How To Save Money On Epson Printer Ink
Epson printers are widely used, especially their photo printers. These printers come in a variety of sizes and many photographers use them for printing their work. The cartridges can be quite expensive though, especially on some of the photo printers that may have 6 or 8 separate ink cartridges.
Compared to some other brands, an Epson inkjet cartridge often costs less. Part of the reason for this is because the printhead on an Epson printer is built into the printer itself - other brands have them on the cartridge or as a separate cartridge that must be replaced.
The trouble with having it built into the printer is that if anything happens to it, you have to get the printer repaired - you can't just replace the cartridge or the head. And because of this, you need to be extra careful when choosing cheaper alternatives to buying genuine Epson printer ink.
One of the most common alternatives for saving money on ink is an Epson ink cartridge refill kit. These kits let you reuse the same cartridge and just add more ink to it.
The trouble is, many of the Epson printers - the photo model especially - use ink that is specially designed to work with that specific printer. If you use an Epson ink cartridge refill, the ink is not always exactly the same and can cause problems with your printer.
And naturally, if you have a problem that's due to the wrong ink being used it's going to void your warranty.
Another thing to keep in mind when refilling cartridges is that many newer Epson models have a chip on the cartridge that registers when it runs out of ink. If you add more ink the cartridge still "knows" it's out of ink.
There are ways around this too. You can buy devices that will reset the Epson printer ink chip so the cartridge can be used again. These resetting devices are not that expensive, so if you're going to be doing a lot of printing they can pay for themselves pretty quickly.
An easier alternative to refilling your own cartridges is to buy remanufactured or generic versions. Remanufactured cartridges are empty Epson ink that have been cleaned up, refilled and tested. There are quite a few companies who specialize in these cartridges, and they handle all the messy stuff like refilling and resetting chips.
Epson is one of the few brands that have generic versions of their ink available. There are Epson ink cartridge factories in China that basically make knock-offs of the genuine cartridges. These generic versions sell for much less than the real thing, but Epson has been fighting to have them taken off the market so it's hard to say how long they're going to be available.
With all these alternatives, Epson is one of the most cost effective printers to operate. The ink can cost quite a bit less than some of the competition - especially HP and Dell printer ink.
