Some questions about ink refill kits

[Electrode]

Well, the black ink cartridge that came with my Lexmark Z55 is running low, and I'm not about to buy a new cartridge that costs half the price of the printer. I have read much about these ink refill kit things, but I know nothing about them.

1. Where do I get good quality kits that will last me for awhile?
2. How will I know which kits are compatible with my cartridges?
3. About how difficult is the refill process?

 

[McCarthy]

1 - Where - I've bought ink at cinphi.safeshopper.com a couple times, never had a problem with the ink. Colors were good, though side by side with printouts from before the refill they were slightly different. Couldn't say one was more accurate, just different - like watching the wall of TVs at the store.

2 - There are some 'universal' kits, but while they work you won't get as close to original color and they're supposed to be harder on your print head ~ fewer refills. Ink volume can be off during printing too since they're not matched to the viscosity of the manufacturer ink. People who specialize in ink like that store above sell ink matched to the manufacturer.

3 - First time around it's a pain. It's easy to make a mess. But it's not difficult. Just follow the instructions and you're done in 20 min. Remember to rinse your syringes afterward and if you're going to do the color cartridge get a kit with multiple syringes. Black's quicker and harder to mess up than color of course, main thing is DO NOT OVERFILL. Easy to do the first time.

 

[zephyrprime]

I've got a z55 too. I use the Inktec refill kit. I tried one other brand before I tried inktec and it stunk. Inktec is resold by a large number of online retailers.

It's really hard to find a good retailer for ink refills. There aren't any review sites so you have to rely on word of mouth. The only place where a large number of opinions have been posted is at comp.periphs.printers but even they don't have a very large participant population so it's hard to get good information.

Don't use any sort of universal refill kit. They suck.

You can also try inkgirl.com. I haven't tried them myself but I was always impressed that they listed ink formulations on their site.

Lastly, I find that poster putty is a goof material to seal up the hole you'll need to drill into the black cartridge.

 

[woodie1]

I bough bulk ink for my Lexmark at oddparts

Only used the black. Worked really well.

 

[Electrode]

Well, I ordered a black ink refill kit from the site McCarthy mentioned. Got it yesterday, and filled up the cart this morning. Although Lexmark's braindead printer management program still says the cart is below %15, I printed out a test page and it worked fine.