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Replacing Your Dell 920 Printer Ink
Dell printers are kind of unique in the printer world. Because Dell only sells direct, not in retail stores, and their printers are not compatible with the cartridges from any other brand, you need to order cartridges directly from Dell. This means when you need new ink Dell has control over both the price and the time it takes to get them.
Many of Dell's printers are actually made for them by Lexmark. If you compare Lexmark and Dell printers side-by-side, you can see that they are essentially the same model with a different name on them. Unfortunately, they make just enough changes to them that the Lexmark ink cartridge won't work in the Dell printer.
In spite of this virtual monopoly over their ink, their are a couple of alternatives to ordering your cartridges directly from Dell. You can get either a refill kit to refill your empty cartridges or you can buy remanufactured cartridges which have been refreshed and refilled by a company that specializes in ink.
The refill kits are the least expensive option, but they can be a little more trouble than the remanufactured cartridges. Refilling your own ink can be messy and the cartridges themselves do eventually wear out, causing printing problems. Remanufacturing companies have specialized equipment that can do the job much better.
How Do The Prices Compare?
Let's look at how the prices compare between the original Dell AIO printer ink and the alternatives.
Original Dell 920 printer ink (black): $27.99
Original Dell 920 cartridge (color): $30.95
Remanufactured Dell 920 ink cartridge (black): $19.99
Remanufactured Dell 920 ink cartridge (color): $21.99
Refill kit for Dell T0529 black cartridge: $12.95
Refill kit for Dell T0530 color cartridge: $15.95
These refill kits include enough ink to refill each cartridge 4 times, so the price is actually only about $3.25 per black refill or $4.00 per color.
The catch with the refills is that I wouldn't recommend refilling the same cartridge 4 times - 2 times is usually the most you should do before replacing it. So let's see how these price work out over several cartridges.
Original Dell 920 black ink: $156.18
** Two 3-packs at $78.09 each
Original Dell 920 color ink: $185.70
Remanufactured a920 black ink: $108.00 ($18 each for 3+)
Remanufactured a920 color ink: $120.00 ($20 each for 3+)
Refill kit for black ink: $32.94
Refill kit for color ink: $37.94
For the refill kit, I've calculated it as the cost of the refill kit plus 1 remanufactured cartridge to replace your original one after 2 refills.
So as you can see, you can either spend over $150 for the original Dell cartridges (for black), less than $110 for remanufactured versions or just over $30 for the refill kit.
Which of those sounds the best to you?
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