 | Buy recycled cartridges. There are few published tests as magazines
are reluctant to promote them as the print manufacturers are such good
advertising customers. There are hundreds of sellers on the web and some
claim they are better than the originals after 'remanufacturing'. |
| Refill the cartridges yourself. There is a confidence barrier to cross
but once you have done it, you can have a full cartridge in much less
time
than it takes to visit the local store. And you will save 3/4 of the cost
if you buy ink in bulk. Cartridges can often be refilled several times
for most manufacturers but they do eventually fail - you can tell as
thin white lines appear - The print heads heat thousands of times each
second to expel the ink droplets. |
| Some manufacturers incorporate chips to monitor the ink level which
refuse to recognise that they have been refilled (Epsom) and Cannon have
various designs some of which cannot be refilled. |
| Check how much ink you get in a cartridge - People have started to
sell half-full ones! |
| Look after your cartridges. They come with an ingenious piece of
plastic or sticky tape that covers the delicate parts which you must not
touch. This keeps the electrical contacts clean and prevents the ink
drying in the heads. If you need to remove and store a cartridge replace
this piece of packaging accurately and carefully. If you do not do this
they will dry out and never work again. |
| Restrict the amount of printing of web pages which are full of colour. |
| Tell the other users of your computer about the costs. |
| Set the printer to work in economy mode and only print black. |
| You can donate your cartridges to charity which are then sold to the recyclers.
But don't allow them to dry out so put them back in the packet with the
original packaging. |
