the tip of the jet where it is open to air.

I have used ink refill kits on old cartridges and been very happy with them, as long as I was using the printer regularly. But you say you have not used yours for about 3 years. I strongly suspect the ink in the jets is so dried out you will never clear them, so refilling those particular carts is not a good idea. Start with new ones. If you're going to continue using regularly, get ink refill kits and use those until you actually cannot solve a plugged jet problem.
 
Wow what a ripoff. Inkjets are such a poor value proposition.

I have a 4000N that has given me 16 years of service. the toner cartridge giving 10-15K pages printed.
 
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