The two most effective ways of saving money on your ink is to either refill your empty cartridges yourself or use recycled or remanufactured cartridges. You can save 70% or more when you use recycled cartridges, plus you'll be doing something good for the environment.
Most retail stores that sell ink also sell refill kits, including your local Wal Mart or office supply store. There are also many websites that sell remanufactured ink cartridges for also all models of Epson printers.
You can also often buy these ink cartridges in bulk packs, saving even more. This is ideal if you do quite a bit of printing, but be careful of these bulk packs if you don't replace your cartridges that often. They will dry out if left too long before being used, so you might end up wasting money if you buy too many.
Over the course of several years of printing, you can spend up to 100 times as much on ink as you did on your printer in the first place. This makes a strong case for using refilled ink.
There are a couple of drawbacks, however. First, Epson (and most other brands) indicates that the warranty on your printer will be void if you use refilled ink. If something goes wrong with your printer and the ink is determined to be at fault, you will be stuck paying for repairs or a replacement.
The other downside to ink refills is that they can be messy if you're doing the refilling yourself. It will depend on the model of your printer - some are easier to do than others - but you might find that you ruin a set of cartridges the first time you try to refill them. Don't worry, though - it gets easier with practice.
How To Install Ink Cartridge
Then you need to follow some smart tips that can help your ink cartridge last longer.
Ink cartridges can be expensive
If you have been buying lot of office equipment and printer accessories, you may have noticed that inkjet printer cartridges cost you a good deal of money.
There cannot be any compromise on ink cartridge refill or replacing ink cartridges itself owing to the large amount of printing work that needs to be done constantly at your office.
To make it more economical and affordable, you need to follow a few strategies that can help you curb your monthly expenditure on buying ink cartridges for regular use.
Top 10 tips to effectively utilize your printer cartridge to last longer
1. Determine your printing purpose
Before you start printing any particular portion of text or graphics, decide its relevance and usefulness so that you do not unnecessarily spend time in printing things that may not be of much use.
2. Avoid extreme temperatures
High variations in temperature can easily affect printer ink cartridges. Hence, make sure that they are not exposed to extreme heat or cold conditions to ensure a lasting performance.
3. Use color printing as and when needed
If you want your refilled ink to run longer, then make use of color printing only when required. Otherwise, for general and regular use, it is wiser to use black and white printing that helps in saving your money on buying additional refills.
4. Choose the correct printer settings
In case you have documents that are not been used for presentation purpose, then a draft printer setting should serve the purpose for all general documents.
5. Regular use of the printer
It is necessary that you use the printer on a regular basis so that there is lesser chance of the printer ink drying up easily. Just try printing some small portion of text every time.
6. Printing text over graphics
If you are printing documents only for the sake of plain reference, you can print only the essential text and the matter that is required. Avoid printing images or colorful graphics if it does not serve the purpose.
7. Use Print preview more often
Print preview function is a useful feature that can help you in giving a preview of how the document will look like after been printed. It can help you adjust spaces and organizing things together before getting the final output.
8. Stopping the printer in working mode
Never stop the printer in between until it has completed the task, as the cartridge could be still moving. This will force the printer head to stop at a particular place where you stopped the process and may cause ink leakage too.
9. Installing a good software
Lot of ink saving software is available online which can be used for reducing the consumption of printer ink. Some of them consume less ink even when used for high resolution printing purposes.
10. Do not shut off the printer every time
If you are using the printer frequently, avoid shutting it fully until you have completed your work. Otherwise, it may unnecessarily cause your printer ink to dry up in the process as everytime you turn it on, a small amount of ink is utilized.
By following such small yet effective tips, you can ensure that your refilled ink cartridge lasts longer.
Both Frank Bolsom & James Kara Murat are contributors for EditorialToday. The above articles have been edited for relevancy and timeliness. All write-ups, reviews, tips and guides published by EditorialToday.com and its partners or affiliates are for informational purposes only. They should not be used for any legal or any other type of advice. We do not endorse any author, contributor, writer or article posted by our team.
